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Judy Nedry
Author, Blogger, Theatre Critic
AVAILABLE NOW!
blackthorn
With blackthorn staff
I draw the bound
All malice and bane
I thus confound.
— Unknown
My Books
Blackthorn
AND THEN, A BODY
Blackthorn is the first gothic thriller by Judy Nedry. In this modern-day gothic novel set on the scenic Columbia River Gorge, Sage Blackthorn revisits demons from her past and confronts a multitude of new ones when she returns to her childhood home to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.
the man who wasn’t there
BLISTERING HEAT ISN’T GOOD FOR GRAPES … OR PEOPLE
James Ryder has it all. A founding pioneer of the Oregon wine industry, he has the stately good looks of a gentleman farmer, the perfect family, an ample bank account, and the prestige of owning one of Oregon’s oldest and most respected wineries. His youngest daughter has taken up the torch to become the second-generation winemaker at Ryder Estate.
The Difficult Sister
MURDER IN THE MIST
The Difficult Sister is the second mystery/suspense novel from Judy Nedry featuring Emma Golden. This latest adventure takes Emma and her friend, Melody, to a remote, southern Oregon coastal town to search for Melody’s missing, ne’er-do-well younger sister, Aurora. However, they quickly both realize that at the very least, Aurora is in some sort of major trouble and may even be dead.
an unholy alliance
WHAT WINE PAIRS BEST WITH MURDER?
An Unholy Alliance introduces Emma Golden, a self-styled has-been who is invited to write a book on her beloved Oregon wine country, and manage a bed and breakfast for a friend. All seems ideal until Emma encounters her verbally abusive ex-husband, Dwight McCourt, shortly after settling in at the B&B. She discovers that she still harbors unresolved feelings for him.
Book Reviews
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Expecting a pleasant time with old friends and acquaintances, Emma finds herself again dealing with death. From the moment I began this book to the final paragraph, I was unwilling to put it down.
Man Who Wasn't There
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This mystery was great fun to read. I enjoyed visualizing the Oregon wine country. Emma is a very real character and I feel I know her. The dialog is well done and the book moves along at a good clip.
Man Who Wasn't There
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An unlikely murder occurs at the most prestigious annual gathering of the Oregon wine industry. Emma Golden, a woman of a certain age with an uncanny ability to solve such crimes, goes to work in this third book of the eponymous series by Judy Nedry. Nedry, a longtime wine writer, and resident of the Willamette Valley, brings the Oregon wine world to life in vivid detail as the backdrop for Emma's sleuthing. She also tells a suspenseful story.
The Man Who Wasn't There
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Thoroughly enjoyed this book and the prior one, A Difficult Sister. Emma feels like someone I've known and I'll miss her until the next book. The pace of action suits me and kept me reading late into the night. Loved the Oregon setting - I lived there many years and the descriptions triggered lovely memories. Highly recommend.
Man Who Wasn't There
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Stuff, as they say, happens. Bullets fly. People die. Evil happens. There will be mud, "one slow sucking step after another". We are a long way from almond croissants and that gives The Difficult Sister an intriguing, palpable edge.
The Difficult Sister
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Overall – a really interesting book and something a bit different from my usual crime fiction reads. The sideshow with Emma’s involvement in her friend’s troubles helped fleshed the story out and give it more meat on the bones and added to my overall enjoyment. I’m looking forward to Nedry’s second book – The Difficult Sister (I could say that’s something I know all about, but that would be mean, so I won’t……oops, already have)
An Unholy Alliance
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My favorite part was the main character, Emma Golden. She is a middle-aged divorcee who acts as a real person would act. She is put out by a friend volunteering her to help a sick acquaintance but she is busybody enough to try and figure out who killed the acquaintance's husband. This is the first book in the series that I have read but I will look for the others so I can spend more time with Emma.
Man Who Wasn't There
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The Difficult Sister is not the cozy you might expect given that it involves two fifty-something women on a trip to the Oregon Coast. This second mystery by Judy Nedry is darker and edgier than its description suggests.
The Difficult Sister
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The first of what is now a trilogy that follows a recovering alcoholic writer, Emma Golden, who is working on a book about the wine industry in Oregon (where the author was also an early vintner). Nedry's main character is an accidental detective chasing down the murderer of a showy new winery owner, who isn't a nice person. Emma is funny, pushy and not afraid to step on toes. Light and entertaining.
An Unholy Alliance
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The author is clearly talented. The first-person narrative is intriguing all the way through because her character is interesting.
The Difficult Sister
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This third of the EG series didn't disappoint. Again, we are treated to a core group of independent women who are the centerpiece of this latest mystery. It is refreshing to read such a book, especially in these days of vapid "chick lit". The Oregon wine country serves as a compelling setting for this mystery; with an insider's keen sense of history and detail, it comes alive as a fascinating subplot.
Man Who Wasn't There
Theater Reviews
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1984 – ‘It’s not easy to become sane’
Winston Smith (Chris Harder) sits alone in a room rewriting Party history, deleting characters from tomes at the Ministry of Truth as they are disgraced or executed. The year is 1984. Everywhere televisions monitor peoples’ every activity. Oceania is at war, and potential traitors to the Party, to Big Brother, must be dealt with! George […]
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Feathers and pearls – The Rocky Horror Show!
It’s a dark and stormy night when Brad (Colin Stephen Kane) and Janet (Christine Greenhalgh) set out to visit a former professor, Dr. Scott (Brian Burger), and announce their engagement. As things tend to happen on such nights, the young couple become stranded when the front driver’s side tire on Brad’s car gives up the […]
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Queens girl walks a tightrope
“For a Queens girl in the world, 1950 was a very interesting year in which to be born,” notes dramaturg Pancho Savery of Caleen Sinnette Jennings’s 2010 play Queens Girl in the World, now playing at Clackamas Repertory Theatre. This beautiful, semi-autobiographic play focuses on the young Jacqueline Marie Butler (Lauren Steele), a 13 year old […]
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Mala-a meditation for the sandwich generation
Melinda Lopez‘s Mala, now onstage at CoHo Theatre, is a very difficult play for those of us at a certain age to watch. This 80-minute one-act details the life of Mala (Julana Torres,below) as she takes care of her failing 92-year-old mother. “‘Mala’ means ‘bad.’ Not that you have done something bad, but that you […]
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“A living snapshot” of Washington Heights
What constitutes community? Is it the neighborhood you were raised in, or your high school? Is it the corner market where you bought penny candy as a kid, and that vacant lot where you built forts, and the old lady who lived next door? Perhaps it’s your church. Endless possibilities…. In The Heights (book by Quiara […]
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Tales from another era
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II‘s much-loved musical South Pacific opened at Clackamas Repertory Theatre last weekend. Directed by Jayne Stevens and Wesley Robert Hanson, the show brings to life a different era–that of World War II at an American base somewhere in the Solomon Islands. The story is loosely based on James Michener’s 1947 […]
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The persistent fun of Footloose!
Disco, line dancing, country and western, and a whole lotta teenage angst converge on the stage of Broadway Rose Theatre Company‘s New Stage for its second big musical of the season, Footloose. This high energy musical is based on the original 1984 screenplay by Dean Pitchford and adapted for the stage by Pitchford and Walter […]
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Summer theatre breaks
As an abrupt departure from my usual theatre review, I offer up the following inexpensive and free theatrical performances, confident that you will find something to enjoy here! Every July, Portland Center Stage at The Armory bursts at the seams with new play energy. JAW (short for Just Add Water): A Playwrights Festival gathers artists […]
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Matilda: ‘the anarchy of childhood’
Roald Dahl, with his colorful stories and even more colorful language, was known for often outrageous children’s stories. (We were great fans when the children were younger!) For Lakewood Theatre‘s 67th season opener, Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical bursts onto the stage with a cast of 27, mostly children, great music, and an indelible message about GIRL […]
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Robin Hood story comes alive at Clackamas Rep
Ken Ludwig‘s Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood, opened Clackamas Repertory Theatre‘s 14th season at Osterman Theatre on the campus of Clackamas Community College in Oregon City. Much like Clackamas Rep’s 2016 smash hit Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, also by Ken Ludwig, Sherwood is a Monty Python-esque performance filled with quick wit, even quicker costume […]
A Writer’s Life
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Are you ready?
Friday the 13th is your lucky day! This Friday, September 13, I am featuring a Friday Freebie of my recently re-released book, An Unholy Alliance, the first book in the Emma Golden Mystery Series. Here’s how it works: Any time after midnight Thursday night until midnight Friday night you may order your Ebook copy of An Unholy Alliance absolutely […]
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September 2019 Newsletter
The State of the State It’s the day after Labor Day. The pool closed today. Students returned to school. The mornings are cooler. We think about bringing in the sheaves, and warm fires. It’s the end of something. Right? Not for me. Ever since I was a schoolgirl, September has signaled New Year. Each […]
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August 2019 Newsletter
The State of the State July was a month of wonderful summer weather punctuated by a couple thunder and lightning storms and a grand adventure to southeastern Oregon. Steen’s Mountain is about as far into the middle of nowhere as one can get, so I don’t undertake these little jaunts on my own. My sister […]
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July 2019 Newsletter
The State of the State Omar and I met twelve years and three months ago at the Oregon Humane Society. After looking at all the cats in the place, some of them twice, I happened to glance into the cat play area where I spotted a magnificent animal stretched out on one of the platforms, […]
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The sometimes semi-annual book round-up and newsletter
The State of the State A friend of mine who shall remain nameless in the interests of privacy is under the weather and likely to be so for a while. Since she is not able to garden, she asked me to compile a summer reading list to keep her from going insane. It only makes […]
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June 2019 Newsletter
The State of the State We live in scary times. It’s probably relative. The problem is, we know so much more than we did before good old cyberspace rolled in and took over our lives. For myself, I want to know what’s going on so I can decide what to do next. That’s the rationale. […]
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May 2019 Newsletter
The State of the State Friday night I watched the Blazers play the Nuggets in the NBA playoffs. It was a home game, and I was hooked up to a friend’s ESPN, all by myself save for a dog and a bowl of ice cream. What started as just another game ended in an epic […]
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April Newsletter
The State of the State When I worked at Newberg High School some eons ago, I used to wear a “No Whining” button–one of those circles with the line through it. I loved those kids. We’d have poetry readings at my house once a month and I’d make dessert. Poems were read and critiqued and […]
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March Newsletter
The State of the State “February is the cruelest month in western Oregon”, or so says amateur sleuth Emma Golden in The Difficult Sister, the second book in my Emma Golden Mystery Series. I put those words in her head for a reason. By February in these parts, most of us have had it. The […]
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February Newsletter
The State of the State If you are reading this, you are connected to the new judynedry.com website, completely updated and sporting with a fresh new look. A round of applause goes out to my friend and Internet Guru Aaron Yeagle. I met Aaron when I moved back to Portland from wine country in late […]
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Hooray, a cover!
This is way too exciting to wait until my next newsletter. Here it is. Ta-DA! Designed by Aaron Yeagle, this is the cover for Blackthorn, my soon-to-be-released gothic novel! The book is written, but it’s not done yet. It’s not baked. At this stage, consider that it is in a warm room, rising. It will […]
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January 2019 Newsletter
The State of the State I write this on New Year’s Day, looking back on a year that has fizzled and looking forward to a fresh new year filled with plans, anticipation, surprises, and Things That Must Be Dealt With. In my life today, it is always good when Christmas is over. My favorite holiday […]