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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9781416551669
ISBN number: 1416551662
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: August 05, 2008
Publishing house: Scribner
Sale Popularity Level: 63355
Studio: Scribner
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Product Description:
Ellen Crosby's third tale of suspense set amid the vines of Virginia wine country involves a two-hundred-year-old bottle of Bordeaux that Thomas Jefferson may have purchased for George Washington and is turning out to be a wine to die for.
It has been a year since Lucie Montgomery took over running her family vineyard at the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. The Bordeaux Betrayal now sweeps her into a mystery that began more than two centuries ago in France and ends in murder not far from Montgomery Estate Vineyard.
When author and historian Valerie Beauvais turns up dead the night after a verbal brawl with a noted wine critic on the grounds of Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, Lucie is certain Valerie's death is related to something she knew concerning the authenticity of the priceless Washington Bordeaux.
As Lucie and her eccentric winemaker Quinn Santori bring in the last grapes of the season, Quinn's controversial past becomes intertwined with the murder and the rare wine, testing the bonds of their increasingly close relationship. New neighbors challenge Lucie for allowing a century-old hunting club to use her land for foxhunting; Mick Dunne, Lucie's ex-lover, comes back into her life; and her beloved French grandfather makes an unexpected visit that will rekindle painful memories some would prefer to forget.
As Lucie investigates the shadowy history of the Washington wine, she uncovers a web of deceit and betrayal and a long-forgotten scandal that affects not only the international wine world but her own as well
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Rated by buyers 
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The third book in the series is unfortunately the weakest of the series. The book creates a Virginia wine country mystery based on the true stories found in "Wine and War" and "Billionaires Vinegar."
Too much of the story involves the love life of Lucie Montgomery who is the story's narrator and chief protagonist. There are too many obviously false directions set; and the concluding dramatic scene is just silly. Lucie is hobbled by a long-standing injury and how she and her aged grandfather escape the "bad guys" is foolishly unrealistic. The deus-ex-machina aspect of the scene makes it even tougher to accept.
As another reviewer pointed out, the most interesting characters in the book are familiar ones who continue from the earlier part of the series, but with the exception of Quinn aren't developed any further.
It was worth reading on a long airplane ride, but that's about it.
Rated by buyers -
"The Bordeaux Betrayal" is an enjoyable read that sustains your interest. It's written so that a non-wine afficionado can keep up with some of the jargon, but at times comes across to those learned in the ways of wine as sounding pedantic. The story has somewhat of an awkward beginning, with the opening paragraph coming off a bit trite. The last line of the second paragraph, "If the month of August had been a fish, I would have thrown it back," would have been a far superior opener than the preceding words. I was a bit bothered by some of the technical missteps in the narrative as well, such as a passage that spoke of harvesting "our white wines." You harvest grapes, not wines.
The story follows the general format of a murder mystery, giving us a dead body by the end of the very first chapter. And it quickly gives the reader a couple characters to think about. I took a quick guess as to who done it and I was happily wrong. It sustained my interest until the end, but I'm not likely to read any more of Crosby's work.
Rated by buyers 
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I was really enjoying this book, but I left it on an Amtrak train before I finished it. Well written, waiting to find out out it ends.
Rated by buyers -
It's tough starting a series three books in, but when I got the chance to review this book, I jumped at it. I've had pretty good luck with mystery series that I've gotten to review, so I figured this one was worth a gamble. And, as with the others, if I didn't like it, my wife would enjoy it - she loves mysteries.
The plot centers on Lucie Montgomery, a northern Virginia winemaker, and an intriguing mystery involving very old wine and murder. Lucie is given a bottle of wine, a bottle that was supposedly meant for George Washington, to sell at a charity auction. The donation is huge news, and promises to make the auction a huge success. But some doubt is cast on the provenance of the bottle -- and the one casting the doubt is murdered before she can give Lucie the details. The police are involved, and have a suspect or two, but Lucie launches her own investigation, simply because she wants to know what's going on.
This was a fun book to read. The plot twisted quite a bit, and there are a couple interesting sub-plots woven in to lend a bit of richness to the story. Red herrings abound -- at one point or another, I suspected every main character in the book with the exception of Lucie herself. But that, to me, is the mark of a great mystery. It's not really a fun read if you figure out the murderer on page 20, and still have to read 200 pages to get to the reveal.
A big factor in my enjoyment of books is the characterization, and that's something that is tough to judge when you're picking up a series in the middle. But I got to know these characters pretty well in this book -- enough that I want to read the previous installments to find out more about their backstories.
The best way to read this book, I think, is to sit down on a rainy afternoon and read it until you're finished. Otherwise, you're going to find yourself preoccupied with the book when you're supposed to be doing other, more "productive" things. I will be reading more of this series, and if you haven't yet you should as well.
Rated by buyers 
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All Ellen Crosby's Wine Country Mysteries are great stories to be read. I love the way she shows us the story in her words. I feel I can picture it as I am reading. I also like her charactors. I think she should put Lucie and Quinn together in her subsequent book.
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