Mary Daheim

Nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, the charming little hamlet of Alpine is welcoming Thanksgiving with open arms, while Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, feels her spirits sink. With no family or friends to share the day, Emma wonders how she managed to screw up her life so badly. But on the Monday after the holiday, a call from Sheriff Dodge concerning a trio of alarming unsigned letters leaves Emma no time to...

When she volunteers at the State B&B booth during Oktoberfest, trying to win some allies to save her inn, Judith McMonigle Flynn stumbles on a dead body and, agreeing to not get involved, convinces her cousin Renie to pose as the sleuth while she does the dirty work to solve this crime.

Editor and publisher Emma Lord is fretting over how her brother and her son--both priests--will react when she confesses her passionate affair with Sheriff Milo Dodge; "House & Home" editor Vida Runkel realizes that her spoiled grandson has gone off the rails; and Emma's star reporter goes AWOL after learning that his son has escaped from prison. But the most disturbing holiday dilemma is the body found in the cave on Mount Sawyer.

"After a relatively calm and cozy holiday season, neither Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, nor her husband, Sheriff Milo Dodge, are surprised when their new year gets off to a rocky start. A woman's body has been found in a squalid motel. Her driver's license shows that Rachel Jane Douglas was in her late thirties and lived in Oakland, California--and the only connection between that town and Alpine is their gold-mining and...

Bed-and-breakfast owner and amateur sleuth Judith McMonigle Flynn has to dealwith a case of insurance fraud--and a mystery meat gone bad.