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The Illuminated Vineyard
In Oregon's wine country, Rachel Jarvis, a recent widow, notices a young stranger walking hurriedly from a neighbor's vineyard. On an impulse that will change her life forever, Rachel hires the young man, Michael, as a temporary handyman even though there has been a recent arson fire that is unresolved in her small rural town. Soon there is another,more serious crime to solve when a local petty criminal is brutally murdered in her neighbor's vineyard.
Despite the police interest in Michael as a possible suspect in the murder, Rachel becomes fond of him, partly because he may be a link to her past, a past of violence and heartbreak.
Past and present continue to intertwine as her son, Brett, falls in love with Michael's traveling companion, Cara. Soon the girlfriend of the petty criminal disappears--and then another body is found.
Rachel finds herself in a battle not only to come to terms with her past but also to save her son from himself--with unexpected and devastating results.
Despite the police interest in Michael as a possible suspect in the murder, Rachel becomes fond of him, partly because he may be a link to her past, a past of violence and heartbreak.
Past and present continue to intertwine as her son, Brett, falls in love with Michael's traveling companion, Cara. Soon the girlfriend of the petty criminal disappears--and then another body is found.
Rachel finds herself in a battle not only to come to terms with her past but also to save her son from himself--with unexpected and devastating results.
- GenresMystery
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 19, 2011
1 person is currently reading
387 people want to read
About the author
Jean Moynahan
4 books7 followers11 June 2014:
The giveaway for THE BLACK FOUNTAIN GODDESS is now completed. Many thanks to the 1,042 people who entered--and congratulations to the four winners! Your signed ARC will be in the mail tomorrow.
Thanks again to everyone:)
Jean
My second mystery will be published in trade paperback 15 July 2014:
THE BLACK FOUNTAIN GODDESS, TWILIGHT TIMES BOOKS, http://www.twilighttimesbooks.com.
{The e-book is now available on Amazon/Kindle and at BN/Nook.}
I have been a writing and literature instructor (adjunct) at a community college in Salem, OR, for about 20 years. I started out life as a poet but never seriously pursued being published. Then about a dozen years ago I decided to try my hand at writing a romance: CAPTAIN OF HEARTS based on my two years in the Army Signal Corps in Germany. To my surprise, it was accepted by the first publisher I contacted. My next romance, PAINTED HEART, was rejected by that publisher--and accepted by another! Such is life. . .
I then turned to my real love, mysteries! THE ILLUMINATED VINEYARD allowed me to combine my love of stories that show people in difficult personal situations (aside from the difficulties that an unexpected dead body always presents, of course)with a few allusions to literature (the "illuminated" of the title is a reference to the French poet, Rimbaud, and his prose poems). I recently finished my second mystery, this time set in a small college town in Oregon but with flashbacks to ancient times. Let's just say that another one of my long-time interests, archaeology, comes into play!
I hope to start another book soon, in between rounds of grading essays, exams, quizzes, etc.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 9, 2011
This was my 1st book by this author so I was not really sure what to expect. As a matter of fact, I nearly put it down for good as the 1st chapter is quite 'flowery' in grammar. But I felt compelled to keep going and I can honestly say, "I sure am glad I did!"
This story of a 'bright side of 50ish' year old widowed woman who meets a young man that mysteriously fits into her, slowly revealed, past is captivating. Each chapter was like peeling one more layer, with each layer more intriguing than the last and all of it intertwining until it's climactic ending. At least, you think it's ended. This book enthralls with an ending that catches you quite by surprise.
A great read that I highly recommend.
This story of a 'bright side of 50ish' year old widowed woman who meets a young man that mysteriously fits into her, slowly revealed, past is captivating. Each chapter was like peeling one more layer, with each layer more intriguing than the last and all of it intertwining until it's climactic ending. At least, you think it's ended. This book enthralls with an ending that catches you quite by surprise.
A great read that I highly recommend.
February 15, 2011
I won my copy of The Illuminated Vineyard on Goodreads.
In The Illuminated Vineyard, Jean Moynahan takes you to Oregon’s wine vineyards and that is where you will find Rachel Jarvis. Rachel is a recent widow and needs a handyman to do some work on her property and she hires Michael to do the work. Michael and his friend Cara move in and start to work. It works out well for Rachel; she gets work done and has someone to talk to.
There is a murder in the vineyard next door which is enough to cause anyone alarm, but Rachel’s son Brett puts up a fuss about Michael, saying that Rachel knows nothing about him, making him look like a suspect in the murder.
To make things worse, Rachel’s neighbor is just plain unfriendly. Rob shoots cannon sounds into the air all day long to scare off the birds, but Rachel finds it nerve-wracking. Rob also has made it a point to tell Rachel to tell Michel to stay off his property.
Despite everything that is happening, and despite Brett’s insistence that she gets rid of Michael, Rachel lets them stay on as her workers. Brett is jealous of Michael and even suggests that he might be the murderer.
With the police investigation going on and asking questions of Rachael, Michael, and even Cara, Rachel is even more determined than ever to keep Michael working for her. She is pretty sure he did not do the murder.
I enjoyed this book. I don’t usually read murder mysteries because I can’t follow the train of thought where the police figure something out and you are supposed to just understand or something. It was not that way with this book, each clue was there to be seen, the police chief’s explanation at the end was very satisfactory, and I could follow the story with no problem.
The surprise ending really caught me off guard. :)
Also I thought the background information she gives with the history of her and other characters was excellent. You could see how the history played out in the outcome of the story.
I had problems with the book in five areas. First, I don’t have a great vocabulary and there were a lot of words (words that I don’t use) that were in this book, examples would be “betoken” and “pendulous dark clouds”. I did not know what pendulous meant and did not bother to look it up. This might make me sound uneducated but that is the way I see it.
My second area that I had problems with was the prologue. I read that thing 3 times and finally gave up. I did not have a clue what it was talking about and that could be because I do not live near vineyards.
My third area was the first paragraph of Chapter 5. Very descriptive but way more descriptive than the rest of the book, and again “betoken” and “pendulous dark clouds” just did not fit.
Fourth, the poetry at the beginning of each chapter did not seem to have anything to do with the chapter. And most of the time it did not make sense. I finally just stopped reading the poetry.
And fifth, the constant references to a picture of Rimbaud made me think that this was an important part of the story that would play out in the end.
The book would have been just as good without these five things.
In The Illuminated Vineyard, Jean Moynahan takes you to Oregon’s wine vineyards and that is where you will find Rachel Jarvis. Rachel is a recent widow and needs a handyman to do some work on her property and she hires Michael to do the work. Michael and his friend Cara move in and start to work. It works out well for Rachel; she gets work done and has someone to talk to.
There is a murder in the vineyard next door which is enough to cause anyone alarm, but Rachel’s son Brett puts up a fuss about Michael, saying that Rachel knows nothing about him, making him look like a suspect in the murder.
To make things worse, Rachel’s neighbor is just plain unfriendly. Rob shoots cannon sounds into the air all day long to scare off the birds, but Rachel finds it nerve-wracking. Rob also has made it a point to tell Rachel to tell Michel to stay off his property.
Despite everything that is happening, and despite Brett’s insistence that she gets rid of Michael, Rachel lets them stay on as her workers. Brett is jealous of Michael and even suggests that he might be the murderer.
With the police investigation going on and asking questions of Rachael, Michael, and even Cara, Rachel is even more determined than ever to keep Michael working for her. She is pretty sure he did not do the murder.
I enjoyed this book. I don’t usually read murder mysteries because I can’t follow the train of thought where the police figure something out and you are supposed to just understand or something. It was not that way with this book, each clue was there to be seen, the police chief’s explanation at the end was very satisfactory, and I could follow the story with no problem.
The surprise ending really caught me off guard. :)
Also I thought the background information she gives with the history of her and other characters was excellent. You could see how the history played out in the outcome of the story.
I had problems with the book in five areas. First, I don’t have a great vocabulary and there were a lot of words (words that I don’t use) that were in this book, examples would be “betoken” and “pendulous dark clouds”. I did not know what pendulous meant and did not bother to look it up. This might make me sound uneducated but that is the way I see it.
My second area that I had problems with was the prologue. I read that thing 3 times and finally gave up. I did not have a clue what it was talking about and that could be because I do not live near vineyards.
My third area was the first paragraph of Chapter 5. Very descriptive but way more descriptive than the rest of the book, and again “betoken” and “pendulous dark clouds” just did not fit.
Fourth, the poetry at the beginning of each chapter did not seem to have anything to do with the chapter. And most of the time it did not make sense. I finally just stopped reading the poetry.
And fifth, the constant references to a picture of Rimbaud made me think that this was an important part of the story that would play out in the end.
The book would have been just as good without these five things.
February 8, 2014
I have had this book for a while waiting on a slow, relaxing read. That is not what I got! I was very pleasantly surprised once I got a little ways into the book and the first dead body was discovered.
The story starts out pretty slow with widow & empty nester Rachel taking it day by day and her irritating neighbor is introduced. (What a history ends up coming from just that angle). Michael and Cora are hired on and things turn a little suspenseful when there are new people in town (working for Rachel)
and then a dead body is found.
It becomes obvious pretty soon that Rachel's lifelong acquaintance / neighbor is a not so great guy, but is he related to the murder? Just when things slow down a little, Rachel's son begins to fall for Cora. Michael says they are just friends, but then things really get speeding along !
Rachel thinks back to younger days and her college love, another night that was horrible, and many events that begin to have a lot to the mysteries going on in her current life.
This book had 2 beautiful love stories among a mystery and some murder to boot! I really enjoyed the book even more once I realized it is much more than a love story. It has such beautiful writing that it becomes immediately obvious that a literary mind is behind the beautiful, heart touching love scenes.
The story starts out pretty slow with widow & empty nester Rachel taking it day by day and her irritating neighbor is introduced. (What a history ends up coming from just that angle). Michael and Cora are hired on and things turn a little suspenseful when there are new people in town (working for Rachel)
and then a dead body is found.
It becomes obvious pretty soon that Rachel's lifelong acquaintance / neighbor is a not so great guy, but is he related to the murder? Just when things slow down a little, Rachel's son begins to fall for Cora. Michael says they are just friends, but then things really get speeding along !
Rachel thinks back to younger days and her college love, another night that was horrible, and many events that begin to have a lot to the mysteries going on in her current life.
This book had 2 beautiful love stories among a mystery and some murder to boot! I really enjoyed the book even more once I realized it is much more than a love story. It has such beautiful writing that it becomes immediately obvious that a literary mind is behind the beautiful, heart touching love scenes.
March 30, 2011
finished the book comes to my family from Goodreads First reads
"well I have to say I am very interested in the book Jean Moynahan has a great way of writing her characters seem to come alive as you read it. I started a little slow but as you read more it come together fast poor Rachel has some very interesting turns in her life"
well after reading the book I found was very good the whole thing was done great I love the mystery that kept turning and making you really think for a while I thought I had figured it out but the end really messed with that thought as I was totally wrong on the whom done it
great job
"well I have to say I am very interested in the book Jean Moynahan has a great way of writing her characters seem to come alive as you read it. I started a little slow but as you read more it come together fast poor Rachel has some very interesting turns in her life"
well after reading the book I found was very good the whole thing was done great I love the mystery that kept turning and making you really think for a while I thought I had figured it out but the end really messed with that thought as I was totally wrong on the whom done it
great job
February 21, 2011
I won a copy of The Illuminated Vineyard from First Reads here on Goodreads. Murder, mystery and a little romance. A gripping good story, hard to put down. Glad I got the chance to read this book.
Thanks Jean.
Thanks Jean.
April 21, 2011
this book was amazing. I could not wait to see what happened. the end was really surprising.I love how the author was able to bring the past into the present with out losing you. received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
July 14, 2011
I loved the book! Couldn't figure out who did it. Bittersweet in chapter 14. However, I must say that the number of errors in the text was abnormal. Ms. Moynahan needs to hire a better proofreader.
February 25, 2011
I won this book on Goodreads!
It was a great mystery....with a really good surprise ending!
I would really recommend this to any avid reader!
Thanks for the Good Read Jean!
:D
It was a great mystery....with a really good surprise ending!
I would really recommend this to any avid reader!
Thanks for the Good Read Jean!
:D
interesting-possibilities
February 4, 2011Eyecatching cover, interesting title, intriguing description, mystery
May 28, 2011
Wonderful mystery with interesting characters.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews