Ellen Crosby Books in Order
Browse Ellen Crosby books in order, with quick summaries, series guides for Wine Country Mysteries and Sophie Medina, and help choosing where to start.
Last updated: July 1, 2026
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Publication Order
18 books
The Chardonnay Charade
by Ellen Crosby
2006
A brutal late frost is bad enough, then Lucie finds a political candidate dead near her vines. With her friend Ross under suspicion and a shocking Civil War document in play, she digs into a case that turns painfully personal.
The Merlot Murders
by Ellen Crosby
2006
Lucie Montgomery comes home from France after her father's suspicious death and finds her family's Virginia vineyard on the brink. When it becomes clear someone wants the estate sold at any cost, she has to save the winery and catch a killer close to home.
The Bordeaux Betrayal
by Ellen Crosby
2008
When an author is found dead near Lucie's vineyard, suspicion falls on a rare Bordeaux linked to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. As harvest begins, Lucie and Quinn uncover fraud, old grudges, and secrets that reach deep into the wine world.
The Riesling Retribution
by Ellen Crosby
2009
A tornado tears through Montgomery Estate and uncovers a grave on family land, putting the Montgomery name under suspicion. As tensions rise at the winery and a Civil War reenactment approaches, Lucie digs into secrets someone wanted buried.
The Vintage Vendetta
by Ellen Crosby
2010
A reunion in Washington with old friend Rebecca Natale turns into a baffling disappearance, and an antique wine cooler stolen during the War of 1812 becomes part of the puzzle. Lucie follows cryptic clues to learn whether Rebecca is victim, schemer, or both.
The Sauvignon Secret
by Ellen Crosby
2011
When wine merchant Paul Noble is found dead near her vineyard, Lucie is pulled into a murky story of secret societies, old deaths, and classified research. The trail takes her to California and back into Quinn Santori's orbit, with danger close behind.
Multiple Exposure
by Ellen Crosby
2013
Photojournalist Sophie Medina's husband vanishes from their London home, then resurfaces in a nightmare of murder accusations and espionage. Back in Washington, Sophie wades through spies, senators, and Russian intrigue to learn whether the man she trusts has been framed.
Ghost Image
by Ellen Crosby
2015
At a glittering Washington party, Sophie's old friend Brother Kevin Boyle is working on something valuable enough to kill for. After his death, she follows the clues from a monastery garden to London in a race for a hidden botanical treasure.
The Champagne Conspiracy
by Ellen Crosby
2017
Lucie and Quinn are about to make champagne when Quinn's uncle arrives with a family mystery from 1923. A suspicious death in a San Francisco hotel, blackmail, and Prohibition-era secrets send Lucie digging into a past that is still dangerous.
The Vineyard Victims
by Ellen Crosby
2017
When billionaire Jamie Vaughn crashes his SUV into a pillar at Lucie's vineyard, everyone else sees an accident. Lucie suspects murder, and her search uncovers links to an old academic circle, a long-ago killing, and a threat that hits close to home.
Harvest of Secrets
by Ellen Crosby
2018
During harvest, a skull is found near the Montgomery family cemetery just as a French aristocrat arrives to run a neighboring winery. When he is murdered and an immigrant worker takes the blame, Lucie must clear his name and face a shattering family secret.
The Angels' Share
by Ellen Crosby
2019
A Thanksgiving party at a Virginia castle ends with the family patriarch dead in his wine cellar and Lucie chasing rumors of lost Madeira hidden in the U.S. Capitol. Bootlegging history, secret societies, and a determined killer turn the hunt into a deadly puzzle.
Moscow Nights
by Ellen Crosby
2020
Journalist Claire Brennan arrives in Moscow to fill in for her former lover, only to learn he is dead and money is missing. As she tries to clear his name, late Soviet politics and private betrayals close in from every side.
The French Paradox
by Ellen Crosby
2021
Priceless paintings once owned by Jacqueline Kennedy and a secret from Lucie's grandfather bring old history to her Virginia neighborhood. When a famous landscape designer is found dead in the vineyard, Lucie has to sort family scandal from murder.
Bitter Roots
by Ellen Crosby
2022
Days before her wedding, Lucie is battling diseased vines, angry growers, and a nursery employee who turns up dead after arranging to meet Quinn. Then a violent storm cuts off power and escape, leaving Lucie to uncover what Quinn is hiding.
Blow Up
by Ellen Crosby
2023
Sophie Medina and Father Jack O'Hara find a Supreme Court justice barely alive in an alley, then Sophie's homeless friend Javi is murdered. A dark secret and a set of photographs may be the only way to expose whoever is protecting the truth.
Dodge and Burn
by Ellen Crosby
2024
Sophie arrives for a photography job and finds billionaire art collector Robson Blake dead, with only a small Ukrainian icon missing. As police circle her, Sophie realizes the case may lead to her newly discovered half-brother and an art theft network.
Deeds Left Undone
by Ellen Crosby
2025
Harvest season goes wrong fast when a vineyard accident leaves Lucie short-handed and Paul Merchant is found dead in his pool. A fight over keeping country roads unpaved, plus an old photo of a long-dead heiress, point to buried motives.
Where should I start?
If you want the main Wine Country story from the beginning: The Merlot Murders → The Chardonnay Charade → The Bordeaux Betrayal
If you like later Lucie Montgomery mysteries with deeper family secrets: Harvest of Secrets → The Angels' Share → The French Paradox → Bitter Roots
If you prefer Washington intrigue and international suspense: Multiple Exposure → Ghost Image → Blow Up → Dodge and Burn
If you want a standalone first: Moscow Nights
Author bio
Ellen Crosby was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up mostly in Connecticut, with a few detours to Alabama and Pennsylvania along the way. Long before she was writing murder mysteries, she was already drawn to the ways place, history, and politics shape ordinary lives.
Journalism came first.
Before turning to fiction, Crosby worked as an economist at the United States Senate. She earned a B.A. in political science from The Catholic University of America and a master's degree in international relations from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She also spent her junior year in Madrid and a semester of graduate study in Bologna, experiences that widened her sense of the world and later fed naturally into her books.
For many years she worked as a freelance journalist in the United States and overseas, living in London, Moscow, and Geneva, Switzerland. In the late 1980s she was ABC Radio News's Moscow correspondent, and over time she wrote feature stories for publications that included The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and the Journal newspapers in the Washington area. Her last job as a stringer was as a regional feature writer for The Washington Post in 2004 and 2005, covering many of the places that would later show up in her fiction.
She has said that a high school English teacher in Connecticut taught her how to write, and Crosby still talks about that as one of the great gifts of her life. She is also fairly fluent in French and Spanish and speaks some Russian, which helps explain why her novels move so comfortably between countries, classes, and cultures.
While living in London with her family in the 1990s, Crosby wrote her first novel, Moscow Nights. The book grew out of her experiences in the former Soviet Union during the waning days of the Gorbachev era. It is a smart fit for her background, a mystery built from journalism, foreign politics, and the uneasy feeling of trying to understand a place where everyone seems to know more than they are saying.
Back in the United States, she began the Virginia wine country mysteries, the long-running series centered on vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery. Starting with The Merlot Murders, these books bring readers to fictional Atoka, Virginia, where family land, money troubles, weather, local politics, and old grudges are never far from the surface. Titles like The Chardonnay Charade, The Bordeaux Betrayal, The Champagne Conspiracy, The Angels' Share, The French Paradox, and Bitter Roots mix murder with wine lore, regional history, and the practical stresses of keeping a vineyard alive. Crosby learned about grape growing and winemaking from Virginia winemakers Juanita Swedenburg and Rick Tagg, and that hands-on knowledge gives the series its grounded feel.
History matters here.
Crosby often links a present-day crime to something older, whether that means the Civil War, Prohibition, or another buried corner of Virginia's past. That approach helped the wine books stand out, and The Riesling Retribution won the 2009 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best U.S. Wine Literature Book. She later moved into a faster, more international mode with the Sophie Medina mysteries, beginning with Multiple Exposure and continuing through Ghost Image, Blow Up, and Dodge and Burn. Those books trade vineyards for Washington power circles, art, espionage, and global intrigue, but they keep the same sharp eye for motive and place.
Crosby now lives in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. She has described herself as an amateur photographer, watercolor dabbler, lapsed quilter, and rusty pianist, and she has also served in leadership roles in the mystery writing community. That mix of curiosity, discipline, and pleasure in the real world is a big part of what makes her fiction feel so lived in.
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