Picturesque Alpine is no longer the brawling logging town
of yesteryear. So when a drunken fight at the Icicle Creek
Tavern leaves a loner named Alvin De Muth dead, the
residents feel as if they’ve gone back to the Bad Old
Days. The inquiry into the incident should be a no-
brainer, but since the witnesses were half-tanked at the
time, Sheriff Milo Dodge is left with conflicting stories.
But soon Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine
Advocate, has an even bigger story to report: a
heartbreaking highway accident that leaves two people dead
and one on life support. Rumors are flying: Are the two
tragedies linked in some inexplicable way? Assisted by
that human bulldozer Vida Runkel, the Advocate’s House &
Home editor, Emma goes for the gold.