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Book Summary and Reviews of The Alpine Quilt by Mary Daheim

The Alpine Quilt by Mary Daheim

The Alpine Quilt

An Emma Lord Mystery

by Mary Daheim

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  • Published:
  • Apr 2005, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Daheim sympathetically portrays the small mountain town and its denizens, particularly Emma and her brother, Ben, a priest who's serving as St. Mildred's interim rector." - PW

"Daheim fans will welcome another encounter with the ever-enchanting Emma." - Booklist

"Cosy mystery...amiably captures the rhythms and crosscurrents of small-town life, even though Alpine sometimes seems overwhelmed by its enormous cast.' - Kirkus Reviews

This information about The Alpine Quilt was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Mary Daheim Author Biography

Seattle native Mary Richardson Daheim lives three miles from the house where she was raised. From her dining nook she can see the maple tree in front of her childhood home. Mary isn't one for change when it comes to geography. Upon getting her journalism degree from the University of Washington (she can see the campus from the dining nook, too), she went to work for a newspaper in Anacortes WA. Then, after her marriage to David Daheim, his first college teaching post was in Port Angeles where she became a reporter for the local daily. Both tours of small-town duty gave her the background for the Alpine/Emma Lord series.

Mary spent much of her non-fiction career in public relations (some would say PR is fiction, too). But ever since she learned how to read and write, Mary wanted to...

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