The Alpine Quilt: An Emma Lord Mystery (Emma Lord Mysteries)

by Mary Daheim

USA Today bestselling author Mary Daheim knows how to spin a mystery with a tight plot and captivatingly eccentric characters. And her vivid Pacific Northwest setting – a character in itself – has garnered her a plethora of devoted fans.

List Price: $22.95

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 12, 2005)
• ISBN: 0345477200

From the Inside Flap

USA Today bestselling author Mary Daheim knows how to spin a mystery with a tight plot and captivatingly eccentric characters. And her vivid Pacific Northwest setting – a character in itself – has garnered her a plethora of devoted fans. Now her resourceful and resolute journalist Emma Lord is back with a new mystery to solve – and an even tougher deadline to meet.

Members of the Burl Creek Thimble Club, a quilting circle in small-town Alpine, Washington, are planning a fete to welcome back Genevieve Bayard, who left the group, and Alpine, decades ago. But Gen's homecoming is cut decidedly short when she dies at a dinner party. Emma Lord, owner and publisher of the local newspaper, The Alpine Advocate, immediately arrives on the scene to report the incident and sleuth her way to the truth.

Though it appears that Gen wasn't adored by everyone in the Alpine community, her untimely death still comes as a shock. To help solve the mystery, Emma turns to Vida Runkel, the Advocate's trusty House & Home editor. Such a notorious story would normally have Vida chomping at the bit, but to Emma's surprise Vida is hesitant, even downright unwilling to get involved.

The demise of Genevieve Bayard, however, isn't the only crime in Alpine. There has been a rash of burglaries, including at Emma's own cozy log cabin. Are the break-ins and the murder connected? As Emma digs, she uncovers a shocking scandal that may point the finger of guilt at one of her nearest and dearest . . . while single-handedly changing the history of Alpine itself.

About the Author

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 medium of choice, and in 1982 she launched a career that is now distinguished by more than forty novels. In 2000, Daheim 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.