THE FRENCH PARADOX

Imagined revelations about Jacqueline Kennedy’s early life provide a brilliant background for a tale of treachery and deceit.

What could be more shocking than vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery’s discovery of her grandmother’s diaries describing her grandfather Luc’s 1949 Parisian affair with Jackie Bouvier? Only the realization that they may provide a motive for murder. Garden designer Parker Lord, an old family friend who’s been getting nasty feedback on his recently published apocalyptic view of climate change, has found time to cross popular gardening center owner Gabriel Seely by accusing him of fudging a postdoc research paper. Parker offers to look at some of Lucie’s sickly grapevines, but the visit backfires, and she finds him dead among the vines. Meantime, Lucie’s grandfather arrives from France for the 90th birthday party of Jackie’s school friend Cricket Delacroix, whose daughter, Harry, has a contract to complete a book based on papers Jackie left Cricket that detail the lives of underrated women artists. Harry plans to use entries from Jackie’s diary mentioning her romance with Luc to juice her book sales. And Lucie’s wild-child sister, Mia, suddenly returned from New York with a strikingly handsome boyfriend, is hired to paint a mural for the party. Since Parker was killed near Mia’s cottage, she’s one of several people Lucie must consider a possible killer.

The lifestyles of the rich and famous dovetail neatly with art history in Crosby’s newest character-driven mystery.