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Nellie Burns and Moonshine Mystery #1
Moonshadows
In the early 1920s, photographer Nellie Burns leaves Chicago to find adventure and a career in the West. She lands in Ketchum, Idaho. Out one night photographing moonshadows on snow, she discovers and photographs a dead body. When the body disappears and her negatives are stolen, she joins the chase to solve the mystery and find her negatives. But the Basque sheriff does not welcome her help, and the Chinese residents in town suspect Nellie herself of murder. As Nellie unravels the mystery of the missing body, she encounters a tangled web of revenge, opium addiction, obsessive love and loss, and a haunting story of devotion.
303 pages, Hardcover
First published July 22, 2015
3 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
About the author
Julie Whitesel Weston
7 books26 followersJulie Weston grew up in Idaho and practiced law for many years in Seattle. Her debut fiction, MOONSHADOWS, a Nellie Burns and Moonshine Mystery, was published in 2015 (Five Star Publishing) and was a Finalist in the May Sarton Literary Award. Her next mystery, BASQUE MOON won the 2017 WILLA Literary Award for Historical Fiction. Her memoir of place, The Good Times Are All Gone Now: Life, Death and Rebirth in an Idaho Mining Town (University of Oklahoma Press, 2009), received an honorable mention in the 2009 Idaho Book of the Year Awards. Her short stories and essays have been published in IDAHO Magazine, The Threepenny Review, River Styx, Clackamas Review and other journals. She and her husband, Gerry Morrison, now live in central Idaho where they ski, write, photograph, and enjoy the outdoors.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 19, 2017
In Julie Weston’s Moonshadows, Nellie Burns, fired from her job as a photographer’s assistant in prohibition-era Chicago, has headed west to try to support herself in her chosen profession. While photographing moon shadows on snow near a deserted cabin, she discovers a dead body, and so begins a mystery that takes us right into the heart of small town Idaho.
With Weston’s novel, the setting is as much a character as the people who inhabit it. Once a mining town, most of the miners have moved on, along with the Chinese population. Stores are closed and rural life, with sheepherding, is slowly returning. Right on the first page of Chapter One, Weston marks the difference between Chicago and a town virtually untouched by the outside world, a town with its own concerns: “Prohibition had seriously affected people’s drinking habits in Chicago by the time Nellie left; everyone talked about how to get liquor. In Idaho, no one even mentioned Prohibition.” This is not a page-turning mystery/thriller. Rather it takes you to a time and place other than our own, and immerses you so steeply in its different affairs and prejudices, you’ll be surprised to find where you are when you look up from the book.
The town is peopled by a cast of characters, individual and well drawn, playing out their bit parts in Nellie’s life. As Nellie tries to start her business and unravel the mystery of the eventually-discovered two dead bodies, she encounters Chinese, Basque, Scot, and native Idahoans. As pieces of the puzzle come together, Nellie becomes a confidant or ‘sounding board’. At times, I felt this caused Nellie herself to be somewhat one-dimensional, but it is a small complaint for the enjoyment of what is a most excellent read.
With Weston’s novel, the setting is as much a character as the people who inhabit it. Once a mining town, most of the miners have moved on, along with the Chinese population. Stores are closed and rural life, with sheepherding, is slowly returning. Right on the first page of Chapter One, Weston marks the difference between Chicago and a town virtually untouched by the outside world, a town with its own concerns: “Prohibition had seriously affected people’s drinking habits in Chicago by the time Nellie left; everyone talked about how to get liquor. In Idaho, no one even mentioned Prohibition.” This is not a page-turning mystery/thriller. Rather it takes you to a time and place other than our own, and immerses you so steeply in its different affairs and prejudices, you’ll be surprised to find where you are when you look up from the book.
The town is peopled by a cast of characters, individual and well drawn, playing out their bit parts in Nellie’s life. As Nellie tries to start her business and unravel the mystery of the eventually-discovered two dead bodies, she encounters Chinese, Basque, Scot, and native Idahoans. As pieces of the puzzle come together, Nellie becomes a confidant or ‘sounding board’. At times, I felt this caused Nellie herself to be somewhat one-dimensional, but it is a small complaint for the enjoyment of what is a most excellent read.
August 20, 2015
Great combo of mystery, literary fiction, historical fiction and just darn good storytelling. Throughly enjoyed.
July 5, 2020
I loved this book! This was her first in the series and my first time reading anything she has written. She is a great story teller! The writing was detailed but never slow. Her history was pretty accurate and, although the narrative was a little predictable, when I was done I hadn't minded....that is what I mean when I say she is a great story teller.
The novel itself would have been a "ten" if she had given the characters a little more depth...I wanted more from them and the potential is there. The second book in the series is sitting in my "soon" pile and I am keeping my fingers crossed that everyone grows....
The novel itself would have been a "ten" if she had given the characters a little more depth...I wanted more from them and the potential is there. The second book in the series is sitting in my "soon" pile and I am keeping my fingers crossed that everyone grows....
June 20, 2022
A light mystery set in the 1920s in Ketchum, Idaho. A young girl who arrives in this western town, traveling alone and claiming to be a photographer in a mostly-male position, immediately becomes the object of suspicion when she finds two bodies. As she attempts to unravel the mystery of who they were, she becomes entangled in a web of deceit, revenge, and opium sales.
My first time reading Weston but found it a plainly written but refreshing story. It contains no foul language and this is a plus. A trip to the west of yesteryear. Lucinda at the Library
My first time reading Weston but found it a plainly written but refreshing story. It contains no foul language and this is a plus. A trip to the west of yesteryear. Lucinda at the Library
December 10, 2022
I picked up this book because it is an Idaho author. I think the book was well written and had a bit of an "eerie" feeling to it as well as being an "old time" story. The description of the area and looking at the topography at night, in the winter...a different perspective was all intriguing.
I'm not sure I was as excited about the "mystery" portion, but I love a book that has a female main character that is not necessarily a romantic novel.
I think this is a good read and I recommend it.
I'm not sure I was as excited about the "mystery" portion, but I love a book that has a female main character that is not necessarily a romantic novel.
I think this is a good read and I recommend it.
August 9, 2017
Excellent book. A taut, tense mystery set in Idaho in the 20s. Photographer Nellie Burns heads west to make a name for herself with her photographs of the snow and moon landscape of Idaho. She gets more than she bargained for.
January 13, 2019
I enjoyed this book set in the 20/30’s young woman photography sets out to use the night sky to photo the Idaho landscape. She falls in a murder mystery. I like the strong women Nellie. The Author description of the Idaho landscape was wonderful.
December 23, 2017
A beautifully written book with vivid images.
February 18, 2020
This is a very well written book. This is an Idaho author, writing about a unique Idaho area. It is a fast paced mystery. Happy Reading.
Read
December 7, 2024DNF
January 4, 2017
Historical fiction, mystery, strong woman characters, set in Idaho. Good fun!
November 13, 2015
My ideal mystery features a strong female character who has flaws but isn't jaded or hard; a challenging and realistic puzzle that sends our heroine on a transformative journey; a story that tackles difficult issues, and a setting so vivid it becomes a character. Julie Weston's Moonshadows delivers all that and more.
The story opens in winter with a solitary man in the snow. No idea of time or place. Just the man, the burden he carries, and the elements vividly brought alive:
"Rosy sank to his knees, rolled his burden out of his arms. A crust blanketing the snow cracked and broke. The stalking wind threw solid pellets against his face, across his shoulders. No time. No shovel.
"He groaned and leaned back. Slow down. Time made no difference now."
Eventually, sweating with effort, his burden buried, Rosy staggers through the blizzard toward warmth and safety:
"Hillocks and humps of snow where the struggle began and ended remained. Half a dozen magpies poked and pecked like ghouls fighting over gristle. ... The birds flew off, leaving scattered bloody patches, pinking and blacking the snow. With the coming of nightfall, winter would erase the fall of man, the craving, crying need of man. Rosy kicked the snow in a frenzy, hatred still simmering. Out of breath, he stopped and forced his legs to step and then step again.
"A bottle of hooch and the devil called from Last Chance Ranch.:
Into this tumult comes Nellie Burns, petite and a mite naive, but smart and determined. At 25, she is already an old maid in the eyes of her friends back in Chicago. Newly arrived in the wild Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho in the 1920s, Nellie is on a mission to make a name for herself as a landscape photographer. Like so many before her, she has headed west in search of fame and fortune—only instead of gold or land, Nellie seeks light and shadow....
Read the rest of my review of this crackling new book and its determined and fascinating heroine here: http://www.storycirclebookreviews.org...
The story opens in winter with a solitary man in the snow. No idea of time or place. Just the man, the burden he carries, and the elements vividly brought alive:
"Rosy sank to his knees, rolled his burden out of his arms. A crust blanketing the snow cracked and broke. The stalking wind threw solid pellets against his face, across his shoulders. No time. No shovel.
"He groaned and leaned back. Slow down. Time made no difference now."
Eventually, sweating with effort, his burden buried, Rosy staggers through the blizzard toward warmth and safety:
"Hillocks and humps of snow where the struggle began and ended remained. Half a dozen magpies poked and pecked like ghouls fighting over gristle. ... The birds flew off, leaving scattered bloody patches, pinking and blacking the snow. With the coming of nightfall, winter would erase the fall of man, the craving, crying need of man. Rosy kicked the snow in a frenzy, hatred still simmering. Out of breath, he stopped and forced his legs to step and then step again.
"A bottle of hooch and the devil called from Last Chance Ranch.:
Into this tumult comes Nellie Burns, petite and a mite naive, but smart and determined. At 25, she is already an old maid in the eyes of her friends back in Chicago. Newly arrived in the wild Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho in the 1920s, Nellie is on a mission to make a name for herself as a landscape photographer. Like so many before her, she has headed west in search of fame and fortune—only instead of gold or land, Nellie seeks light and shadow....
Read the rest of my review of this crackling new book and its determined and fascinating heroine here: http://www.storycirclebookreviews.org...
October 19, 2015
Settle in for an engaging period mystery with Moonshadows by Julie Weston.
Nellie Burns steps into a man’s world of photography in the small mining town of Ketchum, Idaho in the early 1920s. In Chicago she’d worked in a photography studio, but only with portraits. Now she plans to follow her heart’s desire with nature photography.
Nellie hires crusty retired miner Rosy Kipling to take her out to capture a winter night scene where “the moon will shine full on and create shadows on snow.” Although he’s never far from his bottle of whiskey, he and Nellie form a sort of bond.
While on her cold night-time trek, she makes a startling discovery at a nearby cabin. She discovers a hideous crime, then another. Nellie uses her talents as a photographer to capture on film what she discovers, but then finds herself embroiled in the mystery. Nellie’s fierce desire to be independent may cause her to be a victim as well. As the story spins into a tight mystery, Nellie emerges as a reluctant heroine, sometimes doubtful of her course, but determined that right will prevail.
The reader sees, through Nellie's observant eyes, the flavor of Idaho’s rugged landscape in the early 20th Century. Moonshadows is packed with Idaho history, rich characters and information about the early days of photography and its cumbersome equipment. Weston does a worthy job of capturing the spirit of small town living and the attitudes of the day.
Moonshadows is the first of the series, ”A Nellie Burns and Moonshine Mystery.” For more information about the author, visit julieweston.com
Nellie Burns steps into a man’s world of photography in the small mining town of Ketchum, Idaho in the early 1920s. In Chicago she’d worked in a photography studio, but only with portraits. Now she plans to follow her heart’s desire with nature photography.
Nellie hires crusty retired miner Rosy Kipling to take her out to capture a winter night scene where “the moon will shine full on and create shadows on snow.” Although he’s never far from his bottle of whiskey, he and Nellie form a sort of bond.
While on her cold night-time trek, she makes a startling discovery at a nearby cabin. She discovers a hideous crime, then another. Nellie uses her talents as a photographer to capture on film what she discovers, but then finds herself embroiled in the mystery. Nellie’s fierce desire to be independent may cause her to be a victim as well. As the story spins into a tight mystery, Nellie emerges as a reluctant heroine, sometimes doubtful of her course, but determined that right will prevail.
The reader sees, through Nellie's observant eyes, the flavor of Idaho’s rugged landscape in the early 20th Century. Moonshadows is packed with Idaho history, rich characters and information about the early days of photography and its cumbersome equipment. Weston does a worthy job of capturing the spirit of small town living and the attitudes of the day.
Moonshadows is the first of the series, ”A Nellie Burns and Moonshine Mystery.” For more information about the author, visit julieweston.com
April 15, 2017
“Remove everything that has no relevance to the story,” said Anton Chekhov. “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there.”
Julie Weston’s MOONSHADOWS rises to Chekhov’s standards. Packed with rich details of history, geography, and character, MOONSHADOWS is a delightful and absorbing mystery. Nellie Burns is the perfect imperfect first-wave feminist heroine: determined to negotiate her own way—sometimes with nearly fatal results—as she faces the raw power of nature and the rough realities of frontier life in 1920s Idaho. Nellie is determined, too, to make sure the things she learns about tolerance and trust in a town that has plenty of ethnic tensions are passed on to others. Her stubborn insistence on testing her talents and courage leads her to err at times, but it is this same trait that sees her through solving the puzzle of what appears to be a double murder before she herself can be counted among the corpses.
And in the process, she establishes herself not only as an emerging detective, but as a gifted photographer.
Julie Weston’s MOONSHADOWS rises to Chekhov’s standards. Packed with rich details of history, geography, and character, MOONSHADOWS is a delightful and absorbing mystery. Nellie Burns is the perfect imperfect first-wave feminist heroine: determined to negotiate her own way—sometimes with nearly fatal results—as she faces the raw power of nature and the rough realities of frontier life in 1920s Idaho. Nellie is determined, too, to make sure the things she learns about tolerance and trust in a town that has plenty of ethnic tensions are passed on to others. Her stubborn insistence on testing her talents and courage leads her to err at times, but it is this same trait that sees her through solving the puzzle of what appears to be a double murder before she herself can be counted among the corpses.
And in the process, she establishes herself not only as an emerging detective, but as a gifted photographer.
January 31, 2016
This is a very clever and complex murder mystery set in an extremely interesting place and time. It takes place in Prohibition-era Ketchum, Hailey, and Twin Falls, Idaho and features Nellie Burns, a young, twenty-something, female photographer from Chicago trying to make a name for herself in the hinterlands of Idaho. While trying to capture some winter scenes with her glass plate camera, she inadvertently becomes involved in trying to solve a double murder. Her photographs may hold the key.
The author offers up an excellent description of what post-mining boom, pre-home to the rich and famous life in Ketchum and Hailey was like. The characters reflect what society in that area may have been like including sheep ranchers, Chinese immigrants, Basque sheepherders, ex-miners, as well as drunks and drug addicts. The story involves family quarrels, sex and incest, racism, and addiction - routine stuff for today but pretty risqué for the 1920's.
I believe this is the first book in what may be a new series. If so, I am looking forward to the next installment.
The author offers up an excellent description of what post-mining boom, pre-home to the rich and famous life in Ketchum and Hailey was like. The characters reflect what society in that area may have been like including sheep ranchers, Chinese immigrants, Basque sheepherders, ex-miners, as well as drunks and drug addicts. The story involves family quarrels, sex and incest, racism, and addiction - routine stuff for today but pretty risqué for the 1920's.
I believe this is the first book in what may be a new series. If so, I am looking forward to the next installment.
October 9, 2015
An outsider, Nellie Burns, arrives in the struggling mining town of Ketchum, Idaho and innocently sets out to take photos of the beautiful natural surroundings. But by taking a photo of moon shadows on the snow at the Last Chance Ranch, Nellie involves herself in a tangled mystery of love, opium addiction, loss, sorrow and murder. As a young woman alone in the 1920's, Nellie has a hard enough time just trying to establish her photography business. But once it is discovered she has incriminating photos from the ranch, her photos are stolen and she becomes the target of threats and accusations. Nellie stubbornly refuses to be intimidated while trying to solve the ever shifting mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed the story. The sense of place and time created in the novel by author, Julie Weston, felt authentic, at times gritty and at times magical. I look forward to more mysteries with Nellie Burns and her new found friends in Ketchum, Idaho.
December 30, 2015
Nellie Burns is a photographer who has traveled to Idaho in the early 1920s to take pictures in the snow of the shadows that the moon creates. Of course she has to do this at night. Her driver is Rosy, a man who is trying to drink himself to death—and quickly. Some of the story is told from his POV, otherwise it’s from Nellie’s. On her first foray out she meets up with a friendly Labrador Retriever, and names him Moonshine.
Since this is a mystery, what she photographs is a body. Later her negatives are stolen from her room in a boarding house—and another body is found. The second one is that of a Chinese man and his wife insists on the negatives for religious purposes. Nellie is at a loss since she did not photograph or see anyone Chinese. Two bodies?
She works with the Sheriff, learns more about Rosy, and tries to build a portrait photography business while still photographomg moon shadows. Good history on the time period and the photography industry. Five Star
Since this is a mystery, what she photographs is a body. Later her negatives are stolen from her room in a boarding house—and another body is found. The second one is that of a Chinese man and his wife insists on the negatives for religious purposes. Nellie is at a loss since she did not photograph or see anyone Chinese. Two bodies?
She works with the Sheriff, learns more about Rosy, and tries to build a portrait photography business while still photographomg moon shadows. Good history on the time period and the photography industry. Five Star
February 8, 2017
Set in northern Idaho in the early 1920's, this novel features a young woman who has made her way to a remote village in an attempt to establish herself as a photographer. Unintentionally, she becomes embroiled in a possible murder investigation. The plot in a little convoluted at times, but mostly believable, and the character of Nellie Burns is likeable and engaging. This was a good start to a series that is new for me.
November 26, 2015
Very intriguing plot, extremely likable lead character, and very interesting being set in Idaho in the 1920s. This is one of my favorite books of the year! I hope there are many more Nell Burns adventures!
March 5, 2016
great mystery --loved the heroine and the dog. Read this.
April 5, 2017
Very much a first novel, I think. Not sure about whether I'd go on to the second. Maybe?
Setting is strong--Idaho in the 1920s or so. Nellie Burns is a single woman trying to make her way in the world as a photographer. Then mysteries arise, largely because of the appearance of dead bodies. The plotting is a complicated and the characters a bit flat, which makes it hard to care much about sorting the whole thing out. You know she'll get there, of course. And there's a structural thing--shifting narrative viewpoints--that I didn't think worked very well. Perhaps that will go by the boards in the next one.
Worth the time, overall, in part because of setting. But didn't find it merited full attention. Didn't care enough about characters.
Setting is strong--Idaho in the 1920s or so. Nellie Burns is a single woman trying to make her way in the world as a photographer. Then mysteries arise, largely because of the appearance of dead bodies. The plotting is a complicated and the characters a bit flat, which makes it hard to care much about sorting the whole thing out. You know she'll get there, of course. And there's a structural thing--shifting narrative viewpoints--that I didn't think worked very well. Perhaps that will go by the boards in the next one.
Worth the time, overall, in part because of setting. But didn't find it merited full attention. Didn't care enough about characters.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews