most of the action shifts to washington, d.c. in this instalment, where crosby was again very good with setting. the books are formulaic and light (which is working for my shoddy focus at the moment). as with the last, this one was a bit clunkier with its plotting, and there are loose threads and repetition. and yet, there's still a charm that keeps bringing me back. ( )

I love this series because 1) is set in my neck of the woods and 2) I love wine stories. Though this one didn't concentrate as much on wine as the previous installments, I still enjoyed the trip through some of the sights in DC and a good mystery.

Lucie is reunited with an old College friend but before they get a real chance to reconnect her friend disappears and is thought to have drowned in the Potomac.

Trying to figure out what happened and why her friend contacted her, Lucie is ensnared in a mystery that could be deadly for her as well. ( )

The love-drama is getting a bit old but I do enjoy the wine descriptions and imaginings of working on a vineyard ( )

Lucie Montgomery, owner of her family's winery in Western Virginia's wine country gets caught up in the mysterious disappearance of a long lost college friend.
The story is good, just not excellent. No surprises. The downfall of a lot of locals occur in this one. Crosby always does a nice job of bringing re-occuring characters into the current plot. Sometimes they become major characters. This is always applaudable considering how small the population is in this novel. Also, Washington DC plays heavily into the theme and background this time. If you are a ongoing fan of this series, you will see a major shift in Lucie and Quinn's relationship. As always there is reference to wine, mostly Viognier this time and historical reference to the burning of Washington DC and the plans for it's rebuilding, especially the National library. I enjoy these references as Crosby never over does it. ( )

A nice light read.

Though the series is called the "Wine Country Mystery", in all honesty, this book along with the rest of the series, is less a mystery as much as a sequence of events, with a resolution that's primarily independent of any actions by the protagonist. For people expecting something akin to a detective mystery would find this book to be somewhat lacking.

It's main appeal, at least for me, would lie more towards the charm of its characters, and the interesting tidbits one finds regarding Middleburg, Virginia and wine. ( )