The Riesling Retribution

May 4, 2009
When Lucie Montgomery stumbles across a skull in her vineyard—just after the tornado that almost kills her—little does she suspect the skeletons in the family closet to which the discovery will lead in Crosby's sprightly fourth Virginia wine country mystery (after 2008's The Bordeaux Betrayal
). But who can blame the amateur detective for being a bit off her game, with the hurricane of headaches already buffeting Montgomery Estate Vineyard? Hot-tempered winemaker Quinn Santori and handsome new manager Chance Miller (Lucie is attracted to both) are at each other's throats—and hundreds of Civil War buffs are due in days to re-enact the 1861 Battle of Ball's Bluff. Expect plenty of fireworks as Lucie pursues her own investigation into the old, but no longer cold, homicide and a fast-paced sprint to what proves a rather slapdash finish. Until then, however, Crosby serves up a wine cooler that goes down easy even if it's hardly vintage.