In Blow Up the third Sophie Medina mystery (following Multiple Exposure in 2015 and Ghost Image in 2016) international photojournalist Sophie Medina and her old school friend Father Jack O'Hara are out for a run on Capitol Hill when they find the body of Associate Supreme Court Justice Everett Townsend lying in an alley, barely alive. When Townsend dies in the ER, his death has repercussions for Sophie after her friend, Javi Aguilera, is murdered. This murder and a dark secret with potential of having a devasting impact on the nation’s highest court heighten the sense of urgency as Sophie searches looking for evidence before everything blows up in her face.

Ellen Crosby is the author of 16 books: 3 mysteries featuring photojournalist Sophie Medina, 12 in the Virginia wine country mystery series, and Moscow Nights, a standalone. Her books have been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and the Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award; The Riesling Retribution won the 2009 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best US Wine Literature Book. Previously she worked as a freelance reporter for The Washington Post, Moscow correspondent for ABC Radio News, and as an economist at the US Senate. After living overseas for many years, Crosby, who has an undergraduate degree in political science from Catholic University and a master’s in international affairs from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, now lives in the DC suburbs of northern Virginia with her husband.

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