The debut of the Emma Lord murder mystery series.
After a year as publisher-editor of the Alpine Advocate,
Emma Lord feels fine about her move to this small town in
the foothills of Washington's Cascade Mountains. What she
really needs for her paper, though, is a big story. And
she gets it—when handsome Mark Doukas, grandson of rich,
old Neeny Doukas is murdered. Emma discovers that trying
to get straight answers out of Neeny and his thin-lipped
son is like poking a nest of sleeping rattlesnakes. What
begins with an innocent story about the murdered man, ends
with Emma conducting the most interesting, and probably
the last, interview of her career from the wrong end of
a .38....
The Alpine Christmas
Christmas in the town of Alpine means fresh snow,
carolers, even a sleigh. But then the discovery of a
woman's leg in the lake, along with that of another young
woman's nude, half-frozen body, deflates everyone's high
spirits. But as Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The
Alpine Advocate, follows up on the story, the bits and
pieces of the young women who keep turning up start adding
up to a murder scheme so sinister it may well land Emma on
her own obituary page . . .
The Alpine Betrayal
When a local girl, Dani Marsh, returns to Alpine a star to
shoot a Hollywood film, the tension in the air is so thick
it crackles. Then at the annual Loggerama, Dani's former
husband, Cody Graff goes berserk with an axe and is later
found dead. Reporting on on all the goings-on as the
editor of the ADVOCATE, Emma Lord begins to suspect that
neither she nor the sheriff, laconic Milo Dodge, is
getting the real story. Why are there such strong feelings
among those who knew Dani back when? Why so few tears for
Cody Graff? Whence the impenetrable mystery that enfolds
Alpine like a shroud? Emma's nose for a story leads her
straight into trouble....