Ellen Crosby - The Merlot Murders

In Ellen Crosby's The Merlot Murders, Lucie Montgomery is summoned home from France after a two-year absence because of her father's death, and she is immediately thrown into questioning everything and everyone around her. Was her father's death an accident, suicide or murder as her godfather, Fitz, believes. Soon Fitz is dead too, and Lucie is fighting with her siblings about selling their ancestral home or keeping their struggling and dilapidated winery running. Also on the scene are Lucie's cousin who had been arguing with Fitz prior to his death and Lucie's perfectly repellent former boyfriend who is not only responsible for maiming Lucie in a car accident but is now romantically involved with her much younger sister. This family is surrounded by so many secrets and so many mysteries and so much angst, Lucie can't be blamed for having stayed away for two years. There are far more mysteries and secrets to solve here than are required, and if some of them had been left out of the book, Crosby could have focused on further developing the main characters and their relationships instead of relying on assumptions. This is the first book in the series by Crosby, and now that she has introduced the characters, it is hoped that they will be further and more fully developed in the next book.