The Alpine Nemesis

Rating:
Summary: A Superb Addition to a Strong Series!
Review: A recent dearth of reportable happenings in Alpine, Washington has Advocate editor Emma Lord gnashing her teeth in frustration as she tries to make newsworthy bricks out of banal, local straw in this latest addition to Ms. Daheim's beautifully-crafted series of domestic mysteries. Scooped by her media competitor Spencer Fleetwood on the last major story in the area...the mysterious disappearance of a snowboarder some two months prior to the events of this novel...Emma is trying hard to even the professional playing field while making up her mind about how to handle her recently rekindled romance with Tom Cavanaugh, the father of her son Adam, who is now very much back in her life with marriage on his mind. However, it's never quiet in Alpine for long, and when a long-simmering local feud suddenly heats up and bullets start flying, Emma and the rest of her loyal staff are on the spot in more ways than one. Intricate plotting is one of Ms. Daheim's fortes, so it's no surprise to the reader when an unexpected corpse shows up to further complicate the body count while other bodies suddenly start disappearing. Once she uncovers the connecting link between these unlikely occurances, the plot takes a tragically international turn, and Emma is forced to pay a terrible price for unmasking a well-hidden conspiracy of terror and death and bringing its perpetrators to justice.

In many respects, THE ALPINE NEMESIS is probably the strongest...certainly the most emotionally engrossing...novel in the series to date and case in point that, in Ms. Daheim's skilled hands, the 'cozy' has indeed come of age. With a plot premise as engrossingly current as today's headlines, even her peripheral characterizations seem deeper and more three-dimensional than is generally true of the genre. This is a wonderful stand-alone read and should provide a powerful incentive for any reader who wants both content and character in hir mystery fiction to pick up Emma Lord's other adventures and savor them all.

Rating:
Summary: ALPINE SURPRISE
Review: Being an avid reader of the Alpine series, I couldn't wait to sink my literary teeth into this new edition.
The first of many shocks came when Mary Daheim had the main character Emma Lord sabotaging her rivals car to scoop him on the murder story. vida and Milo stayed true to their persona, yet Leo seemed to have turned into a meek confused man who didn't know where his loyalties laid.
the ending is one that is fast becoming typical in the female mystery world and was highly disappointing.
Aside from all this... the writing is crisp and just as witty as all her previous works. Something is lacking in the story telling that makes you wonder if she just threw the ending together to meet a deadline.
Should you read this latest installment? YES! You need to take the good with the bad and the clear with the confusing to stay in touch with two of the craziest ladies, Emma Lord and Vida Runkel.

Rating:
Summary: ALPINE SURPRISE
Review: Being an avid reader of the Alpine series, I couldn't wait to sink my literary teeth into this new edition.
The first of many shocks came when Mary Daheim had the main character Emma Lord sabotaging her rivals car to scoop him on the murder story. vida and Milo stayed true to their persona, yet Leo seemed to have turned into a meek confused man who didn't know where his loyalties laid.
the ending is one that is fast becoming typical in the female mystery world and was highly disappointing.
Aside from all this... the writing is crisp and just as witty as all her previous works. Something is lacking in the story telling that makes you wonder if she just threw the ending together to meet a deadline.
Should you read this latest installment? YES! You need to take the good with the bad and the clear with the confusing to stay in touch with two of the craziest ladies, Emma Lord and Vida Runkel.

Rating:
Summary: Heartbreak Comes To Alpine
Review: Emma Lord, owner and editor of the Alpine Advocate is furious, she's being scooped. Being the only paper in town, she's not used to that, but sincer Spencer Fleetwood - owner of the new radio station KSKY has come to town, she's no longer the sole sorce of local news.

It was bad enough when he scooped her on the disappearance of snowboarded Brian Conley several months before, but now it looks like he was going to do it on the biggest story to hit Alpine.

The three O'Neill brothers, Stubby, Rusty & Dusty are found dead in the freezer at Alpine Meats. Each of them shot.

Sheriff Milo Dodge suspects it might be their nemesis's the Harquist family. Their feud goes back years and started out with the flattening of the families pet goat.

But, it's while Emma's new reporter, Scott Chamoud starts shooting the crime scene the he wonders why there are four pairs of legs instead of three.

Shocking everyone was the discovery of the missing snowboarder, Brian Conley under the pile of bodies. Then the coroner says he had been stabbed to death and had been dead for several months. Where had he been all this time and how did he get into the meat locker? (Emma was pretty sure he didn't walk there.)

A lot of other strange things are happening in Alpine.

Milo discovery that the O'Neill's had an arsenal of weapons, including rocket launchers and grenades.

Brian's body is shipped back East to his family, but when the coffin gets there, the body is missing.

And why does everyone who dies recently suddenly want to be buried in Ireland?

Working together Milo and Emma solve the murder of the O'Neill's. But still aren't sure what happened to Brian.

Meanwhile, Tom Cavanaugh demands an answer from Emma and she finally says yes, she will marry him. They're riding on top of the Advocate float in the summer solstice parade when tragedy stikes.

The ending of this book was very difficult. I wouldn't normally say what happened, but it's already included in other reviews here, so if you don't want to know what happened, DON'T READ ANY FURTHER.

Tom Cavanaugh, is the father of Emma's son Adam. Tom married Sandra for her money and had an affair with Emma, got both women pregnant and stayed with Sandra. He didn't see Emma for the next 18 years. I've always disliked this character and I have really torn into him in my earlier reviews. Tom has asked Emma to marry him three differnt times and had dumped her each time. This was the fourth.

I've been dreading it, but I wanted Emma to realize that she wasn't really in love with Tom, but was living with a memory, in the almost 30 years, Emma & Tom probably only spent about 6 months together, (I'm not sure how long their original affair lasted, but the other two times were only a couple days each).

Emma has always had more chemistry with Milo Dodge than she has ever had with Tom. Heck, she has more chemistry with her ad manger Leo Walsh than she had with Tom.

The fact that he ends up dead and was a criminal (Running Guns To Ireland for the IRA is illegal) only makes it worse. Emma will probably never get over this, will go on wasting her life, just as she has for the past 30 years. Tom is now the dead lover who will be perfect.

I'm getting ready to read the Alpine Obituary and have just ordered the next one in the series. Had to spend the big bucks on a hard cover copy instead of the paperback. Couldn't wait for the paperback version to come out.

Rating:
Summary: Wrong end to romance
Review: I love the Emma Lord series. I also agree with another reader
that I also had hoped that Emma would tell Tom goodbye and go
on with her life. His death is an anti-climax. I hope she doesn't
mourn him for the rest of the series.

Rating:
Summary: Great plot; questionable ending
Review: I would have given this book 5 stars if it weren't for the ending. The Alpine series is a well-developed series of books with three-dimensional characters, vivid descriptions, humor, and excellent plot-lines. I always look forward to each new entry as I did this one. This book did not disappoint with regard to the above-mentioned characteristics. The citizens of Alpine are so realistic, I feel as if I know them, especially Emma and Vida. This book was a page-turner from beginning to end. So what's my problem? The ending. Without giving anything away, I felt that what happened was not true to the tone of the series or fair to Emma. Usually this series is more upbeat, a very attractive feature. However, the ending in this book was downright depressing, and I don't understand why it happened. If you're a die-hard Alpine fan, you may feel as I do about this part, but still enjoy the book. I do recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Nemesis Indeed
Review: I've read all the books in Daheim's Alpine series and loved each of them . . . up until this one. The plot of Alpine Nemesis was great and the storyline, well developed, but the ending was unexpected, uncharacteristic, and downright depressing. Daheim's audience is probably ninety percent women, most of whom read for the sheer pleasure of escape from the realities of life. What was Daheim thinking when she wrote this book? I do not recommend Alpine Nemesis, and am very reluctant to read Daheim's next book in the series for fear that it'll be a downer like this one.

Rating:
Summary: The Alpine ZZZZZZzzzzzz
Review: The 14th book in the Alpine series is a mixed bag of emotions. Overall, I wouldn't call this one of the best books in the series but it could have been.

The only thing saving Nemesis is the actual mystery. This is definitely one of the best stories Mary Daheim has written for this series. The clues that were found throughout the book made it difficult to put down. Also, it was nice to have back some of the humor that has been missing in the last couple books.

Emma's love life is one of my favorite aspects to this series. But in Nemesis, I thought I was reading a Harlequin book. As one other reviewer suggested, I would have preffered a different ending. A semi-original one perhaps? All I have to say is, Jackie O? Please Mrs. Daheim, let's move on from St. Tom!

I definitely suggest this book to Alpine devotees. The sleuthing is one of the best yet in this series. Entertaining and baffling. Also, there are a lot of important glimpses into the characters we have all grown to love AND hate. I would rate Nemesis higher if it were not for the teeny-bopper romance and violent unrealistic ending.

Rating:
Summary: Expected more from Emma
Review: The Alpine series is fantastic reading. I have enjoyed all of the Emma Lord mysteries. The ending to this book, however, was disappointing to me. I had hoped that Tom would have just "one more family crisis" that would cause him to again leave Emma. Then, after struggling with all of her emotions from all of the years past, she would decide that she needed to move forward in her life without Tom, without looking back.

Rating:
Summary: The Alpine Nemesis
Review: Two of Alpine's old families have been feuding for years. Things come to a head when the bodies of three members of one of the families are found in a local meat locker. Just to add to the confusion, a fourth body is found with the others and the victim doesn't seem to be connected in any way. This one is a real puzzle and it has Emma Lord and her sidekick Vida baffled. Sheriff Milo Dodge also seems to be coming up with a lot of dead ends (no pun intended) in this strange case. Emma does some sleuthing and, as usual, she has some interesting turns in her love life. This latest addition to the Emma Lord series has an uncharacteristically dark ending, but it is well-written and is a must-read for Daheim fans.