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Wine Country Mysteries Books in Order

Part ofEllen Crosby Books in Order

See the Wine Country Mysteries by Ellen Crosby in order, with brief summaries, series background, and where to start with Lucie Montgomery.

Last updated: July 1, 2026

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Publication Order

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13 books

1

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.

2

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.

3

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.

4

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.

5

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.

6

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.

7

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.

8

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.

9

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.

10

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.

11

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.

12

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.

13

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.

Series background & context

The Wine Country Mysteries are built around Lucie Montgomery, who comes home from France in The Merlot Murders after her father's death and finds her family's Virginia vineyard in trouble. She wants to save the place, not sell it, which would already be hard enough without murder. From the start, the series mixes business problems, family arguments, and a strong sense that the land itself has a long memory.

Lucie is not a detective by trade. She's a vineyard owner who keeps getting pulled into other people's secrets because she asks questions, notices patterns, and cares too much to walk away. One of the big pleasures of the series is her ongoing push and pull with winemaker Quinn Santori, who is talented, stubborn, and never short on opinions. Their professional partnership, and later their personal one, gives the books a steady emotional thread. Lucie is tough, but not invincible, and the series never forgets that running a vineyard is physical, risky work.

The setting does a lot of work here.

Crosby places the books in Virginia horse and hunt country, around the fictional village of Atoka near the Blue Ridge foothills. You get cellar rooms, tasting notes, frost alarms, storms, harvest pressure, equipment failures, labor worries, and neighbors who have known one another for years. Weather matters. So does the difference between a promising vintage and a financial disaster. The wine detail is specific, but it never feels like homework. It mostly works as texture, the kind that makes every setback feel expensive and every good season feel hard won.

History keeps barging in.

A buried grave, a rare bottle, a Civil War document, Prohibition-era blackmail, or a family letter from long ago can all open the door to a modern crime. That pattern gives the series its shape. The mysteries are not only about who killed whom, but also about what a family or a town chose to hide. Even when the plots get larger, the books stay grounded in Lucie's day-to-day job of keeping Montgomery Estate running and protecting the people around her.

If you like traditional mysteries with strong place, recurring characters, and a little romance woven through the danger, this series is a good fit. The books stand on their own reasonably well, but reading from The Merlot Murders forward gives you the fullest picture of Lucie, Quinn, and the old wounds that keep resurfacing. Expect smart puzzles, plenty of Virginia atmosphere, and the feeling that every bottle, field, and family story might be carrying more than it first seems.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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