New year, new murder . . . Emma Lord is on the case when death finds its way back to the wintry mountain town of Alpine. After a relatively calm and cozy holiday season, neither Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, nor her husband, Sheriff Milo Dodge, are surprised when their new year gets off to a rocky start. A woman’s body has been found in a squalid motel. Her driver’s … motel. Her driver’s license shows that Rachel Jane Douglas was in her late thirties and lived in Oakland, California—and the only connection between that town and Alpine is their gold-mining and logging origins. When they discover that Rachel’s room reservation was open-ended, Emma, Milo, and the ever-inquisitive Advocate receptionist, Alison Lindahl, are more than mildly curious. And never mind that the youthful Alison is a bit distracted by the new county extension agent’s virile good looks. She can still sleuth while she stalks her newest crush.
But that’s not all the news that’s unfit to print. There’s something strange about the older couple who have moved into the cabin down the road that was once owned by a murder victim. The elderly wife seems anti-social. There’s got to be a reason, which Emma, Milo, and Alison intend to find out—even if it puts them in deadly danger.
more
Emma Lord owns the town’s weekly newspaper. She’s also married to Milo Dodge, the county Sheriff. The combination is a natural for some amateur sleuthing under the guise of “investigative journalism”. Much to the Sheriff’s chagrin. Daheim has a great story premise and some very intriguing, likeable characters. I did find the background bits of the story somewhat difficult to follow however, and that made it fuzzy in places. Overall, I’d still recommend this as a good read. And I’d definitely be interested in further installments from this husband and wife set of sleuths!
[Many thanks to NetGalley and the author for an Advance Reader Copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.]
I am not familiar with this series, and did not realize the characters had already appeared in many books by the author. So I had a heck of a time keeping track of all the names and who was who. Probably I’d have enjoyed it more if I’d read a few of the earlier books about this town.
Ive read all the original series and enjoyed every single one! Missed the first one of this series but intend to purchase soon. This one was also great. Love these characters..like hearing about a good friend’s experiences in life.
Read first book in series first.
Bitter Alpine by Mary Daheim is a tale of the happenings of a small town.
Who killed the new girl in town?
Emma Lord
Emma runs the local newspaper and recently married the Police Chief. She is a journalist and, in the past, may have gotten herself in some sticky situations. She doesn’t get into much trouble in this book. However, people do tend to contact Emma with local gossip.
This book is the first that I have read by Mary Daheim. I enjoyed the story, which is a continuation of the previous Emma Lord series. So, this is lots of history that Emma dishes out about the townsfolk throughout the tale. I found Emma to be knowledgeable, kind, good at dealing with prominent personalities, and I agree with her that no one should have to eat Vida’s cooking.
The Mystery
A young woman new to town is murdered in the cheap local motel. Their boyfriends physically abuse two women and now missing. Vida wrecks her car as black ice forms in the winter weather. Is anything connected or all these individual crimes? This task is Chief Mitch’s job to figure out, but that doesn’t mean that Emma can’t help.
3 Stars
Bitter Alpine by Mary Daheim is a good cozy mystery. I felt at times that the author could have moved the story along at a faster pace, but most everything works out in the end. So, my rating for Bitter Alpine by Mary Daheim is three stars.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Great Escapes Book Tours. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Bitter Alpine by Mary Daheim.
This Guest Review is for Baroness’ Book Trove.
Until the next time,
~Jen
If you would like to see other reviews like this one, check out BaronessBookTrove.com.
Dollycas’ Thoughts
This series continues as we enter 2007. The Alpine Advocate editor Emma Lord and her new husband Sheriff Milo Dodge ring in the new year only to find themselves embroiled in another investigation. A women’s body is found in a local hotel and they can’t find any connection between her and Alpine. The new Advocate receptionist even does a little sleuthing. All three are also concerned about an older couple the have moved in down the road. Needless to say, all their snooping could be dangerous.
I have enjoyed all the previous 27 books in the series. This time Emma and Milo are even more cantankerous than usual and I felt Emma has lost some of her conviction and that detracted from the joy I usually feel when visiting Alpine. Emma also uses a derogatory term to describe her son that almost had me putting the book down for good. I know the story is set 13 years ago and the author probably used it as a reference for the time, but it is a term I believe was even seldom used even then. I was also taken aback by the way domestic abuse was handled. In fact, that word, that abuse, and some of Emma’s actions ring more from the ’50s instead of the early 2000s. As I kept reading I understood why the author handled the abuse as she did, but it was hard to read in places. Vida also has her share of troubles within these pages.
The mysteries were hit and miss for me. One of the problems with a long-running series is giving new readers background on the town and its inhabitants. It is important to learn the small-town dynamics like everyone is related to Scene Around Town columnist, Vida Runkel and that Ed Bronsky is going to drop by the Advocate office with some new scheme. Ms. Daheim did that almost too much this time. The asides messed with the flow at times. Emma seemed to be off her game with these investigations. I did think it was hilarious near the end of the book when Milo locked Emma in the car and warned her not to try to get any closer. What was sad was that she actually did it. Not all the loose ends are tied up at the end. Emma’s son Adam has been transferred from Alaska to Michigan and Vida’s replacement as she retires looks to be ad man Leo’s wife Liza.
The author continues to capture the weather and atmosphere of Alpine, Washington. January there can be brutal.
I am hoping the stumbles in this story are just a blip in the life of this series. Writing 28 books featuring the same characters and keeping things new and fresh has to be incredibly hard. I will be looking forward to the next installment because I do want to see what happens next for the residents of Alpine.
Emma and her husband Milo had a lovely holiday season and all is going well in their world. The paper is doing well and Milo hasn’t had a thing bad to investigate. When life is happy something bad is eventually bound to happen and in this case does. A young woman is found dead in the local dirty motel. They soon learn the young woman is from California but are having a hard time with figuring out what or who brought her to town. Meanwhile several other weird things are going.on around town, an older couple is living in a local cabin and no one is are when they moved in and how long they will be staying there. Emma’s neighbor is kidnapped by her boyfriend and no one can seem to find them, with the weather it’s hard to imagine they got far. With everything going on Emma has tons for the paper businesses to dig more into the young woman’s murder. Can she figure it all out with the few clues that she has or will
her murder remain a mystery?
Fans of the long running Alpine series (from A to Z) are happy that Emma Lord and her husband, Sheriff Milo Dodge are still with us in this new set of mysteries set in Alpine, Washington. This is the second entry and there is lots going on for both of them to investigate. Milo, of course, because he is the sheriff but Emma runs the newspaper and reporters investigate, too. Milo wishes she’s do less of that. When a young woman is found dead in the local seedy motel Emma wants to write the story.At the same time an older couple staying in a local cabin. Who are they really? and what do they have anything to do with the previous owner who was murdered? Alpine may be a small rural town but there is a whole lot going on there.
If you are new to this series, not a problem as Mary Daheim manages to find a balance between informing the new reader of the vast backstory in order to enjoy this new series and remind the long time reader of things they may have forgotten. The pace has a pleasant slowness to it as befits a small town and the puzzle is complex enough to keep the reader engaged to the final reveal. It’s good to have Emma back and I’m looking forward to more news from Alpine.
For a small mountain town in Washington state, there seems to be a lot of crime going on in Alpine! But such is life in a cozy mystery setting, and over this series’ literary course of 16 years (or 28 years in real-time), crime will happen, even in a small town. As a long-time reader of this series, I love revisiting Alpine, with Emma and Milo and Vida in each story, and some of the “newer” characters like Leo and Mitch. There are a few interesting things happening in town: the death of a California woman with possible connections to Alpine, an older couple outside of town who keep hearing prowlers, a prison escapee, and a couple new Alpiners. We also see less of Vida, who seems ready to retire for good. Because this is the 28th book in the series, there are a lot of characters and townsfolk, but when someone from a past book is mentioned, there’s usually an explanation that doesn’t contain spoilers for previous books. I had a hard time putting this book down, because I just had to know what was going to happen next. I think anyone new to this series could read this book without knowing the backstory, but isn’t it more fun to start from the beginning and enjoy the characters’ changes and growth?
I received an advance copy of this book. This review contains my honest thoughts and opinions.
From Random House comes a new addition to the “An Emma Lord Mystery” cozy book series, Bitter Alpine, written by Mary Daheim.
This is a cozy book series that has been around for quite some time, and the first one I have read. I am sure that there are lots of fans of this series out there, but unfortunately, I am not going to be one of them. If this book is any indication of what others in the series are like, I can honestly say that I not only won’t be reading them, I won’t be recommending them either.
There was not a single character in this story that I liked or wanted to hear more about. There wasn’t even one likable person in the entire book. It is not often that I can’t find something to like about a book, even one that isn’t fantastic. But in this case, there isn’t a single thing I found appealing in this cozy book.
Of the issues that grated on me the most, I would say that the physical abuse is at the top of the list. Although set in 2007, the acceptance of physical violence was not okay, and the laws against abuse were plentiful. Several women are physically abused by their partners throughout this book, and none of the abusers are arrested. Even in 2007, we had mandatory arrest laws. The police had the right to arrest anyone who was accused of, or they had cause to believe had committed physical abuse to someone, even a spouse, without the spouse pressing charges. The fact that the abuse was considered routine and accepted in this book was heartbreaking.
The sheer lack of an investigation into a murder, or the abuse, is number two on the list. There is little to no investigation into the murder of a stranger in a hotel. There are no real suspects; no one was brought in for questioning about where they were the night of the murder. And several possible suspects left town and the country without anyone caring. The killer is wholly unbelievable and feels as if a murderer was thrown in at the last minute, and the motive even more so as it is nonexistent.
The main character, a newspaper publisher who doesn’t seem to do anything except drink coffee, eat donuts and gather useless info from her Sherriff husband (the couple, in reality, would never have married in the first place but most definitely would be divorced after only 1-year). The Sherriff and publisher do nothing except bully each other, yell at each other, and seem to live in the 40’s when the “little woman” had to have dinner on the table when the man of the house came home.
Throw in a brooding reporter, who doesn’t come up with any leads of his own, despises his boss’ spouse, i.e., the Sherriff, and does so openly while getting all of his leads from his boss. There is a man crazed receptionist who doesn’t seem to care who she marries as long as its soon and a population that appears to be indifferent to the goings-on of their city leaders, including when they commit crimes, and you have a long, dull, and at times, immensely distasteful story that, in the end, doesn’t even make sense. I won’t go into the issue that the Sherriff only eats steak and burgers; the couple eats out for lunch every day, drinks alcohol heavily, and they do it all on what appears to be a meager income. The problems go on and on in this cozy book. I am sorry to say that I cannot recommend this book.
This is book 28 in the Emma Lord books . It was a great read. It passed quickly as the story held your attention and was very well written. Emma and her Husband who is the sheriff have the task of discovering the who and whys of the death of a young women found in a motel and a side mystery of an older couple who moved into the cottage and seem strange. A fast paced cozyish mystery.