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Nadia Gordon’s writing is straightforward and direct
Book Review
By Derryll White
Gordon, Nadia (2002). Sharpshooter.
I like to drink wine, with supper or perhaps a glass late at night while reading. As a consequence I am always looking for new reasonably priced reds, but I have to admit that I don’t give much thought to anything except price and taste.
Julianne Balmain developed a career writing as a children’s author, and also in the areas of sex and travel. This is her first venture writing as Nadia Gordon. The first novel in the Sunny McCoskey Napa Valley series took me much deeper into wine culture. I learned a lot about oenology and viniculture, about entomology and the effect of leaf clippers on vineyards, about wine marketing and the war against pesticides.
In the process I grew to appreciate the inherent culture of the Napa Valley, some of its history and the sense of class division and entitlement that has evolved. And as this understanding grows the reader also gets an intimate look into a boutique organic restaurant and how that is managed.
Nadia Gordon takes pains to evolve characters and settings in complex and pleasing ways. Her writing is straightforward and direct. I think every reader will enjoy Sunny McCoskey’s efforts as devoted friend and amateur detective. Also Rivka Chavez’s emergence as a young but loyal and knowledgeable friend is fun to follow.
Sharpshooter is a strong first novel in the mystery/culinary arts field. Anyone who has wandered through the foothills and small towns of the Napa Valley will feel intimately at home. So will those who have spent time in the vineyards of the Okanagan Valley and Ontario.
Those readers who have not ventured into California’s wine country may well be tempted after finishing this bold new work. I will over time seek out her following Sunny McCoskey volumes – Death by the Glass (2003), Murder Alfresco (2005) and Lethal Vintage (2009).
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
