4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Loggerama Comes To Alpine, April 12, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Alpine Betrayal (Emma Lord Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
It's Loggerama time in Alpine. All the contests, sales and special events want to advertise in Emma Lord's paper, the Alpine Advocate.
Plus, Emma's son, Adam, who has the brains of a turnip has left college in Hawaii and gone to Alaska to work and now wants to go to college in Fairbanks.
On top of that small town girl makes good, Dani Marsh is coming home after five years to do location shooting on her new movie, with her new fiancee, movie heart throb Matt Tabor and director Reid Hampton.
Dani had run away to Los Angeles after the SIDS death of her baby and divorce from husband Cody Graff.
Emma doesn't know much about this story, but gets filled in on the old information from her employee and confidant, sixtyish, Vida Runkel, whose niece Marje is now engaged to Cody Graff.
What Emma doesn't understand is why everyone seems to hate Dani, including her own mother. Cody Graff even announces to everyone that he thinks she should be dead.
Unfortunately, for him, it's Cody Graff who ends up laying dead on a country road. Posioned by an overdose of a prescription drug he was taking.
Emma is surprised at how many people refuse to believe he was murdered. Dani, her mother, Patti, Cody's brother Curtis all think he took the overdose himself.
But Emma and the local sheriff Milo Dodge believe it was murder and that it had something to do with both Baby Scarlett's death five years ago and then the death of the young deputy, Art Fremstad, who was investigating the baby's death. It was ruled that he had committed suicide, but Milo had never belived that, and it now looks as though he had also been murdered.
Emma was determined to find out the answers, before the killer could kill again.
I like several things in this book. Emma is vey likeable.
Vida is a hoot, reading about this sixtish year old woman, accidentally entering the wet T-shirt contest at Mugs Ahoy and then going through with it because, afterall, she signed her name to the contract is very funny.
I really like Milo Dodge, who gets himself a girlfriend, Honoria Whitman, an artist from California. Emma spends a lot of time convincing herself she doesn't care, because she wouldn't want Milo as a boyfriend anyway. Milo is worried that he's going to lose his re-election to his UFO spotting opponant if he doesn't find the killer.
She has improved a character who really irritated me in the first book. Ad salesman, Ed Bronsky, who refused to sell ad space if he could talk the customer out of buying. He still grumbles and complains about color ad's and anything where he can't use clip art, but at least is doing his job.
Now for what I don't like about this book.
Tom Cavanaugh, who is the married man she had an affair with that produced her son, Adam. Tom married money, got Emma and his wife pregnant at the same time, stayed with his wife and never helped support or even meet Adam, which he should have done, even if Emma said she could do it herself.
She's still in love with him. Tom is determined now, that he has a looney wife and his two kids are a mess that he wants to become daddy to twentyish Adam.
Emma, her brother, a priest who calls from his new parish and Vida all think Tom is a great guy. He's such a Prince Charming that in his one phone conversation with Emma in this book, he tells her he wants to do things for Adam and then says, "Thanks, Chuck, I'll get back with you in a few days," before slamming the phone down when his wife comes into the room.
Emma needs to be looking at Milo instead of looking into the past.
Except for this one problem, I am really enjoying the Alpine books. Alpine Christmas is next.
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