The vineyard victims by Crosby_ Ellen
Story follows Lucy's life at the vineyard. Ten years prior she had gotten into an accident when she discussed her boyfriends affair with her brothers fiancee. He ended up in jail and Lucy has issues with walking.
Present day she's heading home and she avoids a candidate for president as he aimed for her car and ends up crashing into the vineyard pillar also, same spot as her accident. She rushes over and talks to him but he doesn't want any help at all.
She knows he was trying to commit suicide and learns more from her best girlfriend Kit later when she finds out she had met with him prior to the crash.
She lives with Quinn who likes to watch the stars at night ...he also works at the vineyard.
Love history of the area and the vineyard. Like how she discovers more clues as to the crash.
Love talk of cairn and war time and how it's revelant to the crash and gifts left.
Story gets super involved with events of the past, cool how it all comes together.
Lucy gets too close to the truth and now she's being shot at...
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device). ( )

The Vineyard Victims is Ellen Crosby's 8th Wine County Mystery and it is a wonderful addition to the series. The story opens with the main character, Lucie Montgomery, swerving her car to avoid crashing into a car driven by former presidential nominee Jamison (Jamie) Vaughn. Vaughn crashes his car into the stone pillar that is the entrance to Lucie's vineyard. Lucie does not hear him trying to stop his car and after he refuses her help to get out of the car she believes that he was suicidal. The car caught fire and Lucie heard his screams as the fire consumed his body. Vaughn, however, told Lucie before he died that he wanted her to "tell Rick to forgive me."

Lucie soon discovers that there might be a connection to Vaughn's desire to die and a 30 year old murder that occurred when he was at college with his wife, campaign manager and a deceased friend. A handyman, Taurique Youngblood, was convicted of the murder but a civil rights group, the St. Leonard Project, has taken on his case as they believe that he is innocent of this crime.

The author did a good job of weaving in characters and facts from earlier books in the series and anyone would be able to follow the plot without reading the earlier 7 books. Facts about wine abound in the book which made the book fun to read. The Vaughn's own a nearby vineyard and were planning to host a fundraiser to eliminate Vaughn's campaign debt by featuring wine from the 1890s. They had several bottles of the wine and only a select few people at the fundraiser, $20,000 per ticket, were going to have the pleasure of drinking the wine. Lucie's winemaker, Quinn Santoro, believed that the Vaughn's tampered with this wine as it should have tasted like vinegar due to its age but that is a secondary story. Most of the wine lore surrounded this wine, called the Norton wine, instead of Lucie's wines which is a little unusual. However, it did not affect the enjoyability of the book.

Cozy lovers should take note of this series if they haven't already! ( )

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

When Lucie witnesses the death by car crash of a former presidential candidate-in the same spot where her ex-boyfriend once brutally crashed their car-she is sure it wasn't an accident. But everyone else wants her to leave well enough alone.

Lucie, however, refuses to drop her inquiries. As she discovers a connection to a past crime, she finds herself in danger from someone who thought their crimes were buried long ago.

I love mysteries about crimes from the past, and Crosby does a really good job of weaving in the past into the present. Clues come out as Lucie learns them, upping the tension and the mystery.

Lucie is a great main character and narrator. She is strong and stubborn, refusing to give in when others would have given up. Her relationship with her fiance Quinn is a pleasant happiness in the midst of murder.

The setting also becomes its own character, which is always something I enjoy. The town really comes alive.

The solution is a good one that fits with everything that came before, but the very last few pages of the book come across as a bit cliched and don't entirely seem to fit with what we have learned of Lucie's character in the previous pages.

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. I definitely would like to read the rest of the series at some point. ( )

I first became aware of Ellen Crosby through her two Sophie Medina mysteries. I enjoyed them both so much that it didn't take me long to search out her Wine Country mysteries set in Virginia. Crosby writes such smart books; her stories have area history and culture woven lightly throughout the pages, and even though I'm a teetotaler, I appreciate learning about wine making. Who knew?

Lucie is a strong main character whose life was forever changed by a tragic car accident. She has a weak leg and must walk with the aid of a cane, and this means that she relies on her intelligence to solve these mysteries, not in her belief that she's invincible. She also has strong opinions about things, and she may not always be right. The Vineyard Victims forces Lucie to confront circumstances surrounding the accident that crippled her-- an element that strengthens the already solid mystery surrounding Jamison Vaughn and what happened thirty years ago.

If you like intelligent writing and strong characters, you won't go wrong with Ellen Crosby's Wine Country series. And you don't even need a corkscrew. ( )

Lucie Montgomery is horrified when she watches a fellow vineyard owner crash into a stone pillar at the entrance to Montgomery Estate Vineyard, Trying to help the driver out of the car when it starts to catch on fire, reminds her of the accident that she was in at that same location which resulted into a crippling injury to her foot.

When asked by the driver before he dies to make apologies to someone she doesn't know, Lucie is caught in a web of secrecy that goes back 30 years.

The mystery was entertaining and watching Lucie try to come to grips with her own memories while being supported by Quinn her fiancé, was heartwarming.

Great addition to this series. ( )