> Skip to content
  • Published: 15 June 2007
  • ISBN: 9780345468154
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $16.99

The Alpine Recluse

An Emma Lord Mystery



Another great installment in Mary Daheim's Alpine mystery series--starring beloved newspaper editor-publisher Emma Lord in one of her most original adventures yet.

For many mystery readers, Alpine, Washington–Mary Daheim’s fictional small town in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains–has become a beloved second home, a delicious retreat from the stresses of life. Yet the editor of The Alpine Advocate, Emma Lord, knows all too well that the picturesque old logging town is loaded with scandal: family feuds, illicit romance, chicanery, and sometimes deadly violence.

THE ALPINE RECLUSE

In the middle of a hot midsummer night, Emma is awakened by fire trucks rushing to a blaze at the nearby home of newlyweds Tim and Tiffany Rafferty. At daybreak, Tiffany and her unborn child are safe, but Tim, never blessed with good luck in all his thirty-plus years, has perished in the fierce conflagration. Sheriff Milo Dodge suspects murder and arson, and rumors fly from the Burger Barn and Mugs Ahoy to the Grocery Basket and the Venison Inn. Some swear the Rafferty marriage was crumbling. Others hint at stock fraud. A few mention momentary sightings of a possibly mad recluse known as Old Nick.

Sacrificing the heady enticements of a budding romance to nail down a great story, Emma shifts into high investigative gear while her fearless House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, rushes in where angels fear to tread: straight into the private lives of some of Alpine’s most respectable–and now terminally edgy–citizens. But neither Emma nor Vida suspects the unbelievable truth.

  • Published: 15 June 2007
  • ISBN: 9780345468154
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $16.99

About the author

Mary Daheim

Mary Daheim is a Seattle native who started spinning stories before she could spell. Daheim has been a journalist, an editor, a public relations consultant, and a freelance writer. But fiction was always her style of choice, and in 1982 she launched a career that is now distinguished by more than forty published novels. In 2000, she won the Literary Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. Daheim lives in Seattle with her husband, David, a retired professor of cinema, English, and literature. The Daheims have three daughters: Barbara, Katherine, and Magdalen.

Also by Mary Daheim

See all

Praise for The Alpine Recluse

* Well-drawn characters and a complex crime are a winning combination in Daheim's 18th Emma Lord mystery." -- Publishers Weekly

* "Another entertaining entry in her long-running Alpine series. . . . Readers will continue to love Emma." -- Booklist

* "Mary Daheim writes with wit, wisdom, and a big heart. I love her books." -- Carolyn Hart

* "Daheim writes. . .with dry wit, a butter-smooth style, and obvious wicked enjoyment." -- Portland Oregonian