The Alpine Recluse
An Emma Lord Mystery
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
For many mystery readers, Alpine, Washington–Mary Daheim’s fictional small town in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains–has become a beloved second home, a delicious retreat from the stresses of life. Yet the editor of The Alpine Advocate, Emma Lord, knows all too well that the picturesque old logging town is loaded with scandal: family feuds, illicit romance, chicanery, and sometimes deadly violence.
THE ALPINE RECLUSE
In the middle of a hot midsummer night, Emma is awakened by fire trucks rushing to a blaze at the nearby home of newlyweds Tim and Tiffany Rafferty. At daybreak, Tiffany and her unborn child are safe, but Tim, never blessed with good luck in all his thirty-plus years, has perished in the fierce conflagration. Sheriff Milo Dodge suspects murder and arson, and rumors fly from the Burger Barn and Mugs Ahoy to the Grocery Basket and the Venison Inn. Some swear the Rafferty marriage was crumbling. Others hint at stock fraud. A few mention momentary sightings of a possibly mad recluse known as Old Nick.
Sacrificing the heady enticements of a budding romance to nail down a great story, Emma shifts into high investigative gear while her fearless House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, rushes in where angels fear to tread: straight into the private lives of some of Alpine’s most respectable–and now terminally edgy–citizens. But neither Emma nor Vida suspects the unbelievable truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Well-drawn characters and a complex crime are a winning combination in Daheim's 18th Emma Lord mystery (after 2005'sAlpine Quilt ). The sleepy town of Alpine, Wash., is shocked when a local home goes up in flames in an act of arson\x97and murder. Tim Rafferty, a young husband and father-to-be, was at home when the blaze erupted, and Sheriff Milo Dodge soon realizes Tim was beaten to death with the proverbial blunt instrument before the fire was lit. When Emma, editor of the local paper and inveterate sleuth, learns that Tim was having an affair with another local gal, she wonders if Tim's bride, Tiffany, who isn't exactly playing the part of the grieving widow, might have offed her man. Or perhaps Tim's father-in-law did the awful deed. Emma gets so engrossed in the crime that she lets her nascent romance with a Seattle journalist wane, prompting hope that perhaps she and the sheriff will get back together in the next installment in this popular cozy series.
