The debut of the Emma Lord murder mystery series.
After a year as publisher-editor of the Alpine Advocate, Emma Lord feels fine about her move to this small town in the foothills of Washington's Cascade Mountains. What she really needs for her paper, though, is a big story. And she gets it—when handsome Mark Doukas, grandson of rich, old Neeny Doukas is murdered. Emma discovers that trying to get straight answers out of Neeny and his thin-lipped...

"An ill wind blows through Alpine, but Advocate publisher Emma Lord and Sheriff Milo Dodge seem immune to the prevailing angst. The newlyweds' domestic idyll is most definitely over when a dead man is discovered near the fish hatchery and nobody has a clue as to his identity. What's more, whispers of scandal arise when some high school girls mysteriously take a walk on the wild side, and then Milo's dedicated deputy, Sam Heppner, a true yeoman, suddenly...

Not even in Alpine, Washington, could the death of octogenarian Jack Froland be considered big news--except by his drinking buddies at Mugs Ahoy. But that suddenly changes when in the middle of his funeral, Jack's widow hysterically insists that he was murdered. Emma Lord, publisher of The Alpine Advocate, who is already investigating a threatening letter received by the town's beautiful blonde judge, now suspects she has two hot stories to unravel....

When the sheriff asks for her help investigating a bizarre series of anonymous letters alleging the wrongful murder conviction of a recently deceased man, Emma Lord is alarmed by the letter-writer's threats that more deaths will follow if the truth is not revealed.

For once, Emma Lord, editor-publisher of The Alpine Advocate, isn't thrilled by having an inside track. The Seattle murder of Alpine native Carol Stokes is generating headlines, but the accused killer is Emma's long-lost cousin Ronnie, who swears he was out drinking when his girlfriend was strangled. But he can't prove it, and neighbors claim they heard the couple fighting moments before the murder. Now Emma and supersnoop Vida, the Advocate's house-and-home...