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!

Ellen Crosby--I Am What I Write?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is always a huge treat to have the lovely and talented Ellen Crosby visit here on JRW! I am a big fan of her Wine Country mysteries, but I love everything she writes, and her Sophie Medina books, featuring Washington, DC photojournalist Sophie, rate up at the top of my "jump up and down with excitement" list! Sophie's latest adventure, DODGE AND BURN, does not disappoint!

I AM WHAT I WRITE?

 Ellen Crosby

The week before last I drove out to Slater Run Vineyards, a beautiful, bucolic family-owned vineyard in the village of Upperville, Virginia to tape an interview for Write Around the Corner, a television show that airs on Blue Ridge PBS in southern Virginia. 

Slater Run Vineyards

The show—which the producers will film anywhere as long as it’s not a television studio—features interviews with Virginia authors and has been on the air for seven seasons. We are a prolific bunch here in the Old Dominion, which is why there will be a Season 8—among our tribe are such well-known names as David Baldacci, John Grisham, Barbara Kingsolver, Donna Andrews, Art Taylor, John Gilstrap. Alan Orloff, Tara Laskowski, Angie Kim, G.M. Malliet, Ed Aymar, S.A. Cosby, Beth Macy, Adriana Trigiani, Kwame Alexander, Maggie Stiefvater, Nikki Giovanni, Elle Cosimano, Brendan Slocumb, and Jeanette Walls—to name but a very few. (Everyone I neglected to mention please forgive me).

From left: Carol Jennings, Ellen, and Rose Martin, from Write Around the Corner

The first thing Rose Martin, the well-prepared program host, said to me was this: You’ve led a fascinating life traveling all around the world and so much of your life is in your books. Will you tell us about it?

Huh?

I write a mystery series about a woman named Lucie Montgomery who owns a vineyard in Virginia (I don’t) and another about Sophie Medina, an international photojournalist who lives in Washington, D.C., has a former CIA operative husband, and becomes embroiled in solving crimes (not me, either, though I have worked as an international journalist). But as I thought about Rose’s question, I began to realize that she was right: snippets of me and my life have somehow made their way onto the pages of all my books. Songs I was listening to, events that were happening in the world, where we took our summer vacation, what mattered to my three sons at the time, conversations I had with my husband.

In Dodge and Burn, my fourth Sophie Medina book which will be out on May 7, an insignificant but beautiful Ukrainian icon is stolen from the home of Robson Blake, a wealthy philanthropist, while his collection of Old Master paintings is left untouched. When Sophie shows up to take his photo, Blake is dead and his state-of-the-art alarm system is turned off. Who stole the icon, who murdered Robbie Blake—and why? My late husband’s mother was half-Russian and half-Ukrainian, plus we lived in the former Soviet Union when André’s job as a journalist brought us to Moscow thirty-five years ago, so it’s a pretty short line connecting the dots between my interest in the war Ukraine is fighting against Russia and plundered art as a spoil of war.

Sophie is also asked to take pictures of a soccer camp being hosted by an organization that offers support to homeless individuals when the Real Madrid soccer team comes to Washington for a “friendly” game with D.C. United. I suspect the idea for the soccer camp for homeless kids came to me as I was writing and also listening to World Cup soccer games being played in Qatar in the background during “WhatsApp Watch Parties” my oldest son, who lives in Germany, organized for himself, a cousin in Paris, and my husband in Virginia.

In the acknowledgments for Dodge and Burn, I mentioned that many of the instances involving art theft that I wrote about were taken from news accounts of crimes that actually happened in 2022 and 2023 while I was writing this book. Stolen, looted, and plundered art is the fourth most trafficked item after money, drugs, and arms--and once I Googled “stolen art” to begin my research I quickly fell down the rabbit hole. I won’t spoil the plot, but the crime and criminals in Dodge and Burn ended up being based on a true crime that I read about—which hadn’t been my original plan.

So Reds, here’s my question for you: do you consciously or unconsciously insert yourself or your life into your books? And, readers, do you think reading a book by a favorite author offers insight into his or her personal life? Do you ever think about the person writing the book, or do you just focus on the story?

DEBS: Oh, such good questions, Ellen.  And so hard to answer. I am always curious about the author, but I don't necessarily think they've actually experienced all the things they write about. We crime novelists would be in big trouble, if so...

Readers, do you separate the story from the person?

And I have to say I am gobsmacked by the number of fabulous writers clustered together in little Virginia!

 

Here's more about DODGE AND BURN: 

When billionaire philanthropist and art collector Robson Blake hires Sophie Medina to take photographs for him, she doesn't expect to show up and find her client dead. It seems he was the victim of a burglary gone wrong. But why was his state-of-the-art security system turned off . . . and why, in a house full of priceless Old Masters, is the only thing missing a beautiful but insignificant Ukrainian religious icon?
Before long, Sophie finds herself in the crosshairs of a D.C. homicide detective who suspects she knows more than she is saying about Blake's murder - and he's not wrong. To Sophie's mixed delight and horror, she's recently learned she has a half-brother . . . who might also be an international art thief, with eyes on Blake's collection.

As the police get closer to finding Blake's killer, Sophie is certain someone is trying to frame her for his murder. Can she find the real killer in time - even if it means turning in her own brother to prove her innocence?

Photo by Bailey Shyburgh

ELLEN CROSBY is the author of the Sophie Medina mysteries, the Virginia wine country mystery series, and MOSCOW NIGHTS, a standalone mystery. Her books have been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and the Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award; THE FRENCH PARADOX was chosen as one of The Strand Magazine’s Top 20 Mysteries of 2021 Previously she worked as a freelance reporter for The Washington Post, Moscow correspondent for ABC Radio News, and as an economist at the U.S. Senate. She is currently busy writing the next Virginia wine country mystery due out in 2025. 

 

Ellen Crosby--Bitter Roots (and Happy Endings)

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is spring, and gloriously, time for weddings. How perfect that Ellen Crosby's 12th Virginia Wine Country Mystery, BITTER ROOTS, which revolves around a spring wedding, is out just in time to get us in the mood.

This special fictional wedding echoes a treasured personal moment for Ellen, too, and I'm happy she's sharing it with us today!

ELLEN CROSBY: Forty years ago this October on the day before Halloween my husband and I were married on a gorgeous Indian summer evening in Washington, D.C. Our reception took place under a perfect harvest moon when it was so warm our hosts threw open the French doors to the ballroom of the historic mansion where we were celebrating so everyone could dance by candlelight and moonlight outside on the terrace. Afterward our guests helped gather what remained of the buffet dinner and our wedding cake to bring back to our apartment. The next day we threw an all-day party of leftovers for friends and family who had traveled from New York and New England to be with us. All these years later when I think back on our wedding weekend what I remember most is joy.

In Bitter Roots, the twelfth Virginia wine country mystery, Lucie Montgomery and Quinn Santori are finally getting married—an event that has been evolving over the last few books. First they got engaged. Then they moved in together. They were in no rush to set a date, so they didn’t. (Yes, I heard about that!). Then they did set a date. And finally, they began making wedding plans.

Lucie wants the perfect outdoor spring wedding: the happily-ever-after fairy tale with the dress, the flowers, the intimate ceremony in their garden, the reception with family and friends celebrating at the vineyard, the romantic first dance—all of it.

Unfortunately, she’s not going to get it. Any of it.

A huge swath of withered, dying grapevines is spoiling an otherwise perfect setting for the wedding. Lucie blames the nursery that sold them the diseased vines; so do other vineyard owners dealing with the same problem. The nursery owner pushes back: the dying vines are the result of climate change and the blame game heats up.

Then Eve Kerr, a stunning blonde who works at the nursery, turns up dead less than a week before the wedding and everyone wonders if someone’s anger over the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars pushed them too far. For Lucie Eve’s death is personal: Quinn had taken Eve’s side that the nursery wasn’t responsible for the vineyards’ losses and had secretly agreed to meet her the day she disappeared. Their meeting never took place and Quinn tells Lucie he doesn’t know why Eve, a fellow Californian, wanted to see him. Lucie, however, has a few suspicions of her own. With Quinn now a suspect in a murder investigation, Lucie wonders what else her soon-to-be-husband isn’t telling her about his relationship with Eve.

The search for Eve’s killer and the wedding plans come to an abrupt halt when a violent storm with hurricane-force winds—a derecho—blows through the vineyard one night. The storm, which no one was prepared for, leaves a massive trail of destruction from Atoka, Virginia to Washington, D.C. There is no electricity, no water, no phone or Internet service, no 911 to call for help, no nothing. The garden where the ceremony was to take place is destroyed, the reception site is unsalvageable, and the wedding dinner will almost certainly be thrown out because there is no refrigeration.

With their plans in ruins, Lucie and Quinn turn to each other and decide they’ll improvise, figure things out, make do with what they’ve got. They’ll have a wedding anyway.  But as they make new plans, the knowledge that Eve’s murderer is probably someone close to home—a friend or neighbor—perhaps even a wedding guest, hangs over the preparations. With the Sheriff’s Office closing in on finding the killer, everyone’s anxiety ratchets up: who killed Eve? But the resilience that gets this close-knit community through the devastation of the derecho is going to get them through this tragedy as well.

Despite the heartache and sadness of the last few days, Lucie realizes that while she isn’t going to get the wedding she wanted, or thought she wanted, she and Quinn are going to have the wedding they need. An unforgettable, spontaneous celebration surrounded by everyone they love most, a time to heal from losses, a new beginning.

And, mostly, there will be joy.

DEBS: I know from my experience with Duncan and Gemma that pulling off a fictional wedding is almost as hard as planning one in real life! Quite a few of us REDs have written fictional weddings, interestingly enough, so they will know that a lot of thought goes into getting it just right.

REDS and readers, do you have a great wedding story? Or a favorite fictional wedding? 

Ellen Crosby is the author of the Virginia wine country mysteries, two mysteries featuring international photojournalist Sophie Medina, and MOSCOW NIGHTS, a standalone. Before writing fiction, Crosby worked as a freelance reporter for The Washington Post, an economist at the US Senate, and Moscow reporter for ABC Radio News. She lives with her husband in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. after spending many years living abroad in England, France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and the former Soviet Union. Visit her website at www.ellencrosby.com and follow her (very) occasionally on Facebook at EllenCrosbyBooks, sometimes on Twitter at @ellencrosby, but mostly on Instagram at ellencrosbyauthor.

 

Ellen Crosby--The Loon and Me

DEBORAH CROMBIE: You know how sometimes you just fall in love with a book, or a series? (I'm sure that's NEVER happened to anyone here, right?) Well, that happened to my daughter and me when we read Ellen Crosby's first two Sophie Medina books. These books had everything, a great protagonist, mystery, suspense, travel, fascinating bits of history and science. We couldn't wait to read more of Sophie's adventures! 

AND THEN THERE WERE NO MORE BOOKS! This just seemed so wrong, Sophie's stories so unfinished, and every time I've seen Ellen since, I've nagged her. I'm sure she got quite annoyed hearing, "When is there going to be another Sophie book???"

But wishes do sometimes come true. Not only will there be another Sophie Medina, readers who've missed the first two books (or want to reread them!) now have the chance to catch up! As Ellen will explain!

The Loon and Me

 Ellen Crosby

Last spring a Common Loon landed in a small man-made pond in a subdivision about fifteen minutes from where I live in Fairfax County, Virginia and you would have thought—as someone said—that Brad Pitt had been spotted walking down the street. To begin with, loons don’t usually fly very far inland, but what made this loon even more unusual was that it stuck around this tiny suburban pond for a whole week. Within days it had its own Facebook page, plus The Washington Post sent a reporter (twice) to cover the loon and its many followers who were becoming known as the“loonarazzi.”

Before long folks started worrying that the reason the loon hadn’t left to continue her journey north to New England and the Great Lakes was because she (yes, it was a female loon) couldn’t leave. You see loons, which are large, heavy, awkward birds, need a long runway for takeoff and this little pond was, well, little. So a plan was hatched (not sorry, it’s the right verb!) to sneak up on the bird in the middle of the night, throw a bag over her head, and move her to a larger pond. It took two nights because making sounds like baby chicks calling their mother fizzled, but on Night #2 there was success with an iPhone app that made a sound like a male loon.

Lately I have been thinking about this loon and her predicament because I am writing book three in a series in which the last book will have come out eight years ago—seven, if you count the paperback—by the time the new one is released in 2023. And I am wondering how long a runway I need for my new book to take off and fly.

The series, about an international photojournalist named Sophie Medina, has always been close to my heart. Before I started writing fiction full time I worked as a freelance journalist in the US and overseas. Thanks to my husband’s assignments—he was a radio and television journalist—we lived in Geneva, Moscow, and London, three fabulous posts. I’m also an avid amateur photographer. So writing this series seemed like the perfect fit for me. I wrote two books—Multiple Exposure and Ghost Image—which came out in 2013 and 2015, respectively. And then . . . I stopped.

My new publisher wanted more books in the mystery series I write about Lucie Montgomery, who owns a vineyard in Virginia. So I did what any author would do: I wrote them. In fact, I wrote 6 more books and the 12^th, Bitter Roots, will be out in the US on April 5. It’s already getting great reviews, so I’m thrilled.

Last summer when I turned in the manuscript to my editor at Severn House, she asked if I’d consider writing another vineyard book. I thought about it for a while before I said:  no, thank you. I felt I needed to take a break as I’d done in 2015 after I wrote the first six books in that series. I also said I’d really like to write another book about Sophie Medina. To me the series had always seemed unfinished: there were more stories to tell. I’m really lucky to have an editor who has so much faith in me, because after some discussion about the potential perils involved—i.e., the time between books—she said, “Okay, go for it.” The icing on the cake was that my agent (who is Superman because he can do anything) got my rights back for the first two books, which Severn House not only promptly acquired, but then almost immediately reissued with gorgeous new covers on February 1. So anyone who wants to catch up on the series before Book 3 comes out can do so.

Still, it is going to be tricky to reintroduce a series where there has been such a long hiatus between books. Do I age Sophie? Has she lived through a pandemic? What if I decide to, say, kill off a well-liked character who was prominent in the other books, which is always tough to do? Will readers be more forgiving since it was so long since the last one?

Those are questions about the story itself, but then there’s this: am I nuts to walk away from a popular series that’s done so well and (re)try something else? I’m betting it all on the answer being no, but I’m wondering what you guys think. Reds, have any of you ever done something like this? Other authors please weigh in, too. And readers, what about you? Would you follow an author to a new (sort of) series?

The stranded loon, by the way, managed to take off and leave from the larger pond where she had been relocated. As for me, I still have a year to test out my runway.

Which gives me lots of time to make sure it’s plenty long enough. And to hope you all will come along for the journey.

 

MULTIPLE EXPOSURE: When Sophie Medina’s husband oil executive and covert CIA operative Nicholas Canning is kidnapped from their home in London, Sophie fears the that Nick is dead. When he is spotted a few months later in Moscow, his CIA handlers tell Sophie that not only is Nick a murderer, but also a thief who vanished with valuable logs revealing the discovery of oil in a remote part of Russia. No longer able to tell friend from foe, Sophie enters Nick’s shadowy world as she races to prove her husband’s innocence before those who are after him catch up with her as well.

   

                      

            GHOST IMAGE: When Brother Kevin Boyle, controversial environmentalist and Franciscan friar, is found dead on the grounds of a magnificent monastery in Washington, D.C., photojournalist Sophie Medina is certain it was no accident: Kevin was murdered. Before he died, Kevin hinted at a discovery he’d made potentially worth billions to the pharmaceutical industry. The search for Kevin’s killer takes Sophie from Capitol Hill to London as she seeks to learn what her friend found in an ancient botanical encyclopedia before the information falls into the wrong hands—and his killer finds her.

DEBS: Aren't those covers terrific? Here's more about Ellen:

For many years I 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. My last job as a stringer was as a regional feature writer for The Washington Post, covering many of the places where my wine country mysteries are set.

DEBS: To answer at least part of Ellen's questions, I will happily follow an author I like from one series to another, and am certainly not deterred by a gap between books in a series that I love. 

What about you, REDS and readers?

P.S. I loved the loon story, Ellen. We've had something similar here in the Dallas area with a pair of nesting bald eagles. Their nest in a cottonwood tree at a popular lake was the subject of much media coverage and so many visitors gawking that the city had to barricade the area. Then last week in a ferocious windstorm, the tree blew down and both nest and eggs were lost. This was headline news! But to everyone's relief, the pair seem to be rebuilding nearby. Hopefully with better luck this time!

Ellen Crosby--Magical Writing

DEBORAH CROMBIE: What a treat it is for me today to have my friend--and one of my favorite writers--Ellen Crosby as our guest. I'm so excited about her new book, THE VINEYARD VICTIMS, that I have it pre-ordered and will be waiting eagerly for it to appear on my doorstep next Tuesday morning. And I love Ellen's topic. I've called this thing that happens to writers synchronicity, but I think I like Ellen's term better.

Here's ELLEN CROSBY on Magical Writing

       

Katherine Neville, a good friend and international best-selling author, once told me that when she writes her books, magic happens. A book will fall off a library shelf open to a page containing the exact information she was searching for. A stranger turns up in her life with the precise answer to a research question just when she needed it. At first I thought this was simply Katherine, whose newsletters arrive on the summer solstice or the autumn equinox or Twelfth Night, because she is so tuned in to the karma of everything around her—until it started happening to me.

      Initially I thought it was a fluke, or maybe merely my imagination, but my husband began commenting on the uncanny coincidences that kept occurring: I’d start writing a book and, presto, the subject I was researching would turn up prominently in the newspaper or in an NPR story. Or I’d meet that stranger who had answers to my research questions. The Vineyard Victims, the 8^th book in my Virginia wine country mystery series, was no different—though with a bit of a twist. Some of my synchronicity—or just plain good luck—happened while I was writing, but for the first time it showed up when the book was done, as well.

      In my story, Jamie Vaughn, a wealthy presidential candidate who owns a vineyard in Virginia, drives his gold SUV into a stone pillar at the entrance to Montgomery Estate Vineyard and dies in a fiery crash. Though friends and family believe it was an accident on a rain-slicked country road, Lucie Montgomery is convinced what happened was deliberate. Jamie had recently lost the presidential election by a close vote—yes, he also won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College like you-know-who—and there were rumors of massive campaign debts. His last words to Lucie, who he’d nearly run off the road moments before the crash, were to find someone named Rick and ask for his forgiveness. Determined to carry out Jamie’s final wish, Lucie’s investigation leads her to Charlottesville and an elite, brainy group of friends at the University of Virginia who had kept some very old and dark secrets for more than twenty years.

      When I first came up with the idea for The Vineyard Victims, Donald Trump hadn’t even decided to run for president. Trump is not the only celebrity to own a vineyard in the Old Dominion—there are a bunch of ’em—but when he began campaigning, all of a sudden the media was full of stories that were a gold mine of research information.

      What intrigued me most about writing this book was exploring how someone as famous and instantly recognizable as, say, a presidential candidate, could keep a terrible, life-altering secret that nobody knew about or suspected—and get away with it. And what worried me as well was whether readers would believe it could really happen.

      Last weekend my husband and I flew to Boston to attend a memorial service for a dear friend who passed away in Geneva last July. Catherine was the very first person to read my manuscripts years before I was published; we met in Switzerland thirty years ago. Later I moved to London where she often came to visit and her comments and critiques continued, usually in my kitchen over a cup of tea. When our family finally returned to America, Catherine and I spoke over Skype. And when The Merlot Murders was published in the US, she left the first review on Amazon: thoughtful, honest, and constructive as always. For the last few years her fight against breast cancer—keeping the beast at bay, as she called it—meant she needed to focus her energy on more important things.

      After her service on Saturday morning, her husband arranged a luncheon at a picture-postcard perfect inn overlooking the ocean in the town where they own a summer home. A group of us had been chatting on the terrace watching her grandchildren play in the autumn sunshine with the fluffy white dog that had been her therapy dog. Out of the blue the conversation turned to the topic of the secret lives of famous people. I have no idea who brought it up—it wasn’t me. Honest.

      “Well, there’s Charles Kuralt,” someone said. “He had two families for more than thirty years. His first wife didn’t find out about the other woman and her kids until his funeral.”

      Charles Kuralt? The famous and instantly recognizable host for a quarter of a century of CBS’s “On the Road”? The man who appeared on national television each week with a voice you’d know anywhere? Everyone’s favorite uncle, who told heartwarming, nostalgic stories about a kinder, gentler America and made us feel good about our country? He duped his wife and daughters until the day he died and never ’fessed up?

      On the drive back to Logan Airport, my husband, a retired journalist whose first job was as a desk assistant at CBS in New York, said, “I never knew that story about Charles Kuralt.” 

      Neither did I. But I did know who was responsible for the subject coming up precisely when it did.

      Catherine.

DEBS: Ellen what a spine-tingling story. Coincidence. Or no? I am absolutely convinced that magical writing happens. Reds and readers, what about you?

     

For many years Ellen 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.

Here's more about THE VINEYARD VICTIMS: When Jamison Vaughn—billionaire real estate mogul, Virginia vineyard owner, and unsuccessful U.S. presidential candidate—drives his gold SUV into a stone pillar at the entrance to Montgomery Estate Vineyard, Lucie Montgomery is certain the crash was deliberate. But everyone else in Atoka, Virginia is equally sure that Jamie must have lost control of his car on a rain-slicked country road. In spite of being saddled with massive campaign debts from the recent election, Jamie is seemingly the man with the perfect life. What possible reason could he have for committing suicide . . . or was it murder?

Before long Lucie uncovers a connection between Jamie and some of his old friends—an elite group of academics—and the brutal murder thirty years ago of a brilliant PhD student. Although a handyman is on death row for the crime, Lucie soon suspects someone else is guilty. But the investigation into the two deaths throws Lucie a curve ball when someone from her own past becomes involved, forcing her to confront old demons. Now the race to solve the mystery behind the two deaths becomes intensely personal as Lucie realizes someone wants her silenced . . . for good.