Ellen Crosby – författare

Ellen Crosby pours up another corking mystery with The Angels’ Share, an intriguing blend of secret societies, Prohibition bootleg wine, and potentially scandalous documents hidden by the Founding Fathers, all of which yield a vintage murder.

When Lucie Montgomery attends a Thanksgiving weekend party for friends and neighbors at Hawthorne Castle, an honest-to-goodness castle owned by the Avery family, the last great newspaper dynasty in America and owner of the Washington Tribune, she doesn’t expect the festive occasion to end in death.

During the party, Prescott Avery, the ninety-five-year-old family patriarch, invites Lucie to his fabulous wine cellar where he offers to pay any price for a cache of two hundred–year-old Madeira that her great-great-uncle, a Prohibition bootlegger, discovered hidden in the US Capitol in the 1920s. Lucie knows nothing about the valuable wine, believing her late father, a notorious gambler and spendthrift, probably sold or drank it. By the end of the party Lucie and her fiancé, winemaker Quinn Santori, discover Prescott’s body lying in his wine cellar. Is one of the guests a murderer?

As Lucie searches for the lost Madeira, which she believes links Prescott’s death to a cryptic letter her father owned, she learns about Prescott’s affiliation with the Freemasons. More investigating hints at a mysterious vault supposedly containing documents hidden by the Founding Fathers and a possible tie to William Shakespeare. If Lucie finds the long-lost documents, the explosive revelations could change history. But will she uncover a three hundred–year-old secret before a determined killer finds her?

From the author of Multiple Exposure, an "assured tale of love, loss, and secret agendas" (Publishers Weekly), comes the second novel in the thrilling Sophie Medina series, following a photojournalist as she races to find an international treasure before a murderer finds her.

When freelance photojournalist Sophie Medina finds Brother Kevin Boyle, a Franciscan friar and controversial environmentalist, dead in the magnificent gardens of a Washington, DC, monastery, she is sure her friend was murdered. Shortly before he died, Kevin told Sophie he was being stalked, possibly because he uncovered a botanic discovery potentially worth millions of dollars. Left with few clues to his secret, Sophie is determined to figure out who killed him.

Beginning with a key that leads to a priceless original seventeenth-century encyclopedia of plants, Sophie leaps into an international treasure hunt, following a trail that begins in the US Capitol and eventually leads to London and the English countryside. Before long Sophie suspects Kevin''s murderer may have been someone who knew him well. With time running out and a suspect list that includes the world''s leading botanical experts and political royalty from both sides of the Atlantic, can Sophie solve the two-hundred-year-old mystery before Kevin''s killer finds her?

A tale of greed and betrayal involving politicians, diplomats, European royalty, and a century-old monastery, Ghost Image is filled with political intrigue, history, and an international high-stakes race against a killer that will keep you guessing until the very last page.

From the author of the "lively and spirited" (Providence Journal) Wine Country Mysteries comes the first in a new series featuring a savvy female photographer whose husband''s abduction embroils her in the world of international espionage and lost Romanov art treasures.

When photojournalist Sophie Medina returns to London from an overseas assignment, she discovers that her husband Nick, a geologist and covert CIA operative, has been abducted. Three months later she is shocked when a friend in the British government says Nick was spotted in Moscow and is now not only a suspect in his boss'' murder but also potentially involved in illicit Russian oil deals. With her every move now closely watched, Sophie moves to Washington, DC, to be with family and friends.

There Sophie is drawn deeper into Nick''s shadowy world. While photographing an exhibit of two never-before-seen Faberg├® imperial eggs at the National Gallery of Art, Sophie is confronted by a Russian oil tycoon, implicating her former husband. On the run from Nick''s enemies, Sophie plays a high-stakes game of Russian roulette as she tries to determine friend from foe and prove her husband''s innocence.

Weaving together political intrigue, art history, and espionage, this fast-paced story marks the start of a promising new series.