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Judy Nedry
Author, Blogger, Theatre Critic
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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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
Theater Reviews
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The power of the hat
When Brooklyn teen Yolanda (Kelli Bee) and her family suffer an unspeakable tragedy, she is shipped off to South Carolina to stay with her grandmother, Mother Shaw (Marilyn Keller), a strong, no-nonsense woman with a sense of history and a heart of gold. Yolanda is far from pleased with the arrangement, but in Regina Taylor‘s Crowns, […]
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Wolf seeks pack….
Wolf Play begins with a most unsuitable premise. Peter (Chris Harder) and his wife have decided they no longer want their adopted son Wolf (Christopher Larkin). The kid is called Peter, by the way. Peter Junior. He calls himself Jeenu. Wolf is advertised on Facebook by his adoptive parents, in order to be re-homed. And […]
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A dark and stormy farce!
It is a dark and stormy night when Tristram (Spencer Conway) arrives at a rickety three-story home called The Pines in the British countryside to assist his firm’s client, Roland (Jeremy Southard), in the purchase of the property Roland currently rents from his dodgy neighbor Leslie (Eric Nepom). Roland has succeeded beyond expectation in the […]
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Our souls at night
Portlanders know exactly where they are when they first see Megan Wilkerson’s set for Tiny Beautiful Things at Portland Center Stage. It’s a big old Craftsman bungalow in Northeast Portland–the kind of place that invites you in and wraps its arms around you. The kitchen is updated, and the place shows signs of small children. Sugar/Cheryl […]
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Nora isn’t dead-A Doll’s House, Part 2
Nora Helmer is dead. Long live Nora Helmer. In Lucas Hnath‘s A Doll’s House, Part 2 now playing at Artists Repertory Theatre, Nora Helmer (Linda Alper) most assuredly is not dead. After she walked out at the end of Henrik Ibsen‘s groundbreaking play of 1879, leaving her marriage to Torvald, many people presumed her dead. The spurned husband […]
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Four Last Things – a delicate, powerful story
Jane (Alexandria Casteele) is a beautiful young woman with nut-brown hair and the rosy cheeks of an Irish farm girl. She radiates goodness. She is home from college, but not just for the weekend. This time she is not going back. In Lisa Tierney-Keogh‘s contemporary Irish play Four Last Things, Jane has fled Dublin in desperation. […]
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Buyer & Cellar is full of laughs and titillating gossip!
It’s tough to be an underemployed gay actor in Los Angeles. One day you’re the mayor of Disneyland’s Toon Town, the next you’re hiding your junkheap of a car behind the hedge at some rich person’s estate in Malibu, hoping to glean a job as the retail presence in an underground shopping mall. It’s all […]
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Nunsense–a rollicking good time!
Thanks to Julia, Child of God, chef at the Little Sisters of Hoboken Convent, 52 holy sisters have expired. There was a small problem with the vichyssoise, and the resulting 48 funerals have cleaned out the convent’s coffers. Thus, four deceased sisters are stored in the convent deep freeze until they can be laid to […]
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No Candy world premiere at Portland Playhouse
Three things: Between July 11 and 22 1995, during the Bosnian War, the Bosnian Serb Army and the Scorpion paramilitary group under command of Ratko Mladic mass-murdered 8,373 Bosniak men and boys in an ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims in the city of Srebrenica. Following the murders, the women of Srebrenica were raped and tortured. […]
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The Marriage Plot revisited
Last summer, Clackamas Repertory Theatre mounted a fabulous production of Kate Hamill’s Sense & Sensibility, adapted from the Jane Austen novel of the same name. Portland Center Stage brings Bedlam Theatre Company’s version of the same play to the Armory Mainstage. The basic plot remains the same as the book. Poor Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving […]
A Writer’s Life
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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 […]
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November 2018 Newsletter
The state of the state Once again, it is past mid-month and I find myself wondering how on earth this happened. The month began with several days spent in the bowels of the Multnomah County Elections Office doing the very necessary and unglamorous business of preparing ballots to be run through counting machines. Democracy isn’t […]
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October 2018 Newsletter
The state of the state Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. –George Eliot I just spent a week with one of my favorite girls–Ginger, the strawberry blond Aussie Cattle Dog. “Now that’s a proper cattle […]
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September 2018 Newsletter
The State of the State Yesterday was spent on the sorting line of RR Winery. Pinot Noir grapes came in from our original vineyard on Ribbon Ridge–beautiful, plump clusters, sweeter than table grapes, fresh and bright tasting, in compact, tight clusters. For all the years I was involved with helping to start a vineyard and […]
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August 2018 Newsletter
The State of the State Our 4-day trip to Mitchell covered a lot of ground even though temperatures got over 100 degrees. First full day included a trip to the Painted Hills. Then Patrick and Janet showed us pictographs left by local tribes 200-300 years ago, plus a swim in the John Day River at […]
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July 2018 Newsletter
The State of the State Damn, it’s hot. I’m not complaining. I love summer, particularly those long luscious days when sunset doesn’t come until after 9 p.m. Summer is about heat. My lovely daughter and I plan to enjoy it. We have a pool date set for Tuesday that may involve lunch and some Salt […]
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June Newsletter
The State of the State In western Oregon, summer has arrived with a couple of very warm days followed by some very East Coast thunderstorms. Rest and repeat. Today is the longest day of the year, so happy Solstice everyone! I’ve made Chicken Paprikash twice since we returned from our Grand Tour of the Danube. […]
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May 2018 Newsletter
The State of the State Having enjoyed two weeks in a different world, it has taken a bit of time to get back on my feet. As I wrote my April newsletter, I was headed to Europe and I anticipated I know not what. There would be the river cruise down the Danube, plus time […]
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April Newsletter
The State of the State Unless I break something between now and Tuesday morning, the die is cast. Long-awaited trip to Parts Unknown–for me at least. Wynne and I are flying out of Portland, taking a nonstop to Amsterdam, from there to Prague. I have never been there, but my late son Ian loved the […]