The Alpine Betrayal

Author: Mary Daheim
Genre: Mystery

3 Stars

A local girl-made-good, Dani Marsh, comes home to Alpine to shoot a Hollywood film.  While she is there, during the annual Loggerama, Dan's former husband, Cody Graff is found dead.  Emma Lord, the owner of the local newspaper, the Advocate, reports on everything and soon suspects that there is more going on than is apparent.
 

After reading the first Alpine novel (Alpine Advocate), I almost didn't finish it because I thought it was a little slow, but a good mystery so hoped the second would be better.
 

Three stars for the mystery only, because you really don't figure it out right away. However, for the first 80 pages (!!) there is nothing but descriptions (again) of everyone in the town, and everything going on during the Loggerama Festival.
 

In the first book, she described everybody/everything for so long that it got boring fast, with the murder coming late into the book. She does it again in this one, and I can only wonder if this will continue throughout the series. I'm not sure if I will continue reading these, since it really runs slow until the murder (drags on, if you will), and only then are you given a chance to see where the book will lead you.
 

I prefer novels that get you interested in the first couple of chapters, and for me, that means something significant should take place, not just descriptions of everything in town.  I realize that Ms. Daheim probably does this to draw you into the town and its people, but while others may be interested in that sort of thing, I can do very well if the descriptions are throughout the book, not at the very beginning.
 

www.amazon.com.Alpine-Betrayal-Emma-Lord-Mysteries/dp/0345379373