Alpine Advocate (Emma Lord Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Mary Daheim (Author)

Book Description

Series: Emma Lord Mysteries | Publication Date: October 24, 1992

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....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Daheim's ( Holy Terrors ) amateur-sleuth whodunits unfortunately recycle well-worn elements: mistaken identities, long-hidden secrets, convoluted familial relationships and heavy-handed clues. Even a new heroine, newspaper publisher Emma Lord, and a change in locale, here the mythical small town of Alpine, Wash., can't rescue this ho-hum mystery. Chris Martinez, black sheep of the rich and powerful Doukas clan, has returned to Alpine for the first time since he was a boy. Soon his cousin Mark Doukas is bludgeoned to death, with the alienated Chris the leading suspect. Then Emma's deliveryman, Gibb Frazier, is murdered, followed shortly by the discovery of a skeleton in an abandoned mine shaft--which proves to be the remains of Chris's long-lost father. Emma, ably assisted by town historian/gossip Vida Runkel, must unravel the tangled relationships that link virtually every inhabitant of Alpine in order to solve the murders. Despite the complex game of "who-married-whom-and-who-had-whose-child," readers will have no trouble spotting clues, as Daheim appears to do everything in her power to call attention to them short of printing them in capital letters.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

Mary Daheim and I go back a long way -- well, seventeen or eighteen years. That's a long time for a publishing association. Years before I became Mary's editor on the Emma Lord/Alpine series for Ballantine, I was an editorial assistant at another trade house -- and that's where we met, long distance. She lives in Seattle; I live in New York; even eighteen year ago, the phone lines stretched in both directions. At the time Mary was writing successful historical romances for my then-boss, a senior editor. One day Mary and I revealed our unbridled passion for reading crime fiction. Little did I dream then that, soon after I arrived at Ballantine, Mary would become a crime writer herself. Of course, now she's a nationally renowned one . . . and I especially treasure her novels about Emma Lord, the editor-publisher of a small-town weekly newspaper in fictional (but based on fact) Alpine, Washington. The paper is called The Alpine Advocate, which is also the title of the first novel in the series. For any readers who haven't visited Alpine, I heartily recommend starting with Book One -- and then continuing forward (in alphabetical order) to THE ALPINE BETRAYAL, THE ALPINE CHRISTMAS, THE ALPINE DECOY, THE ALPINE ESCAPE, THE ALPINE FURY, THE ALPINE GAMBLE, THE ALPINE HERO, THE ALPINE ICON, THE ALPINE JOURNEY, and (coming soon) THE ALPINE KINDRED.

--Joe Blades, Associate Publisher

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Fawcett (October 24, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345376722
• ISBN-13: 978-0345376725
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.6 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Daheim, Mary

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Begin this alphabetical tour of Alpine here!, January 1, 2003

By 

dikybabe "admeyer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alpine Advocate (Emma Lord Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you love light, escapist mysteries, with strong female protagonists, you will like the Alpine mystery series of Mary Daheim's. I do not have to read things in series, and I find Daheim carefully reconnects the reader to the on-going characters and situations no matter which letter of the alphabet you pick up to read. I do endorse starting with A, The Alpine Advocate, however, as it sets the true scene. And protagonist Emma Lord is a wonderfully independent woman, a journalist of the big city of Seattle, who has purchased the little town news tome of Alpine, fictional, but very real, and invested her life and welfare in it. As the outsider, she must adjust to the local controls, the old-timers already in place on her staff, and to the expectations of a town who sees her as NEW. Her Catholic faith, her love of the wrong, and very unavailable man, and her love for a son with growing pains, and her brother, the charitable priest, give her substance the reader can sympathize with.

There is so much fun in these works by Daheim, in repeating, quirky characters, in idyosyncrasies of nature, in a middle-aged, sexy woman, and her spunky approach to life. Once you get hooked on Emma Lord, you will want to read all the books, which I believe are up to Alpine Obituary. If you start, you will find Emma and her circle to be a set of old friends, suitable for any reader's entertainment. There is red hot sex, suspense, laughter, and unexpected heartbreak. But this is great escapist reading. Fast, slick, and fun!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Daheim's Alpine Series, June 25, 2000

By 

Mandy Morreale - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alpine Advocate (Emma Lord Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I just started reading Mary Daheim's Alpine Murder Mystery Series. I find that Emma Lord and Alpine are very intriguing and interesting, and I had a hard time putting the book down. I will definitely continue reading this whole series. If you like lite murder mysteries, then this is the series for you. Mary Daheim takes her characters to the level where you want to know more and more.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warm,witty characters will make you want to meet them again, March 18, 1998

By A Customer

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This review is from: Alpine Advocate (Emma Lord Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

From the very first chapter I started to feel about Emma Lord and Vida Runkel as they were my personal friends. Small town mysteries always were my favorits because they tell about people more than about crime. Alpine is as much a character as detective Milo or terrible Rodger. The charm of this small town makes you want to visit this place or, at least, stop for a minute our endless run and look at the people and world around you.