Author Ellen Crosby has uncorked a heady, suspenseful story in The Vineyard Victims, the eighth book in her Wine Country Mysteries series, set in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

Crosby’s background as a journalist shows in the directness of her writing style—it could almost be called a workmanlike cozy—that ups the ante without diffusing the narrative. She refreshingly omits flowery prose, instead offering a sturdy plot and in-depth characters that enhance this colorful, complex page-turner.

The series’ central character, Virginia winemaker and vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery, is an eyewitness when her neighbor, vintner Jamie Vaughn, dies in a fiery car crash. The fatal accident occurs at exactly the same spot where Lucie herself suffered a disabling car accident years before, and the trauma of that event soon resurfaces.

Jamie’s last words to Lucie are a frantic plea that will embroil her in reviving a 30-year-old murder case that involved Jamie and several friends during their college years, although they were later acquitted after a local handyman was found guilty of the crime. Lucie uncovers the still-raw edges of the old murder, that of a brilliant academician whose career deeply impacted Jamie and his peers in grad school.

Jamie, a former politician and failed presidential candidate, had lived a privileged life, but Lucie hears rumors of financial improprieties and campaign mismanagement that could cloud his legacy. Lucie, however, seems alone in thinking that the accident could have been a suicide.

The Vineyard Victims nicely interweaves details about the lore and lure of wine making with escalating tensions as Lucie discovers new clues. Questions about whether Lucie will regain her peace of mind, plus hints about new characters who may appear in future books, add to this full-bodied and tempting read.

Make your reservations now for a European tour like you’ve never experienced. Amy’s Travel has planned a clever caper that puts its participants literally on the road to solving a tantalizing murder mystery. It’s all fun and games until the riddle turns out to mirror a real-life murder. As competing teams scurry from Monte Carlo to Corsica, from Rome to Siena, hidden hints both bewilder them and spur them on to the next destination as they try hilariously to work out the Clue-style murder mystery.

Hy Conrad, award-winning writer and co-executive producer of the popular television series “Monk,” is practiced at nudging the funny bone even as grim events unfold. In this story, serious Amy Abel and her busybody mother Fanny trade exasperated yet affectionate barbs while deciding how to deal with the untimely death of their master mystery writer mid-tour, as well as the ever-escalating needs of their guests.

Just when the tour comes to an end, mystery seemingly solved, Conrad turns the tension up a notch with a real murder within the tour party. The aptly named Ms. Abel could call it a day—after all, her excursion is done—but she troops ever onward, with the help of tourists who refuse to stop sleuthing just because the game is over. This intrepid gang will have you cheering them on at the many twists Conrad throws their way. Even the most careful reader will have trouble dodging all the red herrings and arriving at the solution before Amy herself uncovers the true murderer among them.

It’s summer in 1930s England. And there’s been a Murder at the Brightwell.

In Ashley Weaver’s enjoyable debut mystery, a well-to-do group of friends has gathered for a party at the Brightwell Hotel on England’s seaside. Among the guests is the lovely Amory Ames, who’s not attending with her husband, Milo, but instead is the guest of her former fiancé, Gil Trent. Amory’s husband of several years has been playboy-ing across Europe on his own, so she feels justified in agreeing to help the stalwart Gil, who’s at the gathering to try and talk his sister, Emmeline, out of marrying the unsavory Rupert Howe, a man of questionable repute.

Amory gets her first glimpse of the assembled party on the first evening, as the characters are introduced one by one in tried-and-true cozy fashion. Also true to form, each engenders just the tiniest bit of suspicion in readers’ minds. It’s not long before the prospective groom is found dead at the bottom of a cliff terrace. Murder most foul is the verdict delivered by the resolute Detective Inspector Jones of England’s CID, who’s on the spot and missing nothing.

Gil’s obvious dislike of the victim soon makes him suspect number one, and from here on, Murder at the Brightwell assumes all the trappings of a Golden Age mystery par excellence, complete with suspects and subplots galore, the obligatory seaside scenery and a whole school of red herrings. Undaunted, heroine Amory sorts it all out, seeking clues in each conversation and locating nuanced and suspicious gestures around every corner.

Just as intriguing as the murder and its consequences is a major side trip into Amory’s love life—or lack thereof. Weaver expertly exploits the “which one does she love?” angle, creating a tasty side story for mystery readers who like their murder laced with a little romance. Milo, who unaccountably shows up at the party, is to all intents a disinterested husband who doesn’t mind a bit of running around without his wife. But he seems brisk, even a bit jealous, when confronting his potential rival, the trusty Gil, who has never lost interest in his former fiancée. Weaver creates great romantic tension, but despite Amory’s protestations to the contrary, it doesn’t take a master sleuth to discover the direction in which this heroine’s affections lie.

Lucy Stone usually lets the mysteries come to her quaint hometown of Tinker’s Cove, Maine, but in the 21st installment of the Lucy Stone Mystery series, the popular sleuth is unexpectedly whisked off to the romantic streets of Paris. It’s not a first for Stone, as prolific series author Leslie Meier has sent her on junkets to Manhattan and England on occasion. Still, in French Pastry Murder, she’s a little out of her element. Luckily, the prize trip she’s won includes her husband and friends, and they’re staying near her daughter Elizabeth. It’s like Tinker’s Cove has relocated to France.

It should be a dream come true, but while Stone’s entourage takes a brisk tour of the city’s sights and, more specifically, its tastes—details of the cuisine will make readers feel like they have actually been to the many cafes the group frequent—they may have bitten off more than they can chew. When Stone stumbles on the wounded body of their cooking school instructor, Chef Larry Bruneau, she and her friends find themselves accused and stranded, their passports confiscated by police. The only way out is for Stone to figure out who has stabbed Chef Larry, a job that gets more and more complicated as the pages fly by.

Meier keeps the suspenseful scenes coming, but the mood is never menacing. Instead, Stone’s own optimistic attitude—she just knows she will figure this out—sets the upbeat tone of her investigation. Even when her daughter’s roommate disappears, bringing the killer a little too close for comfort, Stone charges on until the murderer is stopped in his tracks.

A quick Sunday afternoon read, French Pastry Murder pairs intrigue and entertainment to serve up a light but satisfying meal.

Ever wonder what happened after the end of Pygmalion (the original play on which the film My Fair Lady is based), as Eliza Doolittle’s emerging independence wars with Professor Henry Higgins’s attempts to ensure that she remains under his proverbial thumb? Fear not. The pseudonymous D.E. Ireland (a debut team of two authors, Meg Mims and Sharon Pisacreta) has imagined an alternative. In Wouldn’t It Be Deadly, the first novel in a new Doolittle/Higgins mystery series, Eliza and Henry pair up to solve a murder. They share a continuing bond, however fractious the relationship, and there’s an immediate interest in finding the killer, because the professor himself has become the prime suspect.

Eliza now works as a teaching assistant to Higgins’ rival, phonetics teacher Maestro Emil Nepommuck, who teaches citizens of the “lower” classes how to speak like the gentry, a crucial need for any who wish to “better” themselves and move up a notch in England’s rigid class hierarchy.

Eliza, who wants to prove she is independent, has accepted an offer to assist Nepommuck in his phonetics laboratory. A Hungarian import with a very iffy past, he has started advertising his services in the newspapers, claiming that he is the person responsible for Miss Doolittle’s amazing transformation. As Eliza becomes acquainted with his present and former clients, it soon becomes clear that the maestro is using his knowledge of his clients’ backgrounds to indulge in a spot or two of blackmail in return for monetary or sexual favors.

Higgins, incensed over Nepommuck’s claims, retaliates by unmasking the man’s shady exploits in the newspaper, and shortly thereafter the Hungarian is found stabbed to death. Which of the imposter’s many nefarious dealings has resulted in his demise? His “way” with an assortment of ladies? His attacks on Higgins’ professional ego? Higgins is detained by the police, and it’s not until he and Eliza join forces to scour the streets for clues that the real killer is eventually unmasked.

All the familiar characters from the film and stage versions are back, from the tedious Freddy to the kindly Professor Pickering. However, an overdependence on these characters, along with Eliza’s predictable speech regressions in moments of stress, becomes tiresome and formulaic. Hopefully this promising idea for a series will take a cue from its many new characters—even a hint that the dour Professor Higgins hides a major secret of his own—and head off in a new, more enjoyable direction.

Orchids—missing ones, dead ones, rare ones, at a murder scene or a horticultural talk—they’re all over the place in popular Brit mystery author Catherine Aird’s new series procedural, Dead Heading, featuring the organic detective duo Sloan and Crosby, long-timers from more than 20 of her mysteries.

The thoughtful, philosophical Sloan and his sometimes off-the-wall partner Crosby are investigating the death of—you guessed it—a greenhouse full of orchids and plants, all on order for waiting customers. A party or parties unknown left the greenhouse door open on a frosty night, and the heating system was mysteriously on the fritz. Sloan is not sure what sort of criminal activity is involved, or why, but after an orchid specialist goes missing and two orchids are found adorning the dresser in the room of a murdered man, he suspects a culprit who may be more complicated than someone with a grudge against rare blooms.

DI Sloan visits the distraught greenhouse owner, Jack Haines, and his possibly duplicitous assistant Russ, then follows the dead orchid trail to a fledgling plant operation whose owners, Marilyn and Anna, have just suffered a similar loss. The detective learns that Marilyn’s ex is also Jack’s stepson, a coincidence with potentially deep roots. Simultaneously he runs the gamut of homeowners whose gardens were affected by the “kill,” including a well-heeled couple with no discernible aesthetic taste and their garden designer, Anthony Berra, who has to dig fast and furiously to replace what’s been lost.

The missing orchid specialist, Miss Enid Osgathorpe, turns out to be an elderly woman whose former work as a doctor’s secretary left her in possession of a lot of delicious information about her fellow townspeople, and Sloan suspects this may have provided fertile soil for blackmail.

Aird is an expert at creating seemingly innocent local characters going about their lives with a certain devious intent—providing readers with a good laugh and many a sly aside by DI Sloan, who can be a bit shrewd at noticing the quirks of his fellow townspeople.

The missing woman appears to be quite a piece of work, as those who knew her can attest, including old Admiral Catterick, a bit of a sly fox himself; the more timid Benedict Feakins; and some garden-variety landscape designers, greenhouses types and family hangers-on. The literary ground is all set to bear a fruitful harvest of murder and mayhem.