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Book Review of The Alpine Betrayal (Emma Lord, Bk 2)

The Alpine Betrayal (Emma Lord, Bk 2)
Pattakins avatar reviewed on + 365 more book reviews


It's Loggerama time in Alpine. All the contests, sales and special events want to advertise in Emma Lord's paper, the Alpine Advocate.
Plus, Emma's son, Adam, who has the brains of a turnip has left college in Hawaii and gone to Alaska to work and now wants to go to college in Fairbanks.
On top of that small town girl makes good, Dani Marsh is coming home after five years to do location shooting on her new movie, with her new fiancee, movie heart throb Matt Tabor and director Reid Hampton.
Dani had run away to Los Angeles after the SIDS death of her baby and divorce from husband Cody Graff.
Emma doesn't know much about this story, but gets filled in on the old information from her employee and confidant, sixtyish, Vida Runkel, whose niece Marje is now engaged to Cody Graff.
What Emma doesn't understand is why everyone seems to hate Dani, including her own mother. Cody Graff even announces to everyone that he thinks she should be dead.
Unfortunately, for him, it's Cody Graff who ends up laying dead on a country road. Poisoned by an overdose of a prescription drug he was taking.
Emma is surprised at how many people refuse to believe he was murdered. Dani, her mother, Patti, Cody's brother Curtis all think he took the overdose himself.
But Emma and the local sheriff Milo Dodge believe it was murder and that it had something to do with both Baby Scarlett's death five years ago and then the death of the young deputy, Art Fremstad, who was investigating the baby's death. It was ruled that he had committed suicide, but Milo had never belived that, and it now looks as though he had also been murdered.
Emma was determined to find out the answers, before the killer could kill again.
I like several things in this book. Emma is vey likeable.
Vida is a hoot, reading about this sixtish year old woman, accidentally entering the wet T-shirt contest at Mugs Ahoy and then going through with it because, afterall, she signed her name to the contract is very funny.
I really like Milo Dodge, who gets himself a girlfriend, Honoria Whitman, an artist from California. Emma spends a lot of time convincing herself she doesn't care, because she wouldn't want Milo as a boyfriend anyway. Milo is worried that he's going to lose his re-election to his UFO spotting opponant if he doesn't find the killer.
She has improved a character who really irritated me in the first book. Ad salesman, Ed Bronsky, who refused to sell ad space if he could talk the customer out of buying. He still grumbles and complains about color ad's and anything where he can't use clip art, but at least is doing his job.
Now for what I don't like about this book.
Credit: A Customer