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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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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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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
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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
Theater Reviews
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Poetry, love, the dog, and Will
It’s a madcap scene in 1593 London! The feckless Hugh Pennyman (Grant Byington) literally has his feet to the fire. Young and penniless, Will Shakespeare (Murri Lazeroff-Babin) is a playwright without a play and is plagued by a bad case of writer’s block. Across town, wealthy merchant’s daughter, Viola de Lesseps (Kelsey Glasser), is about […]
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An American love story
Families can be so full of surprises. Take Uncle Stevie (Tyrone Mitchell Henderson) for example. He loves hip-hop but can’t keep up in his dance class. He gets kicked out of his aerobics class. Yoga? Forget it. But, boy, can he open a can of worms! Brittany K. Allen‘s new play Redwood made its world premiere […]
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The Bard’s leading ladies
Shakespeare aficionados would be hard-pressed to find a better offering of the Bard’s works than Tina Packer‘s Women of Will now playing at Portland Playhouse. “Part masterclass/part performance: Funny, fierce, deep and accessible…” is how the folks at Portland Playhouse describe this incredible series of performances. The work is both scholarly and entertaining, and incorporates the […]
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House of horrors
Max (Samson Syharath) needs to pay the rent, and with no prospects in sight, he starts an Asian ghostbuster business with his brother Visarut (Lidet Viravong). “I’ll do the talking,” he informs Visarut. Felix (Jasper Howard) and Delia (Andrea White) have a ghost that needs busting. It’s an Asian ghost. Felix has never seen it, […]
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A dance with grief
When Anna (Jen Rowe), an unmarried, first grade schoolteacher, is diagnosed with the fictitious Acquired Toilet Disease (ATD), presumably contracted from an elementary school toilet seat, what on earth can be done? Nobody wants to talk about it. It’s fatal, and there is no known cure. Profile Theatre presents Paula Vogel‘s The Baltimore Waltz, an […]
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500 units…and mayhem!
Forty floors. Five hundred apartments. Seven hundred residents, give or take. All the amenities…. Somewhere in the bowels of this fancy, big city high-rise, in an inauspicious laundry room, Jeffrey (Nathan Crosby) ritualistically folds his underwear–a tidy little flag fold with a cute tuck at the end–while Todd (Blake Stone) waits for the dryer. Both […]
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“Three wayward sisters” do The Scottish Play
An outstanding and gritty performance of Macbeth is now onstage at the Ellyn Bye Studio at Portland Center Stage at the Armory. The play is intriguing in that it has been edited down to a 90-minute version of itself by Obie-winning director and choreographer Lee Sunday Evans. Her thrilling, spare adaptation loses nothing in translation. If […]
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Music and the heart
Walking into Broadway Rose Theatre to see Once (book by Edna Walsh), one is transformed to a Dublin street set. A jolly bunch of musicians/actors play fiddles, guitars, and an accordion on stage and in front of it. There’s laughter and joking as audience members roam the stage and talk to the cast. Outdoor tables next to […]
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Witness the Wolfpack!
“I live in a yogurt, my feelings don’t get hurt.” #46, The Wolves Nothing quite tells one about one’s culture like a pack of teenage girls–in this case, a wolfpack of teenage girls. The Wolves, a play by Sarah DeLappe and the name of DeLappe’s fictional indoor soccer team, tells a deep and revealing story about high […]
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Eclipsed – bearing witness to the forgotten
Nellie-Nora (Jamie M. Rea) is the strong one. Cathy (Sasha Belle Neufeld) is a wee bit sick. Mandy (Dainichia Noreault) is a wee bit off. Brigit (Lucy Paschall) is a wee bit angry. Juliet (Wynee Hu) “from the orphanage” is the newbie. These are the women of a convent laundry at St. Paul’s Home for […]
A Writer’s Life
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October 2019 Newsletter
The State of the State September came and went in a flash as Portland-area theatres opened their new seasons and kept me busy attending plays and writing reviews. It brings a rush of pleasure when theatres open their doors each season, with great excitement for new works and seeing some familiar plays as well. September […]
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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 […]