Ellen Crosby--Deeds Left Undone

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am such a fan of Ellen Crosby's books, and I await the publication of a new novel in her Virgina Wine Country series with eager anticipation, so you know I devoured the latest, DEEDS LEFT UNDONE, as soon as I got my copy! And this cover! Don't you just want to dive into it?

I love Lucie Montgomery and her family and friends, and I'm fascinated by the details of the winemaking business. Not to mention that no one propels you into a mystery like Ellen, and DEEDS LEFT UNDONE is no exception! Ellen presents her characters, and the reader, with a moral dilemma. Here she tells us more.

Writing about Moral Gray Issues

by Ellen Crosby

Maybe it’s the journalist in me, but almost every book I’ve written has its origins in either something I’ve heard (a story on NPR, for example) or something I’ve read in a magazine or newspaper—so the story is always rooted in truth and reality. Deeds Left Undone gets its title from a quote by Harriet Beecher Stowe: The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. And the first chapter is based on a February 7, 2004 front page article in The Washington Post, my hometown newspaper, titled ‘A Radical Plan to Save a Rural Oasis: Don’t Pave the Roads.’

My wine country mysteries are set in a real place—Loudoun County, Virginia and, more specifically, the village of Middleburg, a quintessential Norman Rockwell small town that is located in the well-to-do heart of Virginia’s horse and hunt country. It is charming, bucolic, and picture-postcard. The streets are named for the signers of the Declaration of Independence who were friends of the man who founded the town in 1787. The fight to keep the rural roads unpaved in Loudoun is a fierce one. Locals—especially anyone who rides, hunts, or owns horses, which includes a lot of folks—want to keep this unspoiled paradise the way it has always been since before the founding of the town. Developers and other locals—quite often people who recently moved to the area because they fell in love with its beauty and charm—argue that the anti-pavers are standing in the way of progress. Also, unpaved roads can be impassable in bad weather, cause flat tires and broken axels, and result in too many trips to the car wash.

The pro-paving group cites the example of another Virginia county—Rappahannock County—where the board of supervisors has stubbornly refused to allow any commercial development. The result has been services cut to the absolute minimum, a housing shortage, and a stagnant economy. The anti-pavers point to adjoining Culpeper County where that board of supervisors is allowing a 116-acre data center housing 2.2 million square feet of massive structures with concrete walls up to 70 feet high to be built on farmland adjacent to Civil War battlegrounds. Two more enormous data center sites have already been approved.  When completed, they will suck up more than 10 times the entire county’s current electricity usage. Cooling the plants will put a strain on the area’s water supply. Already the wells of local homeowners are starting to go dry, there is not enough electricity to go around, and Culpeper’s once-beautiful vistas are slowly being erased. Nevertheless the chairman of the Culpeper Board of Supervisors is unrepentant: the county needs the tax dollars which are essential for the region’s economic development.

This battle—with soaring tempers, angry words, and a lot of money at stake—is clearly fertile ground for a murder or two; doing the research for Deeds Left Undone was especially fascinating. The arguments in favor of economic development and paving the roads were obvious. But to understand why the non-pavers believed as they did, a ninety-two-year-old friend with the energy of someone half her age and known to most of the horse-and-hunt community as Grammy brought me to a steeplechase race, an event called “Twilight Jumpers” and one of the largest cattle auctions in the region. As expected, one of the big reasons was “because we like it this way and it’s better for the horses.” Also, the unspoiled beauty of this lovely part of Virginia was a major part of its attraction and charm. Why ruin it? Did Loudoun want to turn into another Culpeper County, selling out for easy money but destroying everything that had made it such a desirable place to live to begin with?

I don’t know the answer to the question whether the roads should be paved or unpaved, whether there’s a middle ground that will appease both sides, and who should get to define “progress”—whatever that is. But I do like writing about moral gray areas and exploring both sides of an issue so that my readers can think about it and perhaps decide for themselves how they feel.

So I’m curious about what you Reds readers think: pave the roads because you can’t stop progress forever or leave them unpaved to preserve their unspoiled natural beauty? And why?

DEBS: Here's more about DEEDS LEFT UNDONE--

When Paul Merchant, the husband of Lucie Montgomery’s winery manager, is found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool, the police rule it an accident. But Paul’s wife insists he was murdered because of his leadership of Don’t Pave Paradise, a conservation group lobbying to keep the region’s beautiful country roads unpaved. Plus, six weeks ago Paul’s predecessor also died under mysterious circumstances. As Lucie takes on the work of the conservationists, she discovers a link to the recent deaths and the death of a beautiful heiress in a fire eighty years ago. Plus she learns firsthand there are individuals who will do anything—including committing murder—to, as the song goes, pave paradise and turn it into a parking lot. 

And about Ellen!

For many years she worked as a freelance journalist in the US and while living overseas in London, Moscow, and Geneva, Switzerland before turning to writing fiction full time. Her last job as a stringer was as a regional feature writer for The Washington Post, covering many of the places where her Wine Country mysteries are set. 

DEBS: I have so many questions for Ellen. She just spent the week teaching at Chautauqua and I hoping she'll share some highlights. She's posted some fabulous photos on her socials!

And of course I'm always nagging her for news of an new Sophie Medina book...

I'm sure, dear readers, that you have questions, too!