The Alpine Zen: An Emma Lord Mystery

Set in 2005, Daheim’s engrossing 26th and final mystery featuring Alpine, Wash., newspaper publisher Emma Lord (after 2014’s The Alpine Yeoman) finds Emma worried about Vida Runkel, her House & Home editor at the Alpine Advocate. Vida is despondent over her grandson, Roger Hibbert, who’s serving a four-year prison term for luring teenage girls into prostitution. But Emma, happily married to Sheriff Milo Dodge for nearly a year, is soon occupied with the plight of another woman, Ren Rawlings, a high school art teacher in San Luis Obispo, Calif., where Ren settled with her adoptive parents at age 10. Ren, whose mother gave her up at birth, is sure that her mother was murdered, probably in Alpine, where she intends to stay until she finds the killer. A complex plot and a cast of vivid characters will keep readers turning the pages. Series fans will be sorry to see the last of Emma, Milo, and company. (Apr.)