The Chardonnay Charade

A Wine Country Mystery

De: Ellen Crosby

Narrado por: Christine Marshall

Facing a freakish May freeze that threatens her vineyard, Lucie Montgomery is forced to hire a helicopter to fly over the vines warming the arctic air next to the grapes. But her luck in salvaging the harvest runs out when she discovers the body of Georgia Greenwood, a controversial local political candidate, lying near the fields. Georgia's husband Ross - Lucie's friend and doctor - immediately comes under suspicion.

As the search for Georgia's killer escalates and grows more puzzling, Lucie crosses swords with her attractive but bull-headed winemaker, Quinn Santori, and confronts her own unwelcome feelings of jealousy over his new romance and job prospects. Then the suicide of a young vineyard worker appears to wrap up the murder investigation - or does it?

©2007 Ellen Crosby (P)2007 BBC Audiobooks America

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A highly satisfying new series." ( Publishers Weekly)

If you can get past the narrator

I have listened to others in the series. This one is not the best one. I have a hard time with the narrator. Her very unnatural accent grates on my nerves. She also should have checked on some of her pronunciations before she started. I will continue to finish the series because they are easy uncomplicated stories that I can listen to while I am doing something else.

Slow Southern comfort-but nice

Southern accents, bits of history and several plot components make this a good cozy mystery. Not fast paced, but enjoyable.

Good story, narration needs a little work

I am really enjoying this series. Good story complex enough to keep you guessing and characters that you can relate to. Interesting facts on vineyards and wine development. Being from this area in Va I really enjoy the accurate geographical setting and the historical research and facts presented in the story.The one criticism I have is with the narrator. The southern accent is way too strong, not typical of this area . Also some names are mispronounced. Mosby is with a long o sound and the ou sound in Loudon is pronounced as the ou in shout. That may seem like a small matter but when you have grown up in that area it stands out. Mosby for example was used over and over again so it starts to be a little annoying. All in all I still look forward to more in this series.

So who really did it!

A murder in Virginia ins and outs and ups and downs wine tasting travel parties Gatherings but the trust is broken because someone is a liar.

New narrator

I like the continuing of the family and the Vineyard. But along with the change in narration, which was not an improvement, the main character seem to get more mousey.

Amusing

The reader of this book made Lucie seem stilted and stiff, but she carried the story forward. I'm enjoying a light diversion from heavier thrillers and mysteries. I'm finding this series to be a good summer read.

Love this series

I love these books but as a resident of Middleburg Va it drives me crazy that the narrator can not pronounce names correctly. Aldie, Mosby, Loudoun etc are not complicated names and the lack of attention to those details really take away from the stories...

Book is great.. narrator's performance is rough!

The first book has a different narrator and she's fantastic. This narrator cant get her accent straight..and the main characters accent and tone blends with other characters. I cant tell who is saying what until she reads.. "so and so said". I LOVE this series but I noticed this narrator is also on the remaining books in the series. I hope I get used to it but wow.. I appreciate her skills but this one is bad.

The books are excellent!

wishing there was more

I routinely listen to the lighter, "cozy Mysteries" as I putter in my garden, clean my house, cook and run my kids around. I love real true crime also but find it harder to follow if I can't fully concentrate on the story. With this being said, I really tried to like this story more because my husband and I go to Napa
once a year to gather our wine!! This story was just okay-- It didn't really ever pull me into the storyline. The characters weren't very strong and the plot, while interesting, just was missing something- - it wasn't meaty enough. I found my mind wandered and I would have to re-listen to it-- not a good sign. Other than lightly touching on vineyards and winemaking, the location could have been anywhere. I feel bad about saying this as I don't want to disrespect the author- I was just never hooked.. and I waited to get hooked- that's why I hung in there almost until the bitter end. I listened to about 4/5ths of it and just didn't really care how it would end so I stopped.

Annoying female narration - fake southern drawl isn’t appealing.

Narration is off-putting. The fake southern drawl is so bad. If the setting was Georgia, the accent may be slightly less gritting. I loathed hitting “play” because of the narration, and it impacted my ability to enjoy the story in general.
The plot is ok but over the top. Tire burning, the notes of “surprise” frosts in VA, etc….it was just not believable.
Maybe I’m jaded because the narration is SO annoying. I’m from NC and live in VA and this is just bad.