The Alpine Betrayal - Softcover

Working on Mary Daheim's books is an absolute pleasure. As managing editor of Ballantine, I get to oversee the production of these wonderful titles. I feel as if I get to visit the town of Alpine, Washington, a few times a year, whenever Mary's latest manuscript is transmitted to me. One of my primary jobs is to maintain a consistency within the series. We don't want any discrepancies to appear from book to book; if a place called the Icicle Creek Tavern appears in THE ALPINE ADVOCATE, we don't want the same place to suddenly be called THE CREAMSICLE TAVERN in another book -- at least not without an explanation. To accomplish this consistency, I hire the same copy editor to review each manuscript as it comes in. He goes over it with a fine tooth comb, checking every little detail. But he has also become lost in the town of Alpine itself. When he comes in to drop off his work to me, he'll tell me stories about Sheriff Milo Dodge, Vida Runkel, and Emma Lord as if they were friends of his; I guess in some ways they are. Mary really makes you feel as if you're a part of the community. As you can tell from the titles, murder in Alpine always seems to happen in alphabetical order (THE ALPINE ADVOCATE was first, followed by THE ALPINE BETRAYAL, THE ALPINE CHRISTMAS, etc.) The only problem with this setup is: What will we do once Mary gets to THE ALPINE Z? (Fortunately, we still have a ways to go.) We never want this charming series to end!

Mark Rifkin, Managing Editorial

"Editor-publisher Emma Lord finds out that running a small-town newspaper is worse than nutty--it's downright dangerous. Readers will take great pleasure in Mary Daheim's new mystery."
Carolyn G. Hart
Sequel to THE ALPINE ADVOCATE.
When a local girl, Dani Marsh, returns to Alpine a star to shoot a Hollywood film, the tension in the air is so thick it crackles. Then at the annual Loggerama, Dani's former husband, Cody Graff goes berserk with an axe and is later found dead. Reporting on on all the goings-on as the editor of the ADVOCATE, Emma Lord begins to suspect that neither she nor the sheriff, laconic Milo Dodge, is getting the real story. Why are there such strong feelings among those who knew Dani back when? Why so few tears for Cody Graff? Whence the impenetrable mystery that enfolds Alpine like a shroud? Emma's nose for a story leads her straight into trouble....