The Alpine Vengeance by Mary Daheim
This is the twenty-second book in the Emma Lord/Alpine Advocate series. It certainly feels as though the author is wrapping things up by neatly tying up any unfinished stories from the earlier books.
This book referenced a murder in an earlier book, which quite honestly I did not remember. And unfortunately I found the author and her editors did not do a great job recapping the earlier story enough for readers to understand the interconnectivity of the characters and events.
I enjoy my visits to Alpine, Washington, but sometimes the small-town atmosphere is intimidating to outsiders and without a character chart and/or family tree, it’s impossible to keep the relationships straight. That was a bit frustrating for me as reader, even one who has read all the previous books in the series. A preface or prologue would have been helpful in this volume.
As I said, I do enjoy my visits with Emma and the gang at the Alpine Advocate, but this one was unnecessarily complicated, not only by the lack of back story, but also in the plot itself. The many parts were hard to keep straight and in the end, it was tough to finish it. Truthfully, I only finished it because I wanted to get to the end, not because I cared about the people involved.
The events of the book appear to be building towards the end of the series, though the author has indicated on her website that is not the case. The characters are growing, but they seem to be growing to a point at which there is no where else to go. Either the series will have to end, or the author will have to start killing off favorite characters. It seems to be heading towards an inescapable corner. I like the series, but if the rest of the series is like this book, I would not be sorry to see it end.
One Bear’s Opinion: Three glasses of coke with a bowl of average potato chips
Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver
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