The French paradox

Lucie Montgomery, owner of Montgomery Estate Vineyard in Virginia, is devastated when longtime family friend, landscape designer Parker Lord, is found dead on her property, and her sister, Mia, is a suspect in his murder. Other suspects include his husband, Ash, and Gabriel Seely, a scientist whose work Parker publicly disputed, leading to Seely's loss of funding. Or is it a reader angry over Parker's recent book on climate change? Complicating matters, Lucie deals with dying grapevines; concern over her sister's secretive boyfriend, Sergio; and her apprehension that her grandfather's relationship with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in Paris just after the war will be made public. Lucie gathers information, puts the pieces together, and ultimately identifies the killer. Richly framed with details of Onassis' life, the business of book publishing, information on the Old Mistresses (forgotten female artists who were the equal of the Old Masters), Marie Antoinette, life in well-healed northern Virginia, and the particulars of running a winery, this entry in the long-running cozy series, with its sympathetic main character, will please fans.

In Crosby's intriguing 10th Wine Country mystery (after 2019's The Angels' Share), vintner Lucie Montgomery is dismayed to discover the body of landscape designer Parker Lord, her good friend and adviser, in the vineyard of her family's Virginia winery. Parker had received death threats after publishing a highly controversial book about climate change. Lucie does what she can to assist the local authorities, identifying several suspects among the close-knit community. Meanwhile, Lucie's 93-year-old French grandfather is due to arrive from Paris, his visit coinciding with the 90th birthday of Cricket Delacroix, an intimate friend of Jackie Onassis, who bequeathed to Cricket a number of paintings by 18th-century French painter Vigée le Brun. As Lucie and her fiancé, winemaker Quinn Santori, search for the killer, they uncover a possible link between Parker's murder and Jackie, the paintings, and her grandfather, who had a fling with Jackie in 1949 during the future First Lady's junior year abroad. Well-researched historical details bolster the complex plot. This tale of ambition, artistic integrity, privacy, and wine should win Crosby new fans. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary. (Apr.)

Imagined revelations about Jacqueline Kennedy's early life provide a brilliant background for a tale of treachery and deceit. What could be more shocking than vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery's discovery of her grandmother's diaries describing her grandfather Luc's 1949 Parisian affair with Jackie Bouvier? Only the realization that they may provide a motive for murder. Garden designer Parker Lord, an old family friend who's been getting nasty feedback on his recently published apocalyptic view of climate change, has found time to cross popular gardening center owner Gabriel Seely by accusing him of fudging a postdoc research paper. Parker offers to look at some of Lucie's sickly grapevines, but the visit backfires, and she finds him dead among the vines. Meantime, Lucie's grandfather arrives from France for the 90th birthday party of Jackie's school friend Cricket Delacroix, whose daughter, Harry, has a contract to complete a book based on papers Jackie left Cricket that detail the lives of underrated women artists. Harry plans to use entries from Jackie's diary mentioning her romance with Luc to juice her book sales. And Lucie's wild-child sister, Mia, suddenly returned from New York with a strikingly handsome boyfriend, is hired to paint a mural for the party. Since Parker was killed near Mia's cottage, she's one of several people Lucie must consider a possible killer. The lifestyles of the rich and famous dovetail neatly with art history in Crosby's newest character-driven mystery. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.