The Alpine Uproar

April 27, 2009
In Daheim's appealing 21st mystery to feature newspaper editor-publisher Emma Lord (after 2008's The Alpine Traitor
), an altercation between car mechanic Alvin De Muth and trucker Clive Berentsen at the Icicle Creek Tavern in Alpine, Wash., leaves De Muth dead and Berentsen in jail. Emma, however, thinks that the witnesses' statements don't quite add up, especially when they're followed by a traffic accident that kills the nephew of the local grocery store owners. Emma learns that the nephew was high on cocaine and other drugs at the time, suggesting that a dealer is active in the area—perhaps someone she knows. Complicating the case is Emma's uneasy relationship with Sheriff Milo Dodge and her catfight with an area floozy that may result in a lawsuit. Though it can be a bit challenging to keep track of the many town personalities, Daheim's premise—that random occurrences are connected—keeps the reader turning the pages.

May 15, 2009
A tavern brawl winds up on the front page of a weekly newspaper.

Saturday night at the Icicle Creek Tavern turns rowdier than usual when Alvin De Muth winds up dead under the pool table, knocked there, so it's said, by Clive Berentsen, who's taken into custody by Skykomish County Sheriff Milo Dodge. Though Emma Lord, owner/editor of The Alpine Advocate, sends her new hire to cover the arraignment, all the important details are already available from Vida, the House& Home editor who knows everybody and everything. Half the town was in the tavern that night, and half of them had a reason to want De Muth dead, including a drunk or two, a fellow trying not to drink and his ex, her current husband, the owner of the local body shop, the mailman, the florist and, of course, the tavern owner himself. Emma and Vida, who have gotten into a few dust-ups themselves (The Alpine Traitor, 2008, etc.), don't consider this open-and-shut case shut. Neither does Milo, who sends the deceased for a second autopsy, just in case Clive's blow, which no one actually saw him deliver, wasn't the fatal one. Secrets will unravel; Vida's kin will become personally involved; and more will die before Emma and the Advocate finally release the full story.

Even dolls named Cathy aren't this chatty. But if small-town minutiae and insularity appeal to you, this is top of the line.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2009
Clive Berentsen kills Alvin De Muth with a pool cue in a barroom brawl, immediately confessing to the crime. Emma Lord, owner of the weekly Alpine Advocate newspaper in central Washington, looks into the killing, convincedthat there is more to the story than has come out in the police investigation. Meanwhile, a traffic accident that critically injures a local young man stuns the town, and Emma uncovers secrets that tie the two incidents together. Complicating matters, her prickly, on-again, off-again relationship with Skykomish County sheriff Milo Dodge is still unresolved, and an old boyfriend is calling, hoping to reignite old flames. This twenty-first in the long-running series set in small-town Alpine, Washington, includes well-delineated main and recurring characters and is framed with interesting details about running a weekly newspaper.Even veterans of the series, however, may have some trouble keeping straight the many townspeople introduced in the story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)