THE ALPINE RECLUSE

Alpine is burned up in more ways than one.

Whew. The temperature in the tiny northwest village has topped 90 for days on end. Everyone has suffered, from the forest critters on the edge of town to Emma Lord, editor/owner of the weekly Advocate, uncomfortably hot as she gossips with her ace columnist Vida. Then, in the middle of one sultry night, the temperature really soars when fire sweeps through the home of Tim and Tiffany Rafferty. When morning dawns on Tim’s charred corpse, clues surface that he’d been dead even before the fire. Was pregnant Tiffany an abused wife? Did her overprotective mom and dad try to make things right for her? And who was that barefooted, raggedy stranger skulking about? The answers would come quicker if two women in Sheriff Milo’s office told what they knew, but one’s too busy hiding a love affair, and the other’s overwhelmed with caring for her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother. Still, things cool down just in time for Emma to get the scoop on her media competition.

So many kinfolk and quaint-tongued residents that you might confuse this with a southern novel. The ending is a bit of a cheat, but if you prefer your mysteries small, insular and chatty, Daheim (The Alpine Quilt, 2005, etc.) is your gal.