The Alpine Pursuit: An Emma Lord Mystery

The Alpine series is my favorite on the market. Daheim's creation, Emma Lord, is the reason for my interest. Daheim writes well-rounded characters and storylines, and THE ALPINE PURSUIT is a strong entry. I enjoy the theater, and the storyline here is a good one. Emma and Vida poke around for answers. What they get in return is the next story for THE ALPINE ADVOCATE. A good read!

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!

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.

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 yo

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 so