Customer Reviews

The Alpine Hero (Beeler Large Print Mystery Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Emma Lord, owner and editor of the Alpine Advocate was just going to Stell's Styling Salon to get her hair cut. The last thing she expected was to open the wrong door in the Salon and discover a woman laying on a table with her throat cut.

This happens in the first pages of the book.

Emma is even more stunned when shop assistant Laurie Marshall tells her the person on the table who was supposed to be getting her facial was Ms. Whitman.

Honoria Whitman, who was in a wheelchair after being thrown down the stairs by her abusive husband who was then shot dead by her brother, had been the Sheriff, Milo Dodge's on again / off again girlfriend for almost five years.

It was a relief when Emma found out it wasn't Honoria, but Kay Whitman, her sister-in-law who was visiting with her husband Trevor, who had just been released from prison for the killing of Honoria's husband and their mother.

But who would want to kill someone who is perfect stranger in Alpine. And was the fact that she had taken Honoria's appointment at the last minute mean that it was actually Honoria who was targeted?

Emma's finds a lot of suspects. Stella Magruder, owner of the shop seems more upset over what people will say than the fact that someone was murdered in her salon.

Becca Wolfe, who was doing the facial and who later mysteriously disappears.

Laurie Marshall, shop assistant who is a very dim bulb and her mother Jane are both acting suspicious as if they're trying to hide something.

And why is a billionaire, Toby Popp building a new multi-million dollar house near Alpine?

This is the best book in the series so far. It takes all the history you have already learned and the people you have come to care for and throws it all into the wind. Nothing is as it seems.

Highlights:

Emma and Milo having dinner at her house, bumping heads as they lean over to pick something up and end up rolling around on the floor for a few moments, before his cell phone rings and he becomes Super Sheriff again.

Ginny Burmeister, the office manager is on her honeymoon in Hawaii with Rick Erlandson's, so Emma is trying to do her job as well as her own.

Carla as usual cannot be trusted with the simplest task which is why the picture she took of the bereaved family has a caption naming Honoria brother Trevor as Walt Whitman.

Leo, the ad manager has turned into a good friend for Emma and Ed Bronsky wants her to ghost write his biography.

I can't write about the best thing that happens in this book. Except that I'm very happy with a turn of events that has been dogging this storyline.

This book had some very funny moments and the ending totally surprised me. I never saw any of it coming.

Can't wait to start the next book.

I really enjoy Mary Daheim's Alpine series. The characters are like real people. Sitting down with Emma, Vida and Milo is like sitting down with old friends for a guaranteed good time. Not only is there a good mystery, but the people are more than just words and descriptions. I look forward to each one of her Alpine books. Each one keeps getting better, and finally Milo and Emma are progressing

I really enjoyed the characters and setting in this book. I like the main character and would be willing to try earlier books in the series before the author started padding the book to make it 300 pages instead of 200. Three hundred is simply too long. Many scenes repeated themselves without further revealing character or advancing the plot. I feel it's the publishers who want the books to be longer so that they can charge more for them. Let's tighten up these mysteries and cut to the chase.

This is an appallingly ill-conceived story, for two reasons. First of all, the murder scenario is totally implausible - a visit to a spa for the victim is arranged, in a very convoluted manner that has a high possibility of not working. Somehow, it does work, and the victim is murdered at the spa. But why there? Turns out she was staying at a remote cabin, so why not simply kill her there, bury her body deep in the woods, then claim she'd gone for a hike and never come back? Besides her murder, the victim's entire history and actions are implausible.

The second reason I find this story so distasteful is that Daheim has rewritten Honoria's history, turning her from a likeable character into a nutcase. If Daheim had wanted to get rid of Honoria, the sheriff's girlfriend, so as to develop a romance between Emma and the sheriff, why not simply have them break up because they realize they're incompatible? It happens all the time. There was no need for all the bizarre and unbelievable twists of the story to bring about an end to their relationship.

This story, with its implausible plot and degrading development of Honoria's character, is a complete waste of time. Don't bother with it.

On reading through the book, I enjoyed the characters and the plot. But then it left a bad taste in my mouth. This character is supposed to be a practicing Roman Catholic, but she's spent 20 years in an adulterous affair, hoping that the marriage (admittedly a bad one) breaks up. Of course, that wouldn't leave him free to marry in the Church. And lest you think the author only thinks Catholics don't care about marriage vows, her staunchly Presbyterian, liquor only for the sick, employee, several criticizes her for giving up on the married for someone who is at least divorced.

Mary Daheim has written 2 series; both with a lot of books. I've read all of the bed and breakfast ones exc the newest book. Then I started this Alpine series. Where I could buy the books in the Kindle editions, I did. But to start at the beginning of each series, I had to order paper backs. This was one of them. When they've been out a long time, why the publish date for the Kindle is so far in the future I cant fathom. Anyway, I have enjoyed both series; and after about 2 months of reading this author, I have almost completed all of them. I like her characters a lot. The main character in each series isnt exactly a senior citizen, but over the years she has been getting older. And better. Would highly recommend this author and both series.

I really enjoy Mary Daheim's Alpine series. I love the characters, who are all a little quirky. This was one of the best. If you want to read a fun mystery series this would be the one! I'm anxious to read the rest of the books.