The Chardonnay Charade

The Chardonnay Charade
Author: Ellen Crosby
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2008-07-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1416535985

Struggling to safeguard her vineyard from an unusual late-season freeze, Lucie Montgomery discovers the body of a controversial local politician near her fields, a case during which a friend is wrongfully accused and Lucie confronts her feelings for a fractious winemaker. By the author of The Merlot Murders. Reprint.

The Merlot Murders

The Merlot Murders
Author: Ellen Crosby
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2007-07-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1416536043

Lucie Montgomery is the only member of her family opposed to the sale of the family's vineyard, and therefore the next possible victim of a greedy murderer.

The Vineyard Victims

The Vineyard Victims
Author: Ellen Crosby
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2017-11-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1466888105

The death of a former presidential candidate in a fiery car crash at her Virginia vineyard has ties to a thirty year-old murder, as well as to Lucie Montgomery’s own near fatal accident ten years ago, as she searches for a killer who now may be stalking her. 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. The Vineyard Victims is a nominee for the 2018 Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Harvest of Secrets

Harvest of Secrets
Author: Ellen Crosby
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2018-11-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250164834

The search for the killer of an aristocratic French winemaker who was Lucie Montgomery’s first crush and the discovery of dark family secrets put Lucie on a collision course with a murderer. It’s harvest season at Montgomery Estate Vineyard—the busiest time of year for winemakers in Atoka, Virginia. A skull is unearthed near Lucie Montgomery’s family cemetery, and the discovery of the bones coincides with the arrival of handsome, wealthy aristocrat Jean-Claude de Marignac. He’s come to be the head winemaker at neighboring La Vigne Cellars, but he’s no stranger to Lucie—he was her first crush twenty years ago when she spent a summer in France. Not long after his arrival, Jean-Claude is found dead, and while there is no shortage of suspects who are angry or jealous of his ego and overbearing ways, suspicion falls on Miguel Otero, an immigrant worker at La Vigne, who recently quarreled with Jean-Claude. When Miguel disappears, Lucie receives an ultimatum from her own employees: prove Miguel’s innocence or none of the immigrant community will work for her during the harvest. As Lucie hunts for Jean-Claude’s killer and continues to search for the identity of the skeleton abandoned in the cemetery, she is blindsided by a decades-old secret that shatters everything she thought she knew about her family. Now facing a wrenching emotional choice, Lucie must decide whether it’s finally time to tell the truth and hurt those she loves the most, or keep silent and let past secrets remain dead and buried. Harvest of Secrets is another corking mystery from author Ellen Crosby.

Dictionary of the British English Spelling System

Dictionary of the British English Spelling System
Author: Greg Brooks
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2015-03-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1783741074

This book will tell all you need to know about British English spelling. It's a reference work intended for anyone interested in the English language, especially those who teach it, whatever the age or mother tongue of their students. It will be particularly useful to those wishing to produce well-designed materials for teaching initial literacy via phonics, for teaching English as a foreign or second language, and for teacher training. English spelling is notoriously complicated and difficult to learn; it is correctly described as much less regular and predictable than any other alphabetic orthography. However, there is more regularity in the English spelling system than is generally appreciated. This book provides, for the first time, a thorough account of the whole complex system. It does so by describing how phonemes relate to graphemes and vice versa. It enables searches for particular words, so that one can easily find, not the meanings or pronunciations of words, but the other words with which those with unusual phoneme-grapheme/grapheme-phoneme correspondences keep company. Other unique features of this book include teacher-friendly lists of correspondences and various regularities not described by previous authorities, for example the strong tendency for the letter-name vowel phonemes (the names of the letters ) to be spelt with those single letters in non-final syllables.

The White Trash Mom Handbook

The White Trash Mom Handbook
Author: Michelle Lamar
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2008-08-05
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1429935227

A mommy manifesto for the mom who proudly strives to be less-than-perfect Michelle Lamar is a wry observer of the politics of elementary schools, the perfect moms who run them, and the kids who are trying to grow up without being embarrassed to death by their parents. This book imparts invaluable advice on how to survive the brutal world of parenting, bake sales, and the PTA. The White Trash Mom Handbook is a welcome and humorous approach to handling the pressures of modern-day motherhood. Readers can get a good laugh while learning the knowledge and skills needed to become a White Trash Mom: Fake Bakin' - transform store-bought treats into bake sale bestsellers! Making Friends - how to spot a fellow White Trash Mom from 50 paces Helping Out - give back to the school without sacrificing your time or sanity. The White Trash Mom Handbook will teach moms to let go of being the best and embrace their inner rebel so they can enjoy their kids more, avoid PTA purgatory, and get a real life.

Something Borrowed

Something Borrowed
Author: Emily Giffin
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2012-03-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781250011862

Giffin's smash-hit debut novel--basis for the 2011 film--is for every woman who has ever had a complicated love-hate friendship.

The Sauvignon Secret

The Sauvignon Secret
Author: Ellen Crosby
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2011-08-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1451628412

WHEN LUCIE MONTGOMERY FINDS the body of prominent wine merchant Paul Noble hanging from a beam in his art studio not far from her Virginia vineyard, she is unwittingly dragged into Noble’s murky past. Once a member of the secretive Mandrake Society, Noble might have aided in a cover-up of the deaths forty years ago of a disabled man and a beautiful young biochemist involved in classified government research. A seemingly innocent favor for an old friend of her French grandfather sends Lucie to California, where she teams up with Quinn Santori, who walked out of Lucie’s life months earlier. Soon Lucie and Quinn are embroiled in a deadly cat-and-mouse game that takes them from glittering San Francisco to the legendary vineyards of Napa and Sonoma, and back home to Virginia, as they try to discover whether a killer may be seeking vengeance for the long-ago deaths. As Lucie and Quinn struggle to uncover the past, they must also decide whether they have a future together. Blending an intriguing mystery with an absorbing plot, vivid characters, and a richly evoked setting, The Sauvignon Secret should be savored like a glass of fine wine.

Dancing in the Blood

Dancing in the Blood
Author: Edward Ross Dickinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2017-07-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107196221

The book explores the revolutionary impact of modern dance on European culture in the early twentieth century. Edward Ross Dickinson uncovers modern dance's place in the emerging 'mass' culture of the modern metropolis and reveals the connections between dance, politics, culture, religion, the arts, psychology, entertainment, and selfhood.

The Bordeaux Betrayal

The Bordeaux Betrayal
Author: Ellen Crosby
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2009-07-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 143911238X

One year after taking over her family vineyard in Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains, Lucie Montgomery attends a historical wine lecture at Mount Vernon and is swept up in a mystery when the lecturer turns up dead.