Mary Daheim, The Alpine Scandal

The Alpine Scandal

Mary Daheim

Ballantine, Mar 2007,

ISBN: 0345468163

In Alpine, Washington, former ad manager Ed Bronsky demands that The Alpine Advocate owner editor Emma Lord rehire him in the job he quit because his family needs the money after several bad investments. Emma says no as Ed's replacement, though cursed with being a Californian, is doing a great job. Ed's visit turns out to be the positive moment of the day for Emma.

In today's mail is an obit announcing the death on 6 Jan of Alpiner Elmer Nystrom; the envelope is dated 4 Jan. Emma and her House & Home editor Vida Runkel assume this is a bad joke or a stupid error, but rush off to Elmer's home. In his barn the popular Alpiner is found murdered. Unable to resist, especially with Sheriff Dodge in the hospital, Emma and Vida investigate the homicide starting with Elmer's wife Polly and son especially the latter as Carter, an orthodontist just returned to town to set up his practice. The two female amateur sleuth journalists follow clues all over the foothills of the Cascades from Elmer's henhouse eggs to braces to Elvis to bad investments.

Lighthearted fun, the latest Alpine whodunit stars the two female detectives back on a murder case. The murder mystery is cleverly devised so that impressions about the victim change over the course of the inquiries. However, as always in this fine long running series, it is the weekly newspaper cast who bring wit, intelligence, and eccentricity to the plot which turns this tale (and its predecessors) into delightful cozies.

Harriet Klausner