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The Man Who Wasn't There: An Emma Golden Mystery
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.
His only problem is those pesky developers from Nevada who want to put a destination resort/spa right up the hill from his vineyard. Ryder won’t have it, as he is quick to tell Max Weatherman, a representative of the developers, during the Salmon Bake at the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville.
It’s a blistering hot night. Tempers flare, fisticuffs ensue, and a short while later, Ryder is found dead, stabbed in a porta-potty at the very festival he helped found. Enter the not-so-intrepid Emma Golden, a friend and admirer of Ryder. She wants to find out who killed him. But nobody can find the man who might be able to answer her questions. Max Weatherman has vanished, and a lot of people are looking for him.
His only problem is those pesky developers from Nevada who want to put a destination resort/spa right up the hill from his vineyard. Ryder won’t have it, as he is quick to tell Max Weatherman, a representative of the developers, during the Salmon Bake at the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville.
It’s a blistering hot night. Tempers flare, fisticuffs ensue, and a short while later, Ryder is found dead, stabbed in a porta-potty at the very festival he helped found. Enter the not-so-intrepid Emma Golden, a friend and admirer of Ryder. She wants to find out who killed him. But nobody can find the man who might be able to answer her questions. Max Weatherman has vanished, and a lot of people are looking for him.
282 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2015
1 person is currently reading
283 people want to read
About the author
Judy Nedry
13 books24 followers Judy Nedry is a journalist cum mystery novelist who wrote about Pacific Northwest wines and wineries for national and international magazines before turning her attention to her first love, mysteries. She parlays her experience of the wine industry and of small rural communities, into the Emma Golden Mystery Series which debuted in 2009. "An Unholy Alliance" is set in the vineyard-covered hills southwest of Portland, Oregon. The second in the series, "The Difficult Sister," is set on the remote southern Oregon coast. It was followed by book 3 in the series, "The Man Who Wasn't There," in 2015.
Her most recent novel is a stand-alone gothic thriller strongly influenced by Daphne DuMaurier's "Jamaica Inn" and by Stephen King's "The Shining". "Blackthorn" is set in an old wreck of a resort on the Columbia River Gorge in western Washington. It was released in April 2019. Like all Nedry's novel, it features a strong female protagonist in a compelling regional setting.
The author resides in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
From the author: Subscribe to my newsletter and find out more at www.judynedry.com
Her most recent novel is a stand-alone gothic thriller strongly influenced by Daphne DuMaurier's "Jamaica Inn" and by Stephen King's "The Shining". "Blackthorn" is set in an old wreck of a resort on the Columbia River Gorge in western Washington. It was released in April 2019. Like all Nedry's novel, it features a strong female protagonist in a compelling regional setting.
The author resides in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
From the author: Subscribe to my newsletter and find out more at www.judynedry.com
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 21, 2015
The Man Who Wasn’t There
Judy Nedry
pp175
Publisher: Book Baby
ASIN B01431RK3E
I was given a free copy of this book through Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review.
Crime pays. When it comes to story telling, book building, new narration, nothing excels like a good murder mystery. We grow especially fond when
we see the victim as someone who has it all, then falls, preferably against a sharp object.
Judy Nedry’s book The Man Who Wasn’t There falls into this genre and offers just such a victim. More, Nedry centers the action in wine country, the Pacific Northwest of the USA, an area she knows well having written two non-fiction works called Oregon Wine Country and Washington Wine Country.
This book is the second of a series involving Emma Golden, a more mature vintage protagonist, who sashays throughout the story, referencing her pre AA meetings days and nights of hard liquor and trying to avoid getting drunk while attending a Wine Festival.
The writing has definitely some appeal. I found some sentences, such as “My miserable wardrobe yielded a variety of the usual disappointments.” Does this say more about me than the text? hmmmm
I also like a bit of tough in female protagonists. I like a bit of slang and a touch of heavier language which may be why I so enjoyed this: “Maybe this is how pole vaulters feel. You start on terra firma, fly through the air and end up in Camp WTF.”
I’m also fond of female protagonists who do something.
On this last the book’s heroine Emma Golden has at least one excellent scene. Yes, she’s surprised by her attacker, but without a weapon she gives as well as she gets resulting in her attacker getting the worse of it, “I noticed a small trickle of blood from his left nostril and my bite had broken the skin on his arm. He glared at me. “You better get that looked at,” I said, nodding to his wounded arm. ‘I haven’t had my shots.”
All that physical fight and a great sense of humor.
Where the book falls down is in too much delicious food. True one struggles to consider how too much delicious food might ever be a problem, but the repeated details about prepping, serving, and cleaning up from food get in the way of the reading experience. The book may have been served better with several more references wine. In spite of the author’s impressive knowledge, I come away from the present read little better in wine wisdom than before.
The writing needs a strong editorial hand, especially when it comes to dialogue and telling the reader how to feel.
On the whole a three and a half star book, one I read quickly, but not one which encourages me toward this author’s other fiction work.
Judy Nedry
pp175
Publisher: Book Baby
ASIN B01431RK3E
I was given a free copy of this book through Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review.
Crime pays. When it comes to story telling, book building, new narration, nothing excels like a good murder mystery. We grow especially fond when
we see the victim as someone who has it all, then falls, preferably against a sharp object.
Judy Nedry’s book The Man Who Wasn’t There falls into this genre and offers just such a victim. More, Nedry centers the action in wine country, the Pacific Northwest of the USA, an area she knows well having written two non-fiction works called Oregon Wine Country and Washington Wine Country.
This book is the second of a series involving Emma Golden, a more mature vintage protagonist, who sashays throughout the story, referencing her pre AA meetings days and nights of hard liquor and trying to avoid getting drunk while attending a Wine Festival.
The writing has definitely some appeal. I found some sentences, such as “My miserable wardrobe yielded a variety of the usual disappointments.” Does this say more about me than the text? hmmmm
I also like a bit of tough in female protagonists. I like a bit of slang and a touch of heavier language which may be why I so enjoyed this: “Maybe this is how pole vaulters feel. You start on terra firma, fly through the air and end up in Camp WTF.”
I’m also fond of female protagonists who do something.
On this last the book’s heroine Emma Golden has at least one excellent scene. Yes, she’s surprised by her attacker, but without a weapon she gives as well as she gets resulting in her attacker getting the worse of it, “I noticed a small trickle of blood from his left nostril and my bite had broken the skin on his arm. He glared at me. “You better get that looked at,” I said, nodding to his wounded arm. ‘I haven’t had my shots.”
All that physical fight and a great sense of humor.
Where the book falls down is in too much delicious food. True one struggles to consider how too much delicious food might ever be a problem, but the repeated details about prepping, serving, and cleaning up from food get in the way of the reading experience. The book may have been served better with several more references wine. In spite of the author’s impressive knowledge, I come away from the present read little better in wine wisdom than before.
The writing needs a strong editorial hand, especially when it comes to dialogue and telling the reader how to feel.
On the whole a three and a half star book, one I read quickly, but not one which encourages me toward this author’s other fiction work.
October 16, 2015
I won a paperback copy of “The Man Who Wasn’t There” by Judy Nedry, on Goodreads.com and am posting an honest review. I gave it a rating of 3 stars.
Emma Golden returns to the Oregon wine country to attend a wine festival. She left the scene 8 years ago when she faced up to her alcoholism, leaving her dream job as a food and wine critic. An old friend and respected founder of a prestigious winery and the wine festival, James Ryder, literally falls in her arms, dead from a knife buried in his chest. A few minutes earlier he had been involved in a scuffle with Max Weatherman, who was ramrodding a proposed resort/spa adjacent to Ryder’s winery. When detectives investigate the murder, they find that Max has disappeared.
Two of Ryder’s daughters are eager to sell the winery, but his widow, suffering from cancer, refuses to sell. A third daughter, running the winery, is a strange, reclusive woman. None of the 3 daughters are willing to help care for their ailing mother. Emma reluctantly agrees to become her caregiver until better arrangements can be made. Several dangerous encounters with thugs ensue as Emma is drawn into the murder case.
The book is chock full of tidbits on the wine industry, indeed, a lot more than I wished to know. The characters were constantly downing one fancy dish and upending bottle after bottle of wine. More than a few should have been alcoholic and overweight. For me, this just distracted from the ongoing mystery tale.
The author cites 13 ‘readers’ in her Acknowledgements pages who helped proofread the book, catching typos, etc. Despite their efforts, I noted over 20 errors in the text which would have been caught by a competent proofreader.
Emma Golden returns to the Oregon wine country to attend a wine festival. She left the scene 8 years ago when she faced up to her alcoholism, leaving her dream job as a food and wine critic. An old friend and respected founder of a prestigious winery and the wine festival, James Ryder, literally falls in her arms, dead from a knife buried in his chest. A few minutes earlier he had been involved in a scuffle with Max Weatherman, who was ramrodding a proposed resort/spa adjacent to Ryder’s winery. When detectives investigate the murder, they find that Max has disappeared.
Two of Ryder’s daughters are eager to sell the winery, but his widow, suffering from cancer, refuses to sell. A third daughter, running the winery, is a strange, reclusive woman. None of the 3 daughters are willing to help care for their ailing mother. Emma reluctantly agrees to become her caregiver until better arrangements can be made. Several dangerous encounters with thugs ensue as Emma is drawn into the murder case.
The book is chock full of tidbits on the wine industry, indeed, a lot more than I wished to know. The characters were constantly downing one fancy dish and upending bottle after bottle of wine. More than a few should have been alcoholic and overweight. For me, this just distracted from the ongoing mystery tale.
The author cites 13 ‘readers’ in her Acknowledgements pages who helped proofread the book, catching typos, etc. Despite their efforts, I noted over 20 errors in the text which would have been caught by a competent proofreader.
September 17, 2015
I love reading mysteries both to challenge myself to figure out the solution and to learn about something new. This novel, the third in the Emma Golden Mystery series, taught me a lot about wine and particularly how much work is involved in growing wine grapes. I also enjoyed the setting in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. I know next to nothing about wine and wasn't even aware that it was produced in Oregon so I enjoyed that part of the story the most. The mystery was good too. However, my favorite part was the main character, Emma Golden. She is a middle aged divorcee who acts like a real person would act. She is put out be a friend volunteering her to help a sick acquaintance but she is busy body 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.
I received this book from StoryCartel in exchange for my honest review.
I received this book from StoryCartel in exchange for my honest review.
October 10, 2015
Wine country, Oregon, vistas replete with vineyards and murder and so our story begins. Oh, the murder doesn’t take place immediately but I took a bit of license because I liked my opening sentence.
Emma Golden is our protagonist and our reminder that you don’t need to be male or young or live in an exotic location to be a sort of amateur detective. Emma is trying to figure her life out after her divorce from her winegrowing husband but it’s hard to remove yourself from the friends and familiar places in which you’ve spent so much of your life. So, on a visit to see friends at the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville she finds herself deep in the mystery of who murdered one of her friends, in fact, she’s the one who discovers the body.
The ending seemed to be a bit rushed but there was some nicely done misdirection, colorful characters and a story which has you convinced you know who the killer is, maybe.
This book was won in a First Reads giveaway.
Emma Golden is our protagonist and our reminder that you don’t need to be male or young or live in an exotic location to be a sort of amateur detective. Emma is trying to figure her life out after her divorce from her winegrowing husband but it’s hard to remove yourself from the friends and familiar places in which you’ve spent so much of your life. So, on a visit to see friends at the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville she finds herself deep in the mystery of who murdered one of her friends, in fact, she’s the one who discovers the body.
The ending seemed to be a bit rushed but there was some nicely done misdirection, colorful characters and a story which has you convinced you know who the killer is, maybe.
This book was won in a First Reads giveaway.
March 10, 2016
Set in the Oregon wine country, the story begins on a hot evening at a wine celebration as Emma Golden, a recovering alcoholic, reminisces with old friends. As she leaves the celebration, she stops at the porta-potties and a body falls out on top of her. Since Emma knew James Ryder and had just seen him involved in an altercation, she is curious about his killer. Temporarily agreeing to take care of the widow Lila, Emma tangles with thugs and someone takes a shot at her. She's not equipped to handle these problems but she can't quite leave Lila to deal with a terrible situation on her own.
The author kept me engaged in this story. I sympathized with Lila in her battle with cancer and her attempts to deal with 3 daughters who didn't care enough to help her when she needed them. I also liked reading about the food and wine the characters imbibed in this book.
I received this book for free in a giveaway. My opinions are my own and not influenced by anyone.
The author kept me engaged in this story. I sympathized with Lila in her battle with cancer and her attempts to deal with 3 daughters who didn't care enough to help her when she needed them. I also liked reading about the food and wine the characters imbibed in this book.
I received this book for free in a giveaway. My opinions are my own and not influenced by anyone.
September 7, 2015
A good mystery. Emma Golden unwitting gets involved in solving a mystery when her friend James is killed at a Salmon Bake. She has the misfortune of finding the body. James, the owner of a winery just had a heated argument with Max Weatherman who wants to buy his vineyard and open a spa. Two of James' daughters are very anxious to get him to sell and the other daughter works at the vineyard. James doesn't have many enemies so it looks like the case should be pretty simple, or is it?
* I received a free copy of this book through Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review.+
* I received a free copy of this book through Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review.+
September 25, 2015
Emma Golden matures and becomes a more interesting in each of her adventures. This latest book takes her back to her beloved wine country about which she nevertheless has mixed feelings. Her ambivalence adds to the tension in the narrative.
As in her previous two Emma Golden novels, Judy makes good use of a sense of place to enhance the story. Her descriptions of the food and wine are delightful.
I would like to know a bit more about the motivation of some of the characters. Nevertheless this is an intriguing and absorbing mystery.
As in her previous two Emma Golden novels, Judy makes good use of a sense of place to enhance the story. Her descriptions of the food and wine are delightful.
I would like to know a bit more about the motivation of some of the characters. Nevertheless this is an intriguing and absorbing mystery.
October 7, 2015
I really wanted to like this book. It has a great setting [Oregon wine country], a interesting premise [pioneer winemaker versus developers] and a lady of a certain age as the not so willing investigator. But it didn't come together for me. The story and the characters weren't well fleshed out. It slowed everything down and made the book a bit dull.
I received a free copy of this book through GoodReads First Reads.
I received a free copy of this book through GoodReads First Reads.
March 20, 2016
Entertaining
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.
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.
August 23, 2015
An e-book "page turner"
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.
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.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews