Random House Publishing Group
December 2011
On Sale: November 29, 2011
Featuring: Vida Runkel; Sheriff Milo Dodge; Emma Lord
272 pages ISBN: 0345502590 EAN: 9780345502599 Kindle: B004W3IECC Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
The picturesque town of Alpine in Washingtonβs Cascade Mountains is decked out in holiday finery, but family troubles are brewing at the Alpine Advocate: Editor and publisher Emma Lord is fretting over how her brother and her sonβboth priestsβwill react when she confesses her passionate affair with Sheriff Milo Dodge; House & Home editor Vida Runkel realizes that her spoiled grandson has gone off the rails; and Emmaβs star reporter goes AWOL after learning that his son has escaped from prison. And yet another Alpine family is singing the Christmas blues when Postmaster Roy Everson shows up with bones that may or not belong to his mother, whoβs been missing for the last sixteen years.
But the most disturbing holiday dilemma is the body found in the cave on Mount Sawyer. The decomposed corpse is that of a mature male, so it canβt be Mama Everson. Is there a connection between this long-ago disappearance and the gruesome bones discovered earlier downstream on the Skykomish River?
When Milo returns from his own family ordeal in the Seattle suburbs, he and Emma find time away from the unnerving investigation to reunite. Their all-too-obvious ardor evokes not only Vidaβs wrath but the attention of a dogged killer who thinks the loversβ bliss is to die for . . . literally. Scandal, intrigue, desire, and untimely death are all pieces to this tantalizing puzzle. If anyone can put it together, itβs Emma . . . hopefully before a dangerous enemy tries to stop herβpermanently. Mary Daheimβs Christmas installment in the Emma Lord mystery series is a deliciously chilling holiday treat.
© 2003-2026