Emma Lord

For a small town nestled in the Cascade Mountains' foothills, picturesque Alpine provides more than enough headlines to fill the pages of editor and publisher Emma Lord's Alpine Advocate. The Labor Day edition's lead story features controversial timber baron Jack Blackwell's scheme to become Skykomish county manager, but the recent strangling deaths of two young women are all anyone can talk about.

A woman’s body has been found in a squalid motel. Her driver’s license shows that Dawn Purvis was in her late 30s and lived in Weaverville, California - and the only connection between that town and Alpine is their gold-mining and logging origins. Emma, Milo, and the ever-inquisitive Alpine Advocate receptionist, Alison Lindahl, are curious, though Alison is a bit distracted by the new county extension agent’s good looks. Meanwhile, there’s something strange about the older couple who have moved into the cabin down the road that was once owned by a murder victim.