Judy Nedry presents Blackthorn

Portland author Judy Nedry returns to Annie Bloom's for Blackthorn.

A crumbling old resort. A dead brother. A phantom boat in the mist. Nightmares. And then, a body.

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. Sage left the Pacific Northwest ten years ago and has worked her way into a cushy travel editor’s job at one of the big five women’s magazines based in New York City. Recently, however, her life has taken an ugly turn. Her leave of absence from the magazine has as much to do with her own disastrous lifestyle as it does her dead brother.

Once at Blackthorn, the family’s decrepit resort, Sage is confronted with a flood of problems. Her grandmother, who raised her and her brother Ross, is in steep decline; the hotel is closed, and the baths don’t bring in enough to keep the lights on; and she soon realizes that her brother’s death was no accident. Sinister activities in the boathouse disturb her sleep and raise suspicions, even as she must admit she is an unreliable witness. What is going on, and who can she trust?