The Alpine Quilt: An Emma Lord Mystery [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Genevieve Bayard returns to Alpine to have a reunion with the women of the Burl Creek Thimble Club, a quilters group to which she used to belong. The ladies seem to be having a good time until Gen dies at a dinner party with her friends. As always, newspaper editor Emma Lord decides to conduct her own investigation, in spite of being discoraged by her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Sheriff Milo Dodge. Her investigation reveals some long-hidden secrets, including a possible affair, and the stealing of quilt patterns. All of the evidence points to Gen's best friends and to Emma's friend, Vida. Emma redoubles her efforts to exonerate Vida and along the way she discovers some things she wish had stayed hidden. Mary Daheim can always be counted on to write a good mystery with interesting characters, a dash of romance and some laughs along the way.

Genevieve Bayard is back in town for a visit with her son, local photo shop owner Buddy. It's been decades since she had quit the local Burl Hill Thimble Club and moved to Spokane, but her old friends threw a party to welcome her back.

But the next day Genevieve drops dead while having dinner with her oldest and closest friend, Annie Jeanne Dupre, local spinster and housekeeper at the rectory.

What at first looks like a heart attack turns into murder when it's found that insulin pills had been put into the dessert.

Who would want to kill Gen? Or maybe they wanted to kill Annie Jeanne, who was in the hospital, fortunate that she only ate one piece of cheesecake while Gen had scarfed down three pieces.

Emma Lord, owner of the local newspaper, The Alpine Advocate decides she has to investigate, after all, she didn't want any suspicion to come over the church, where her brother, Father Ben is currently the fill-in priest.

But investigation proves difficult when her usual partner in crime, House & Home editor, Vida Runkel refuses to have anything to do with the case. She hated Genevieve and couldn't care less that she was dead.

Suddenly suspicion seems to fall on too many people close to Emma and she wonders if the crime was the result of recent events or something that occurred a long time ago.

Highlights:

Emma is a very likable character. I love the interplay between her and her brother Ben.

The supporting characters are, as usual, wonderful. Scott, Ginny & Leo from the paper, Spencer Fleetwood, the radio station owner and Emma's son - Adam - a priest located somewhere near the North Pole and of course, Ed Bronsky. Although none of them have major storylines, they appear throughout the book, giving you a real feel of small town life, where you meet everyone, here, there and everywhere.

Milo Dodge - town sheriff. The perfect man for Emma although she hasn't realized it for a decade.

Lowlight:

Tom Cavanaugh - Long time Lover, Almost husband, who had been murdered before her eye's. (Emma's description of Tom)

Tom Cavanaugh - Two-timing creep who dumped a pregnant Emma to go back to his pregnant wife, ignored her & their son for 20 years, showed up and had many 1 night or 1 week stands with her, promised several times to marry her, dumped her several more times, turned out to be criminal who got killed by his own cohorts. (My description of Tom) But everyone thinks he was a great guy?

I loved the mystery. Never figured it out.

The ending was a real surprise and incorporated a lot of things you had learned from previous books. That is what I love about these books, that there is a consistency in the storyline, you hear about old characters and old plotlines, which makes everything seem so much more real.

This is a series that is best to start from the beginning and read through. Although, each book does work as a stand alone.

If you like these books, check out her other series - The Bed & Breakfast series featuring Judith & Joe Flynn, which I think is the best series in the mystery genre.

I have really enjoyed the books in this series. Mrs. Daheim does a wonderful job of painting a picture of the village of Alpine and its inhabitants. I really like the way the characters develop from book to book (here Vida). I have only one complaint. Emma is so blind to the qualities of the men in her life. Please, Mrs. Daheim, let her grow up and realize that Milo is the man for her. You could develop an interesting story line of the life of Emma and Milo as a married couple both working to solve crime in Alpine.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 20 reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars