A corpse is found in a cave, bones are discovered near the river: a killer may be on the loose during the "most wonderful time of the year" in Alpine, a small residential enclave in the Cascade Mountain region of Washington State. Amid the puzzling twists and turns of the investigation, as past and present collide, a host of quirky, small-town characters are challenged by their own personal dilemmas and familial woes--which may tie into the crimes.
Sorrow, secrets and scandal are at the core of The Alpine Winter, the 23rd installment in Mary Daheim's cozy Alpine Mystery series. The now 50-something narrator/protagonist, Emma Lord--the inquisitive, charming, often klutzy editor of the local newspaper--becomes embroiled in the investigation while trying to juggle the complications of her own personal life. Will she ever find the right time to tell her brother and her son, both upstanding Roman Catholic priests who are visiting for Christmas, about her affair with the town sheriff, a man with whom she has shared a thorny romantic past?
Daheim punctuates the Alpine stories with humor and a large population of recurrent characters who take turns in the spotlight to unravel multiple story threads in selected novels. This time around, two of the editors at Emma's paper play a central role in the mystery, but there are also prominent parts for the sheriff and his deputies--and the postman. In the end, Emma Lord--fully human and flawed--and the dilemmas she faces, engages the reader to care as much about her as this page-turning mystery. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines