Customer Reviews

The Alpine Pursuit (Daheim, Mary)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When a college professor is killed during a student play, newspaper owner Emma Lord decides to get to the bottom of what might be an accident but could be murder. Nobody much liked Hans Berenger--but disagreements over sports policies or dating hardly seem like good enough reason for murder. Still, in a small town like Alpine, Washington, secrets are hard to keep. Emma suspects that a mysterious stranger is involved, but something seems missing--some clue that will put it all together.

Author Mary Daheim brings the town of Alpine to life. Mary is a complex and damaged character--still recovering from the death of a lover, uncertain whether about exploring her feelings toward the sheriff, angry with plenty of people all the time, and pursuing the truth about what might be murder both for her newspaper and to satisfy some need within herself that has nothing to do with the news. Daheim interjects humor, the petty disagreements that make life real, and small-town competitiveness and cooperation.

The mystery itself is cleverly constructed with enough clues to bring in the alert reader without being obvious. THE ALPINE PURSUIT is an enjoyable and engaging story that tugs the reader along with a subtle but powerfu current. This is a good one.

A fox terrier with a broken neck. A tortured donkey. A German Shepherd trained to kill. What was up with all this animal cruelty? Not only did it make me not like the book, but it soured me a bit on the whole series and on the author.

This series has long been the better of her two, but it's starting to lose steam. Vida needs to be killed off already, because she's got to be one of the most annoying characters around. Get off the fence with Milo, Emma. Cut down on all the

"colorful" characters because there's way too many and it's hard to keep track of them all.

Definitely not a good effort.

Mid-February in Alpine, Washington, is no fun! While the little mountain town is no longer as isolated as it used to be, alternating blizzards and thaws keep its residents close to home with one wary eye on the steadily rising Skykomish River but, otherwise, eager for diversion. Drawing her cast from both town and gown, Destiny Parsons, Professor of Theatre Arts at Skykomish Community College (SCC), takes advantage of Alpine's winter shutdown to mount a full-scale production of her own avant garde melodrama, "The Outcast". Eccentric Vida Runkel, House & Home editor for the Alpine Advocate, heartily approves...her obnoxious grandson Roger has a walk-on part; amateur sleuth Emma Lord, its Publisher and Editor in Chief (who's suffered through other productions by the Alpine Council Dramatic Club in the past and is in no mood to appreciate sturm und drang, real or make-believe)is dubious. These last two years since her longtime lover and about-to-be-husband, Tom Cavanaugh, was assassinated have been hard ones for her. She's depressed and trying hard to cope with mid-life-crisis syndrome which not even a recent, diversionary trip to Rome with her priest brother Ben has eased. Nevertheless, when duty calls demanding an Advocate review of Destiny's drama...its cast of characters reads like a who's-who of Alpine society, Emma's on-hand for the premiere performance where things suddenly get terribly out of hand. Unfortunate accident or premeditated murder? Someone has substituted real bullets for blanks and the shots that ring out as the final curtain falls literally spell curtains for SCC's controversial Dean of Students, Hans Berenger. Even though she'd rather sit this one out, Emma's nose for news won't allow her to let the law take its course because the Law in the person of her old friend, Sheriff Milo Dodge, has his hands full already with a major flood alert which is seriously impeding his all-out pursuit of a missing drug dealer. Once again, Emma and Vida are hot on the case, and, as is generally true of their previous investigations, Mary Daheim provides them with an intriguing variety of viable suspects who have motives aplenty for murder. By the time the murky Skykomish has subsided, Emma has had to wade through some emotionally deep waters herself before she can find the face of a killer behind the mummer's mask and come to terms with the real reason why Dean Berenger had to die.

Applause! Applause! This is number 16 (A-P) in Mary Daheim's beautifully-sustained, Emma Lord mysteries, and I can certainly understand why. Nutshell? "Pursuit" (like its predecessors) is a psychologically-apt, extremely interesting story, extremely well-told. As a longtime fan, I find it impossible not to immerse myself in the Alpine milieu; it's one of those fictional worlds that's almost more real than any true-to-life setting. I care about the characters who live there. I'm as much rooting for Emma to find personal happiness as I am for her to solve whatever case she happens to be working on, and I find myself as much involved with her friends and co-workers as people as I am with their impact upon Emma's detecting. Finally, I'm always impressed by Ms. Daheim's skill in providing just enough backstory to remind her 'regulars' where she left off but still enable new readers to easily tune in to the Alpine mindset. Good news! There's a lot of alphabet left...I'm pretty sure that Emma will be back, and I know for certain that I'll be glad to see her.

Thanks to a donation from mean, nasty almost 100 years old, Thyra Rasmussen, the community college has a theatre. And they're determined to put on a play.

Emma Lord, owner and editor of the Alpine Advocate is going crazy as she sits in theatre, covering the rehearsal of the play, written by Destiny Parson's called the Outcast. Taking place in a diner and based on the Wizard of Oz it ends with a heartwarming, "Can't we all get along" speech. She just hopes it will be better on opening night than it was on rehearsal day.

It may not have been better, but it was more exciting. At the climax of the play, when Nat Cardenas (college president) playing the sheriff shoots the diner's cook Hans Berenger (dean of students at the college). Unfortunately, Hans doesn't get up for his curtain call.

Who would want to kill Hans? Just because no one liked him, didn't mean they would want him dead.

Emma starts investigating on her own. Was it Destiny? Emma may secretly hope it is, because ever since Destiny bought the house across the street from Emma, she makes a point of sending her dog across the street to do its duty on Emma's front lawn. Emma isn't even too upset when the dog ends up dead. Could it be the same killer?

What about Jim Medved the local veternarian? It was said that he and Hans got into a fight when Hans kicked his dog Dodo, (playing Toto). Or Rip Ridley - high school coach, who was turned down for a coaching job at college because Hans didn't think their college should be involved in anything but intramural sports. Or Rita Patricelli, who he had been dating.

Or maybe the bushy haired stranger that Roger Hibbert - Vida's grandson claims to have seen backstage.

With so many suspects, Emma has to work hard to not only to get Milo going, but to stay a jump ahead of that news scooper, Spencer Fleetwood and his radio station.

Highlights:

The obnoxious Roger - This kid has been in the series since he was about 8 and is a holy terror. He's now 16 and nearly shocks Vida into heart failure when he comes out in the play and his first line includes about three *F* words.

Ed Bronsky - who's also in the play, but spends the entire play, sitting at the counter eating. He misses the entire shooting, except he almost gets the second shot, which lodged in the counter a couple inches from his backside. (Emma and Milo don't know how it could have missed such a huge target).

Vida and Thyra Rasmussen getting into a shouting match in the Alpine office. (These two have a long time hatred, going back to Vida's mother and some squash). (see Alpine Kindred).

Carla Steinmetz Telliaferro's, demon child.

Lowlights:

Sympathy sex. This is what Emma is doing, because she feels sorry for Milo. I think Milo feels a lot more sorry for her.

Tom Cavanaugh - (See any of my previous review to get my opinion of this jerk. Emma's dead lover.)

A not very satisfactory ending. I didn't really believe who the killer was or why they did it.

Overall, this is still a great series. If you haven't read them, you should check out her bed & breakfast series, featuring Judith Flynn which is also fantastic. Mary Daheim is about the best writer in this genre.

Once again local author Mary Daheim writes a mystery novel that keeps the reader guessing until the end. The use of believable characters bring the book alive impossible to put down.

Emma Lord is her usual intrepid self as she deals with not only the "usual" cast of characters, but solves the mystery of the death of the odious Hans over rare beef and adult beverages.

It's been two years since Tom died in Emma's arms and the owner and editor of the weekly Alpine Advocate still grieves the loss of the only man she ever loved. She pours all her energy into her newspaper, her rivalry with the owner of the local radio station becoming friendly. The latest story Emma covers is the melodrama that the Alpine Council Dramatic Club is performing. The narrator, radio owner Spencer Fleetwood is terrific in his role with his beautiful speaking voice but otherwise Emma thinks the whole affair is amateurish.

At the end of the play when the villain, played by Dean of Students Hans Berringer, dies and the audience applauds the lackluster performance; one of the actors realizes that Hank in fact did die because the bullets in the gun were real. Nobody was watching the prop box so anyone could have switched the bullets. Emma immediately starts snooping around to find out who switched the bullets and she finds out that most people disliked Hank with a passion and many of them had motives.

THE ALPINE PURSUIT is as much a mystery as it is a woman coming to terms with a traumatic loss. This is Mary Daheim's hardcover debut and she deserves it because her well written tales involve real life situations and social issues while entertaining her audience. This book has many layers all involving people in emotional pain and how they cope with the hand life dealt them. By the end of the novel, one gets the feeling that the heroine is starting to heal and that makes the reader feel good because it is impossible not to like Emma.

Harriet Klausner

Starting a series in the middle always puts the reader at a disadvantage. The characters; their growth; and intimacies of the series are not fully known. Yet, Mary Daheim does a great job of bring in the new reader without boring the faithful one. In The Alpine Pursuit our heroine Emma Lord continues her slow recovery from the death of her beloved Tom Cavenaugh. The flash back scenes to Rome is the only fault I had with the book, but to be fair if I had not started in the middle of the series this may have worked wonderfully. Emma's life is moving on without a whole lot of input from her. Her new neighbor and dog are currently the biggest challenge in Emma's life. Life gets interesting when she attends The Alpine Council Dramatic Club latest performance as the editor and owner of the weekly Alpine Advocate. The original drama, written by her neighbor Density Parson, is an updated version of The Wizard of Oz. She sits through the play finding the climax when Dido (playing Toto) "piddles" on the stage. Yet, when the villain does not "recover" from his shooting for the curtain call, Emma is sure something is wrong. Of course, the small Washington town offers up more suspects than Zebra's have stripes. The reader is entertained as Emma wades through them to solve the crime. If you find "cozy" mysteries enjoyable this should be one you try.

The Alpine Pursuit is a much better-written book than its predecessor, The Alpine Obituary. Emma Lord is still the editor of the local paper in the the small Washington town of Alpine. Under duress, she attends a local drama production by her unpleasant neighbor, Destiny Parsons. During the production, a shooting scene becomes reality and one of the actors, the Dean of Students at the local community college, is killed when the "blanks" in the stage-prop gun prove to be real. Emma has a hard time leaving the investigation in the hands of Milo, town sheriff and Emma's on-again off-again boyfriend. She does her own sleuthing and finds that many people disliked the murdered Dean and had a motive for killing him. Recurring themes of dogs and drugs eventually lead Emma to the identity of the killer. This is a good entry in the Emma Lord Mystery Series.

Fans of Mary Daheim's Emma Lord mysteries, set in a remote area of Washington State, will almost certainly be surprised when they pick up a copy of her latest book. Daheim's previous works have been issued in mass-market paperback. That Daheim's work should now receive the hardcover treatment, in the current climate wherein the book publishing industry seems to be ruled by the computer tracking of sales and remainders, is indeed an accomplishment.

It really isn't surprising, however. Daheim works in the world of what are respectfully referred to as "drawing room mysteries," or "cozies" for short. These novels are usually set in small towns or rural areas, feature a female protagonist and involve crimes of violence that normally take place off the page. Think Agatha Christie, or the television program Murder, She Wrote. The readership of this subgenre is overwhelmingly female and buys these books by the carload. Several years ago, while a houseguest of a family, I opened a closet where the wife stored her books and almost sustained death by paperback when the books tumbled down on me. The readers of these novels also share them. I would very unscientifically guess that the pass-through rate is three or four per title. Not bad at all. The hardcover treatment for THE ALPINE PURSUIT accordingly appears to be richly deserved.

THE ALPINE PURSUIT finds Emma Lord continuing her slow recovery from the death of her beloved Tom Cavenaugh. Lord, the editor of the weekly Alpine Advocate, manages to keep busy with her newspaper duties; it is in this capacity that she attends the opening night of the latest performance of The Alpine Council Dramatic Club. The original drama that is presented is an updating of The Wizard of Oz, with the climax featuring the shooting of the villain of the piece. After the curtain goes down, however, the curtain goes up on a murder mystery, with one of the actors dead of a gunshot wound. Lord uses her office and the power of the press to allow herself to delve into matters that would otherwise be off-limits to her, though her on-again, off-again friendship with town Sheriff Milo Dodge certainly doesn't hurt things.

What is interesting about the Alpine series is that Lord basically does the same thing that Robert B. Parker's Spenser does, which is kicking things over until something crawls out. Lord is much more genteel about it, however, and at least as much of THE ALPINE PURSUIT is given over to town gossip and Lord's relationship with the citizens as it is to solving the mystery of who substituted real slugs for blanks in the stage gun. Some suspension of disbelief is, of course, required for the genre. Given the number of prior Emma Lord titles, this small tourist/university town in Washington State would have a per capita murder rate that would give New Orleans a run for its money if it existed in the real world. These titles are escapist literature, but there's nothing wrong with that, especially when Daheim is in charge of the writing.

The hardcover release of THE ALPINE PURSUIT could help give this branch of the mystery genre some of the respect that it so richly deserves. Recommended, particularly for fans of the genre.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

I always enjoy this series and this is one is no exception. however i fear there is nothing left to really explore with these characters in future now that Emma's long love is gone, her son a grown and a priest and her sidekick's life is not in turmoil. I think anyone would enjoy the series, but i think Ms Dahiem can now put Emma to bed and develop yet another fine character!