cover image The Viognier Vendetta: A Wine Country Mystery

The Viognier Vendetta: A Wine Country Mystery

Ellen Crosby, Scribner, $24 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4391-6386-3

When glamorous Rebecca Natale disappears before a black-tie gala honoring her boss, billionaire Wall Street guru Sir Thomas Asher—who's donating a collection of architectural drawings, maps, and other documents relating to the design and planning of Washington, D.C., to the Library of Congress—Virginia vintner Lucie Montgomery, who's Rebecca's college friend, investigates in Crosby's enjoyable fifth wine country mystery (after 2009's The Riesling Retribution). After Rebecca's clothes turn up at a Potomac boat house, she's feared to be either a suicide or a victim of foul play. Lucie joins forces with ex-investment analyst Ian Philips, a disgruntled whistle-blower who's prepared to testify before a government subcommittee that Sir Thomas is running a Ponzi scheme, but Ian "drowns" before he can do so. Full of Washington historical lore, this addictive whodunit also updates Lucie's relationship with brooding Quinn Santori, her Montgomery Estate Vineyard winemaker lover. (Aug.)