Alpine Hero

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. 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.

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