Tucked away in a cozy cul-de-sac on Heraldsgate Hill, Judith McMonigle Flynn hopes for smooth sailing in her longtime role as an innkeeper. But Judith's skill in dealing with guests is matched only by her knack for coming across corpses.

Mystery lovers who enjoy madcap mayhem will have no reservations about returning to Hillside Manor in the twenty-fourth Bed-and-Breakfast book from USA Today bestselling author Mary Daheim.

Judith's worst nightmare comes true when Vivian Flynn—husband Joe's first wife—moves back into the neighborhood, bringing along her newest spouse, Billy "Blunder" Buss, a former minor-league baseball player who is many years younger than his shop-worn bride. Still, the B&B business is going well and the newlyweds don't seem to be causing problems for the Flynns. That seemingly calm summer idyll is broken when Vivian, who has become mysteriously wealthy, announces plans to tear down her own house and the recently vacated bungalow next door so she can build a big, bad condo. Judith, along with the rest of the neighbors in the cul-de-sac, is up in arms, vowing to fight the project to the death.

Vivian's past catches up with her when Frankie Buss comes to town. Billy and Frankie's late father, elderly Oklahoma rancher Potsy Buss, was married to Vivian for nine months before dying and bequeathing her his vast wealth. Frankie Buss intends to stir the pot of gold that Potsy left his widow, and he's trying to cut a deal with Vivian and her most recent mate, Billy. Naturally, where else would Frankie and his wife, Marva Lou, stay but at Hillside Manor?

And naturally, somebody checks out . . . permanently. The "somebody" isn't a Buss family member, and turns out to be a "nobody" because the body can't be identified. To save the B&B as well as her sanity, Judith must figure out not only who did it, but who it was who was found dead in Vivian's backyard.

...

Welcome to mystery lovers’ favorite destination: Alpine, Washington, Mary Daheim’s picturesque old logging town in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. From the Venison Inn to the Upper Crust Bakery, Front Street is jumping–and the nerve center of the community is the office of The Alpine Advocate, Emma Lord’s weekly newspaper, which keeps folks up to speed on everything from joyous weddings to sudden, violent death.

THE ALPINE SCANDAL

It’s a quiet morning at the Advocate until the mail brings shocking news: a formal obituary for Alpiner Elmer Nystrom. As far as anyone knows, Elmer is alive and well. But he hasn’t turned up for work, so Emma and her unstoppable House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, rush to the Nystrom home, where they find Elmer’s lifeless body in the henhouse, half buried under straw. Not only has he been murdered, but his obituary had been mailed before he died. Though Elmer was well liked by everyone, the same cannot be said of his standoffish wife or his son, the town’s new orthodontist.

Rumors fly–straight into the office of the Advocate. Why did Dr. Nystrom’s new receptionist resign at the end of her first day? Why are the Nystroms’ neighbors so close-mouthed? Who mailed that prophetic obituary? With Sheriff Milo Dodge in the hospital, it’s up to Emma and Vida to get to the bottom of the tragedy. Alpiners love scandal, and with Elmer’s murder, they’ll get their fill.

The Alpine Scandal, number nineteen in this bestselling series, is as suspenseful and charming as its predecessors, a delicious look into the life of a small town where all inhabitants know one another–just not as well as they thought.


From the Hardcover edition....

Catering the annual pre-Easter brunch and egg hunt is a hare-raising hassle for Judith McManigle, hard-working hostess of the Hillside Manor.And this year's egg scramble gets particularly messy when the reclusive wife of a local scion is fatally perforated my a fiend dressed in a bunny suit. Never one to pass up a good murder, Judith solicits the help of her sometime-beau policeman Joe and her irrepressible Cousin Renie to get energized and get hopping down the floppy-eared assassin's trail. But soon the list of suspects is multiplying faster than a hutch-full of rabbits. And Judith might very well end up a basket case-or worse-before this whole thing is through...now the the party-planning sleuth's unsolicited snooping has put a killer hot on her cottontail!

...

B&B hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn and her closer-than-a-sibling cousin Renie would be crazy to turn down a free, 1930s-themed South Pacific islands cruise aboard the magnificent San Rafael, the pride of the Cruz Cruises fleet. Unfortunately, the fabulous pre-launch party is as far out to sea as the passengers are likely to get, after the body of their VIP host, Magglio Cruz, is discovered stuffed in the piano and the cruise is cancelled.

Suddenly free to gad about San Francisco with their marooned shipmates -- at least one of whom is possibly homicidal -- the cousins decide to join glamorous, martini-quaffing Rick and Rhoda St. George and their wheezy white pooch, Asthma, for a bit of amateur sleuthing. But the route to Magglio's murderer may not be such smooth sailing. And if Judith, Renie, and the St. Georges aren't careful, they may all end up leaving their hearts in San Francisco . . . and the rest of their mortal remains as well!

...

Tucked away in a cozy cul-de-sac on Heraldsgate Hill, Judith McMonigle Flynn hopes for smooth sailing in her longtime role as an innkeeper. But Judith's skill in dealing with guests is matched only by her knack for coming across corpses.

Mystery lovers who enjoy madcap mayhem will have no reservations about returning to Hillside Manor in the twenty-fourth Bed-and-Breakfast book from USA Today bestselling author Mary Daheim.

Judith's worst nightmare comes true when Vivian Flynn—husband Joe's first wife—moves back into the neighborhood, bringing along her newest spouse, Billy "Blunder" Buss, a former minor-league baseball player who is many years younger than his shop-worn bride. Still, the B&B business is going well and the newlyweds don't seem to be causing problems for the Flynns. That seemingly calm summer idyll is broken when Vivian, who has become mysteriously wealthy, announces plans to tear down her own house and the recently vacated bungalow next door so she can build a big, bad condo. Judith, along with the rest of the neighbors in the cul-de-sac, is up in arms, vowing to fight the project to the death.

Vivian's past catches up with her when Frankie Buss comes to town. Billy and Frankie's late father, elderly Oklahoma rancher Potsy Buss, was married to Vivian for nine months before dying and bequeathing her his vast wealth. Frankie Buss intends to stir the pot of gold that Potsy left his widow, and he's trying to cut a deal with Vivian and her most recent mate, Billy. Naturally, where else would Frankie and his wife, Marva Lou, stay but at Hillside Manor?

And naturally, somebody checks out . . . permanently. The "somebody" isn't a Buss family member, and turns out to be a "nobody" because the body can't be identified. To save the B&B as well as her sanity, Judith must figure out not only who did it, but who it was who was found dead in Vivian's backyard.

...

Innkeeper and amateur sleuth Judith McMonigle Flynn's worst nightmare comes true when Vivian Flynn—husband Joe's first wife—moves back into the neighborhood. Vivian, who has become mysteriously wealthy, plans to build a big, bad condo on their idyllic cul-de-sac. Outraged, Judith and her neighbors vow to fight the project to the death.

Vivian isn't the only newcomer to the area. Frankie Buss, son of another of Vivian's ex-husbands, has arrived at Hillside Manor with his wife. Vivian was married to his father for what seemed like minutes before she inherited his vast wealth—and ran off with his other son. Now Frankie's dying for his share of the pot of gold.

Vivian's got more than one mortal enemy—but which one ended up dead in her back yard? If she wants her home sweet home to stay happy, Judith will have to find out.

...

The picturesque little town of Alpine in the foothills of Washington’s Cascade Mountains is no longer the rough-and-ready logging camp of yesteryear. So when a drunken brawl at the Icicle Creek Tavern leaves a loner named Alvin De Muth dead, the residents feel as if they’ve gone back to the Bad Old Days.

The inquiry into the unfortunate incident should be a no-brainer. There are plenty of witnesses to the fatal fight, but since most of them were half-tanked at the time, Sheriff Milo Dodge is left scratching his head over a fistful of conflicting stories. Luckily for Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, the news breaks just before the paper’s Wednesday deadline, so for once she can give the radio station some real competition. But soon she has an even bigger story to report: a heartbreaking highway accident that leaves two people dead and a likable young local on life support.

From Front Street to River Road, from Stella’s Styling Salon to the Burger Barn, rumors are flying. Are the two tragedies linked in some inexplicable way? Was De Muth a mentor or a menace to Alpine’s teenage boys? What compels an ethereal female to visit Emma and insist that De Muth’s self-confessed killer is innocent? And (much to Emma’s chagrin) is it true that the sheriff is about to rewed his ex?

Emma senses that there’s a story behind the story and is determined to uncover the truth. Assisted by that human bulldozer Vida Runkel, the Advocate’s House & Home editor, Emma goes for the gold.

Welcome to another Daheim masterpiece that will challenge the cleverest reader–and a warmhearted world of small-town life, as richly addictive as it is dangerous.


From the Hardcover edition....

SPECIAL EDITION: MURDER

Not even in Alpine, Washington, could the death of octogenarian Jack Froland be considered big news—except by his drinking buddies at Mugs Ahoy. But that suddenly changes when in the middle of the funeral, Jack’s widow hysterically insists that he was murdered. Emma Lord, publisher of The Alpine Advocate, who is already investigating a threatening letter received by the town’s beautiful blonde judge, now suspects she has two hot stories to unravel. Backed by her House and Home editor, that bottomless repository of scandal Vida Runkel, she prepares for a triple-threat special: murder, blackmail, and—as wildfire sweeps the mountainside— possible arson as well. But success will not come cheap. With a killer roaming the woods, it may cost Emma her life. . . .

READ ALL ABOUT IT!
The Alpine Advocate
Novels by Mary Daheim
...

For many mystery readers, Alpine, Washington–Mary Daheim’s fictional small town in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains–has become a beloved second home, a delicious retreat from the stresses of life. Yet the editor of The Alpine Advocate, Emma Lord, knows all too well that the picturesque old logging town is loaded with scandal: family feuds, illicit romance, chicanery, and sometimes deadly violence.

THE ALPINE RECLUSE

In the middle of a hot midsummer night, Emma is awakened by fire trucks rushing to a blaze at the nearby home of newlyweds Tim and Tiffany Rafferty. At daybreak, Tiffany and her unborn child are safe, but Tim, never blessed with good luck in all his thirty-plus years, has perished in the fierce conflagration. Sheriff Milo Dodge suspects murder and arson, and rumors fly from the Burger Barn and Mugs Ahoy to the Grocery Basket and the Venison Inn. Some swear the Rafferty marriage was crumbling. Others hint at stock fraud. A few mention momentary sightings of a possibly mad recluse known as Old Nick.

Sacrificing the heady enticements of a budding romance to nail down a great story, Emma shifts into high investigative gear while her fearless House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, rushes in where angels fear to tread: straight into the private lives of some of Alpine’s most respectable–and now terminally edgy–citizens. But neither Emma nor Vida suspects the unbelievable truth.


From the Hardcover edition....

Emma Lord is shocked to hear that the Advocate is embroiled in a ruthless takeover bid. Soon, battle lines are drawn and war is declared. Then the first casualty is discovered facedown at the Tall Timber Motel. The victim is Dylan Platte, front man for the buy-out offer Emma turned down cold. Naturally, Emma is a prime suspect. Then it turns out that the dead man has a big surprise for the living–one that involves the glamorous Ginger Roth, a bodacious Alpine newbie who can perform the dumb blonde act in her sleep. Emma’s ever-inquisitive House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, plumbs her extensive grapevine, from the Burger Barn to the Venison Inn, determined to connect the dots. But when an Advocate insider is next to take a bullet, Emma and the rest of the Alpiners make it their mission to find a killer....

USA Today bestselling mystery maven Mary Daheim brings us another intriguing tale in her cherished Bed-and-Breakfast mystery series in which a trip down memory lane brings Judith and Renie back to their old neighbourhood, and they are drawn to a seemingly deserted house that is much more than meets the eye.

On a trip to Renie′s old neighbourhood, the cousins′ curiosity is piqued by a mysterious brick Tudor house that always looked deserted during Renie′s junior high school days. Surprised that the house still looks abandoned after all these years, Judith and Renie, of course, cannot resist an opportunity to snoop around. They discover that Mr. and Mrs. Bland have lived in the house since 1947, and after cornering the mailman and milkman, Judith and Renie also learn that the Blands receive regular mail and food deliveries, but no one has ever seen the occupants who simply pay the bills with cash they leave in the milk box. Although intrigued by these strange, but definitely not sinister, occurrences, Judith is ready to focus her attention once more on her neglected husband Joe and the busy B&B business. Until one day Judith finds a dead body in the trunk of her car. And it′s the Blands′ milkman...

...

Leaving the Hillside manor in capable hands, bed-and-breakfast hostess Judith McMonigle heads north to Vancouver's Hotel Clovia with her irrepressibly voracious cousin Renie for a pre-Thanksgiving getaway.But when an addled and impoverished popcorn vendor is murdered-along with his foul-mouthed pet parakeet-a local copper's suspicious gaze settles on the two visiting Americans. The cousins, in turn, suspect one of the "Sacred Eight" -- an odd-duck assortment of glamorous showbiz glitterati currently gathered at the historic hotel. And unless Judith and Renie can pluck a killer from the secretive, star-studded group, their geese will be thoroughly cooked in short order!

...

Life has hit some sour notes as of late for B&B hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn and her cousin Renie. Graphic design guru Renie's up to her eyebrows in debt after some seriously overzealous spending sprees. Meanwhile, Judith's got her hands full with her wacky new neighbor, Rudi, a virtuoso violinist whose daily—and usually unclothed—practices are unhinging her and other neighbors in the cul-de-sac.

But, though they'd all love to kill nude, rude Rudi, it's his larger-than-life mentor, Dolph Kluger, who takes his final bow after ingesting some ruthlessly poisoned rhubarb. To add to the musical mayhem, Rudi's priceless violin bow goes missing, Renie's useless credit cards are stolen, and each murder suspect seems loopier than the last. Once again, the cousins are going to need some fancy fingering to make a cold-blooded killer sing—but if they're not careful, the next music they hear will be their funeral march.

...

As her myriad of fans can attest, USA Today bestselling author Mary Daheim creates wonderful mysteries peopled with marvelous characters as quirky as they are endearing. The Seattle Times says Daheim is “one of the brightest stars in our city’s literary constellation”—and the popularity of her irresistible Pacific Northwest crime series has swept across the nation. Now the unfaltering Emma Lord is back in her highly anticipated hardcover debut.

For a small town newspaper like The Alpine Advocate, a new play at the local community college is big news. Editor and publisher Emma Lord is duty-bound to attend opening night, but expects the amateur enterprise will serve only as a cure for insomnia. The play is dubbed “a black comedy,” but the only laughs Emma gets are from the bad acting and the wretched script. And while the turgid production makes Wagner’s Ring cycle seem like a vignette, the real drama begins just before the final curtain.

Hans Berenger, dean of students, wasn’t well known or well liked around Alpine, but the audience found his death scene genuinely convincing—until they realized he wasn’t acting. No one can say how or when the blanks in the prop gun were replaced with the real bullets that killed Berenger, but the list of suspects reads like a playbill of the cast and crew. They all had opportunity, access, and their own axes to grind with the thespically challenged dean.

Seeking the assistance of Vida Runkel, the Advocate’s redoubtable House and Home editor, Emma Lord vows to unravel a mystery that spirals out into unexpected places. As Emma sets the stage for the most likely suspect, she finds herself in a two-character scene whose next cue could make the resolute editor take a final—and permanent—bow.


From the Hardcover edition....

In Alpine, Washington–Mary Daheim’s cozy hamlet in the Cascade Mountains–mystery fans can meet folks whose colorful quirks and welcoming manner make the town feel like home. Alpine’s bastion of bylines, Emma Lord’s weekly newspaper, The Alpine Advocate, is the current that drives the rumor mill of small-town life . . . and occasional death. But even the eagerly anticipated Advocate isn’t immune to the perils of the outside world.


THE ALPINE TRAITOR


Emma Lord is shocked to hear the outrageous news: The Advocate is embroiled in a takeover bid. Worse, the ruthless acquisitioners are the heirs of Emma’s longtime and tragically departed lover, Tom Cavanaugh. They have come to Alpine–to stay. Soon, battle lines are drawn and war is declared. Then the first casualty is discovered facedown at the Tall Timber Motel.

The victim is Dylan Platte, front man for the buy-out offer Emma turned down cold. Naturally, Emma is a prime suspect. Then it turns out that the dead man has a big surprise for the living–one that involves the glamorous Ginger Roth, a bodacious Alpine newbie who can perform the dumb blonde act in her sleep. Emma’s ever-inquisitiv a bullet, Emma and the rest of the e House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, plumbs her extensive grapevine, from the Burger Barn to the Venison Inn, determined to connect the dots. But when an Advocate insider is next to takeAlpiners make it their mission to find a killer.

Mary Daheim’s newest Alpine thriller throws an intriguing wrench into Emma’s domain, delighting fans with a generous helping of just deserts–in a town where secrets are everybody’s business....

USA Today bestselling author Mary Daheim knows how to spin a mystery with a tight plot and captivatingly eccentric characters. And her vivid Pacific Northwest setting–a character in itself–has garnered her a plethora of devoted fans. Now her resourceful and resolute journalist Emma Lord is back with a new mystery to solve–and an even tougher deadline to meet.

Members of the Burl Creek Thimble Club, a quilting circle in small-town Alpine, Washington, are planning a fete to welcome back Genevieve Bayard, who left the group, and Alpine, decades ago. But Gen’s homecoming is cut decidedly short when she dies at a dinner party. Emma Lord, owner and publisher of the local newspaper, The Alpine Advocate, immediately arrives on the scene to report the incident and sleuth her way to the truth.

Though it appears that Gen wasn’t adored by everyone in the Alpine community, her untimely death still comes as a shock. To help solve the mystery, Emma turns to Vida Runkel, the Advocate’s trusty House & Home editor. Such a notorious story would normally have Vida chomping at the bit, but to Emma’s surprise Vida is hesitant, even downright unwilling to get involved.

The demise of Genevieve Bayard, however, isn’t the only crime in Alpine. There has been a rash of burglaries, including at Emma’s own cozy log cabin. Are the break-ins and the murder connected? As Emma digs, she uncovers a shocking scandal that may point the finger of guilt at one of her nearest and dearest . . . while single-handedly changing the history of Alpine itself.


From the Hardcover edition....

The picturesque little town of Alpine in the foothills of Washington’s Cascade Mountains is no longer the rough-and-ready logging camp of yesteryear. So when a drunken brawl at the Icicle Creek Tavern leaves a loner named Alvin De Muth dead, the residents feel as if they’ve gone back to the Bad Old Days.

The inquiry into the unfortunate incident should be a no-brainer. There are plenty of witnesses to the fatal fight, but since most of them were half-tanked at the time, Sheriff Milo Dodge is left scratching his head over a fistful of conflicting stories. Luckily for Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, the news breaks just before the paper’s Wednesday deadline, so for once she can give the radio station some real competition. But soon she has an even bigger story to report: a heartbreaking highway accident that leaves two people dead and a likable young local on life support.

From Front Street to River Road, from Stella’s Styling Salon to the Burger Barn, rumors are flying. Are the two tragedies linked in some inexplicable way? Was De Muth a mentor or a menace to Alpine’s teenage boys? What compels an ethereal female to visit Emma and insist that De Muth’s self-confessed killer is innocent? And (much to Emma’s chagrin) is it true that the sheriff is about to rewed his ex?

Emma senses that there’s a story behind the story and is determined to uncover the truth. Assisted by that human bulldozer Vida Runkel, the Advocate’s House & Home editor, Emma goes for the gold.

Welcome to another Daheim masterpiece that will challenge the cleverest reader–and a warmhearted world of small-town life, as richly addictive as it is dangerous....

Death on the High Cees

Bed-and-breakfast hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn isn't exactly bellowing "Bravo!" over the news that obnoxious opera star Mario Pacetti and his entourage are coming to stay at the Hillside Manor. The world-class tenor is a renowned pain-in-the-neck -- a bloated buffoon who could easily eat her out of house and home. So when the puffed-up, would-be Pavarotti inadvertently drinks poison and falls down dead on his tosca, accusing eyes turn to Judith and her amateur sleuthing partner, cousin Renie. Now it's curtains unless the cousins can unmask the real culprit -- before a killer's final, fatal encore.DEATH ON THE HIGH CEESBed-and-breakfast hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn isn't exactly bellowing "Bravo!" over the news that obnoxious opera star Mario Pacetti and his entourage are coming to stay at the Hillside Manor. The world-class tenor is a renowned pain-in-the-neck--a bloated buffoon who could easily eat her out of house and home. So when the puffed-up, would-be Pavarotti inadvertently drinks poison and falls down dead on his tosca, accusing eyes turn to Judith and her amateur sleuthing partner, cousin Renie. And it's curtains unless the cousins can unmask the real culprit--before a killer's final, fatal encore....

Unholy Matrimony

Ask not for whom the wedding bell tolls, it tolls for Judith McMonigle Flynn's son Mike--and the Hillside Manor b&b is packed to the rafters with relatives. However, Mama Judith's unrestrained joy is somewhat dampened when, during the rehearsal dinner downtown, she spies a tuxedo-clad gent tossing a bridal-gowned beauty off the roof of a nearby hotel. Always one to eagerly exclaim "I do!" when offered the opportunity to investigate nefarious deeds, Judith's determination to unveil a killer could put undo stress on her own marital bliss with policeman-hubby Joe. But she remains wedded to her mission--and she's not about to take a honeymoon from amateur sleuthing until she's gotten to the bottom of the homicidal hanky-panky surrounding a match made in hell.

...

For Sale:
Luxury Condos, Corpse Included

Just a stone's throw from Judith McMonigle Flynn's thriving Hillside Manor, workmen are busy renovating the elegantly decrepit Alhambra Arms into pricey condominiums. But concerned contractor George Guthrie fears that well-heeled potential buyers may blanch when they learn about the four-decades-dead body that was stashed behind the crumbling walls of the moldy manse. And ever-inquisitive Judith's discovery of some much more recent remains on the premises threatens to se property values through the floorboards--and Guthrie through the roof! Both her professional detective husband Joe and her partner-in-crime solving cousin Renie think Judith is bonkers to suspect that the two killings are connected. Nevertheless, Judith's ready to build a strong case to that effect -- unless some homicidal someone decides to deconstruct her first!

...

THE ALPINE ADVOCATE IS ON A ROLL.
The big story is the five million dollar luxury spa that Los Angeles real estate developers want to build around Alpine's mountainside mineral springs--hot news and fierce controversy for Advocate readers, and for the paper's editor and publisher, Emma Lord.
Pro-spa Alpiners cite the prospect of sorely needed new jobs. Those against it predict glitz, sleaze, and an avalanche of "Californicators." No one foresees the murder that shocks the town. Aided by her House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, and tongue-tied Sheriff Milo Dodge, Emma lines up her biggest, blackest headlines and goes hunting--for a brilliant killer and the strange story behind an almost perfect crime. . . .
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
...

Though lurching through London is ever so jolly, hostess on-holiday Judith McMonigle Flynn and her cantankerous cousin Renie are looking forward to an unharried weekend at a real English country manor. They find the estate taxing, however, what with vacationing relations crowding every nook and cranny of Ravenscroft House, while its awesomely aged mistress, Aunt Petulia, holds court--until a box of poisoned sweets hastens the dour dowager's demise. Soon Judith and Renie are up to their American necks in a muck of murder most British--as they set out to unearth a fatal family secret...and unmask the culprit who was anti-Auntie enough to do the old girl in....

A bum hip has bed-and-breakfast hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn limping off to Good Cheer Hospital -- a questionable "haven of healing" where two recent patients didn't make the cut after routine surgery. Judith's trepidation at undergoing the knife is eased only by sharing a room with cousin Renie, who's in for rotator cuff repair. Though the cousins survive their surgeries, the ex-pro quarterback next door is permanently sacked after minor knee surgery. With the scoreboard showing Grim Reaper 3, post-op patients 0, Judith decides that she and Renie are obliged to get to the bottom of Good Cheer's carnage. But in order to sew up the case, Judith and Renie must probe into the suspects' psyches. And suddenly it looks as if the cousins' own prognoses could take them out of the game...for good.

...

Death Takes a Holiday

Gossip columnist Dagmar Delacroix Chatsworth and her yappy lapdog Rover's recent stay at the Hillside manor left hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn's nerves, and best bed linens, in tatters.  So Judith joins cousin Renie for some well-earned off-season R&R at Canada's famous Bugler Ski Resort -- only to discover with horror that the swanky getaway is the next stop on detestable Dagmar's itinerary.  But it seems the cousins aren't the only guests with serious grudges against the dirt-disher and her malicious mutt.  And when one of the despised lady's entourage is murdered on the snowless slopes, Judith sets out to corner a killer -- before more hapless hangers-on discover that Dagner's company can be even more poisonous than her pen. 

Gossip columnist Dagmar Delacroix Chatsworth and her yappy lapdog Rover's recent stay at the Hillside Manor left hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn's nerves, and best bed linens, in tatters. So Judith joins cousin Renie for some well-earned off-season R&R at Canada's famous Bugler Ski Resort -- only to discover with horror that the swanky getaway is the next stop on detestable Dagmar's itinerary. But it seems the cousins aren't the only guests with serious grudges against the dirt-disher and her malicious mutt. And when one of the despised lady's entourage is murdered on the snowless slopes, Judith sets out to corner a killer -- before more hapless hangers-on discover that Dagmar's company can be even more poisonous than her pen....