Author Information
Mary Daheim
  • Bibliography:
    72 Books (3 Series)
  • First Book:
    July 1983
  • Latest Book:
    September 2022
  • Author Rating:
  • Share:
About the Author

Mary Daheim received her journalism degree from University of Washington, after which she worked at a small newspaper. After marrying her husband, a professor, they moved to a small Washington town, where she became a reporter for the local paper. Daheim's early working background became integral to her Alpine series featuring heroine, Emma Lord. After also working in public relations, she began writing historical romances.

In 1991, Daheim began focusing her writing on mysteries. She's written over 55 novels which include her Bed and Breakfast series. She has received critical praise from many publications including Publishers Weekly. Her and her husband had been married for 43 years until his death in February 2010. She has three daughters and two granddaughters. They all live in Seattle.

Full Series List in Order

A Bed-And-Breakfast Mystery

1 - Just Desserts (Jul-1991)
2 - Fowl Prey (Nov-1991)
3 - Holy Terrors (Apr-1992)
4 - Dune to Death (May-1993)
5 - Bantam of the Opera (Nov-1993)
6 - A Fit of Tempera (Aug-1994)
7 - Major Vices (Mar-1995)
8 - Murder, My Suite (Oct-1995)
9 - Auntie Mayhem (Mar-1996)
10 - Nutty As a Fruitcake (Nov-1996)
11 - September Mourn (Aug-1997)
12 - Wed and Buried (Feb-1998)
13 - Snow Place to Die (Oct-1998)
14 - Legs Benedict (Apr-1999)
15 - Creeps Suzette (Jan-2000)
16 - A Streetcar Named Expire (Jan-2001)
17 - Suture Self (Feb-2001)
18 - Silver Scream (May-2002)
19 - Hocus Croakus (Jul-2003)
20 - This Old Souse (Jul-2004)
21 - Dead Man Docking (Aug-2005)
22 - Saks and Violins (Aug-2006)
23 - Scots on the Rocks (Aug-2007)
24 - Vi Agra Falls (Aug-2008)
25 - Loco Motive (Sep-2010)
26 - All the Pretty Hearses (Aug-2011)
27 - The Wurst Is Yet to Come (Jul-2012)
28 - Gone with the Win (Jul-2013)
29 - Clam Wake (Aug-2014)
30 - Here Comes the Bribe (Apr-2016)
31 - A Case of Bier (Jul-2018)
32 - Lady MacDeath (Sep-2022)

An Emma Lord Mystery

1 - The Alpine Advocate (Oct-1992)
2 - The Alpine Betrayal (Mar-1993)
3 - The Alpine Christmas (Nov-1993)
4 - The Alpine Decoy (Sep-1994)
5 - The Alpine Escape (Apr-1995)
6 - The Alpine Fury (Nov-1995)
7 - The Alpine Gamble (Aug-1996)
8 - The Alpine Hero (Jan-1997)
9 - The Alpine Icon (Sep-1997)
10 - The Alpine Journey (Apr-1998)
11 - The Alpine Kindred (Jan-1999)
12 - The Alpine Legacy (Oct-1999)
13 - The Alpine Menace (Oct-2000)
14 - The Alpine Nemesis (Oct-2001)
15 - The Alpine Obituary (Aug-2002)
16 - The Alpine Pursuit (Mar-2004)
17 - The Alpine Quilt (Apr-2005)
18 - The Alpine Recluse (Apr-2006)
19 - The Alpine Scandal (Apr-2007)
20 - The Alpine Traitor (Mar-2008)
21 - The Alpine Uproar (Jul-2009)
22 - The Alpine Vengeance (Apr-2011)
23 - The Alpine Winter (Nov-2011)
24 - The Alpine Xanadu (Feb-2013)
25 - The Alpine Yeoman (Mar-2014)
26 - The Alpine Zen (Apr-2015)

Emma Lord Returns

1 - Alpha Alpine (Dec-2017)
2 - Bitter Alpine (Feb-2020)

Book List in Order: 72 titles



  • Beautiful Dallas Cameron, left penniless by her father's death, was desperate. When she discovered that Iain Fraser, favorite of the Queen, was making his fortune as a pirate, she proposed a bargain: her silence for the security of marriage. Dallas n...



  • Morgan's topaz eyes flashed fury, and the flush on her lovely young face was face...not the passion Francis chose to believe he had inspired. But despite Morgan's denial, a flame had been ignited. Swept up in the intrigues of the royal cou...



  • Serena was sure Brant Parnell wanted to marry her for her father's money, but it didn't matter. An elopement with the handsome sea captain would get her to Massachusetts where she could realize her most cherished dream -- to be a newspaper journalist...



  • FROM THE TURBULENT GRANDEUR OF THE HIGHLANDS TO THE INTRIGUE OF ROYAL CASTLES... With the bold passion of lain Fraser's pirate blood and the breathtaking brilliance of Dallas's dark-haired beauty, their tempestuous daughter Sorcha confronted...



  • The Man Behind the Mask... Disguised in a black cloak, hat and mask, daring highwayman Captain Hood galloped into Honor Dale's quiet life. To restore England's King Charles to his rightful throne, Hood stole from the hapless rich who traveled the ...



  • BEDLAM AND BREAKFAST When the garishly grotesque clan of wealthy carpet-sweeper magnate Otto Broadie sweeps down upon Judith McMonigle's Hillside Manor Inn, it looks like there'll be a wild night of drinking, dining, and fortune-telling in the off...



  • A Tender Education Eden Berenger grew up an unwanted orphan in a loveless household, until the Earl of Marlborough claimed her as his flesh and blood-hours before his imprisonment for treason. To spare her father's life, Eden was forced to obey the ...



  • 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 ...



  • HARE TODAY, DEAD TOMORROW 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...






  • Bohemian Intrigue Katherine de Vere would have given her life for king and country, but marrying a foolish fop to suit a whim of King James was another matter altogether. Especially after Kat had a taste of true passion courtesy of Stefan Dvorak, ...



  • MURDER HITS THE FRONT PAGE With a full year as publisher-editor of the Alpine Advocate under her belt, Emma Lord feels fine about her move to this small town in the foothills of Washington's Cascade Mountains. But what the paper badly needs is a b...



  • BAD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS FOR THE ALPINE ADVOCATE Five years after her hasty departure from Alpine, Dani Marsh, now a Hollywood star, returns home for location shooting in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains... .At the annual Alpine Loggerama, Cody...



  • LIFE'S A BEACH...AND THEN YOU DIE! Bed-and-breakfast hostess Judith McMonigle and her policeman beau Joe Flynn have finally gotten hitched--and they're off on a sunny honeymoon to beautiful Buccaneer Beach. But an unfortunate confrontation with a ...



  • THERE'S LITTLE CHEER IN THE HOLIDAY HEADLINES OF THE ALPINE ADVOCATE. The pretty little town of Alpine looks like a Christmas card: deep, fresh snow, carolers, Christmas trees, even a sleigh. Until the discovery of a woman's leg in the lake, along...



  • 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 r...



  • Framed Pity poor Judith McMonigle Flynn! Taking a much-needed break from Hillside Manor, she and irrepressible cousin Renie have barely set foot in their family's backwoods vacation cottage--and already they're having a brush with the local law. ...



  • IN ALPINE, WASHINGTON, NOT ALL THE NEWS IS FIT TO PRINT. When a beautiful young African-American nurse with a shady past takes a job in Alpine, some locals show their true bigoted natures, filling editor-publisher Emma Lord with disgust. But when ...



  • Murder is Relative Though they'd rather be boiled in oil, Judith McMonigle Flynn and her cantankerous cousin Renie have agreed to cater a seventy-fifth birthday bash for their batty old Uncle Boo Major, the billionaire breakfast mush magnate. Luck...



  • THE DITOR OF THE ALPINE ADVOCATE GOES DIGGING FOR A MURDERER. At forty-two, newspaperwoman Emma Lord decides she needs time off to do some soul-searching. But her old Jag breaks down in the picturesque Pacific Northwest town of Port Angeles, and i...






  • 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...



  • BANK ON MURDER For generations the venerable family-owned bank has served the old logging town of Alpine in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. But suddenly Marv Peterson, bank president and family patriarch, seems unnaturally distracted; his ...



  • Bad Manors 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, howev...



  • 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...



  • FROM GROUCH TO GRINCH...TO GHOST Hillside Manor's neighbors all adored proprietor Judith McMonigle Flynn's festive suggestion to deck the halls and houses in their cul-de-sac with eye-catching Christmas finery-except Enid Goodrich. The grumpy old ...



  • THE ALPINE ADVOCATE SCOOPS A MURDER Emma Lord, the Advocate's editor, finds the body in the facial room of Stella's Styling Salon--anonymous under a mud pack, throat slashed. The victim turns out to be the sister-in-law of Sheriff Dodge's girlf...



  • Deadly Dishing Fall has fallen upon Judith McMonigle Flynn, leaving her Hillside Manor nearly devoid of guests. And what better cure for the off-season blahs than a brief bout of B&B sifting for a friend amid the quiet rustic splendor of secluded ...



  • ALL THE MURDER FIT TO PRINT Editor-publisher Emma Lord and her Alpine Advocate staff predict excitement when glamorous Ursula O'Toole Randall returns to Alpine to marry her third husband. But hers is a lethal homecoming.... Ursula, clad in sati...



  • 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...



  • A JOURNEY OF TERROR Murder is news--even when editor-publisher Emma Lord is away from The Alpine Advocate. A picturesque Oregon seashore village may not be Emma's traditional beat, but when a sensational headline-grabbing murder occurs, she's on t...






  • THERE'S SNOW PLACE LIKE HOMICIDE B&B hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn's ready to hang up her oven mitts, but irrepressible Cousin Renie needs help catering the telephone company's annual winter retreat at secluded Mountain Goat Lodge. The pay's good...



  • MURDER IS RELATIVE The brutal stabbing of local philanthropist Einar Rasmussen Jr. outrages folk in the old logging town of Alpine. But, strangely, editor Emma Lord of The Alpine Advocate can scarcely pry a word out of the victim's reclusive relat...



  • HAIL, HAIL, THE MOB'S ALL HERE! A week of "mayhem-as-usual" at Hillside Manor kicks off with the arrival of a mysterious "Mr. Smith" and his floozie "Mrs." from New York City--and it accelerates into chaos when Mr. Smith himself kicks off, a victi...



  • KILL THE COMPETITION Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, has never faced such cruel competition--especially not the fierce personal attacks mounted by Alpine's radical new publication, Crystal Clear. So when Crystal Bird, the e...



  • THE REAPER'S AT CREEPERS The off-season blahs, a pyromaniacal mom, and a recently retired husband who is constantly underfoot have poor Judith McMonigle Flynn going stir crazy at Hillside Manor. So the harried R&B hostess leaps at cousin Renie's s...



  • KILLING COUSIN For once, Emma Lord, editor-publisher of The Alpine Advocate, isn't thrilled by having an inside track. The Seattle murder of Alpine native Carol Stokes is generating headlines, but the accused killer is Emma's long-lost cousin Ronn...



  • 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 f...



  • 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 i...



  • DEAD NEWS DAY Two months after an unlucky snowboarder vanished on the slopes above Alpine, his disappearance is old copy. Emma Lord, publisher of the Alpine Advocate, is back to writing about graduations and the latest outbreak of chicken pox--unt...



  • DEAD AT THE BOX OFFICE Filmdom's most sparkling glitterati have brought their limos and their egos to Judith McMonigle Flynn's Hillside Manor for a gala preview of the latest epic monstrosity from genius super-producer Bruno Zepf. Hostess Flynn's Pa...






  • 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 hys...



  • Four of mystery's reigning matriarchs have joined together to concoct a delectable stew of clues, corpses, and felonious hijinks -- all spectacularly seasoned with a mother's loving touch! In this witty and winning quartet of all-new mysteries, th...



  • With major renovations under way at Judith McMonigle Flynn's fire-gutted Hillside Manor B&B, the distressed hostess is joining her family at the Stillasnowamish Casino on Native American land. Instead of breathing in soot and plaster dust, she's enjo...



  • 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 liter...



  • Murder, Seamy Secrets, Regular Milk Delivery A nostalgic trip back to Renie's old neighborhood wasn't meant to get B&B hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn's snooping engine revved up. But when the exotic and decrepit manse on Moonfleet Street that the ...



  • 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 a...



  • 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 fab...



  • In the middle of a hot summer night, Emma Lord is awakened by fire trucks rushing to 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-pl...



  • Slay That Funky Music 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 g...



  • Be Of Good Fear, Christmas Is Here! And just in time comes this grand gift of seasonal mystery and romance from six of popular fiction's most supremely talented "Santas"-;for 'tis the season for scandals, suspense, and all sorts of unexpected surp...






  • 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...



  • Hoping to dispel the late winter gloom, innkeeper Judith McMonigle Flynn flies off for a much-needed vacation to Scotland. Instead, she and prickly Cousin Renie find themselves marooned in an ancient castle perched high above the North Sea while thei...



  • 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...



  • 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 ...



  • 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 resi...



  • This fall, Judith McMonigle Flynn can barely cope with her gaggle of guests at Hillside Manor B&B. And when diminutive daredevil and martial-arts movie icon Wee Willie Weevil insists on performing his dangerous stunts from Judith's roof -- and ends u...



  • Nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, the charming little hamlet of Alpine is welcoming Thanksgiving with open arms, while Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, feels her spirits sink. There will be no family and no fri...



  • There's no "fun" in "fund-raiser" for Judith McMonigle Flynn when she donates an overnight stay at Hillside Manor, dinner included, to the parish school's annual auction -- especially when the winning bid goes to the persnickety Paine family. She'll ...



  • The picturesque town of Alpine in the Cascade Mountains is decked out in Christmas cheer, but at the Alpine Advocate, editor and publisher Emma Lord is fretting over how her brother and her son -- both priests -- will react to her affair with Sheriff...



  • Bed-and-breakfast owner and amateur sleuth Judith McMonigle Flynn can't escape murder, even when she's out of town doing a good deed for the inn-keeping profession. But -- oh, for the love of lederhosen -- it gets complicated when, once again, Judith...



  • A new exhilarating installment in Mary Daheim’s beloved and long-running small-town murder mystery series set in Alpine, Washington, and featuring unforgettable newspaper editor Emma Lord. Winter in the small mountain aerie of Alpine should be ...



  • Serena Farrar’s world is on the brink of self-destruction. Determined to do her part to free the slaves, she dreams of joining the staff of her cousin’s newspaper in Springfield as a journalist. But the only way she can move to Massachusetts is t...



  • In Gone with the Win, another charming entry in Mary Daheim’s beloved Bed-and-Breakfast series, someone from Judith McMonigle Flynn’s past comes knocking, and the reluctant amateur sleuth finds herself working a case so cold it's practically froz...



  • As her father lies on his deathbed, Dallas Cameron joins the crowd gathered at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh to witness the triumphant entrance of Mary Stuart into Scotland in 1561. On Dallas way home, she is rescued from a group of lecherous ruffians...



  • Mary Daheim’s bestselling novels, set in Alpine, a picturesque village tucked away in the Cascade Mountains, have charmed a generation of mystery lovers with suspenseful tales of the peril that bubbles up from below the serene surface of small-town...



  • Innkeeper and irrepressible sleuth Judith McMonigle Flynn and cousin Renie face off against a cold-blooded killer in a beach community in this delightfully charming Bed-and-Breakfast mystery from USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Mary D...



  • It’s 1585 at Gosford’s End in the Scottish Highlands where seventeen-year-old Sorcha Fraser is impatient to sample life outside of her close-knit family circle. Graced with the beauty and spirit of her parents, Iain and Dallas, she doesn’t have...



  • The picturesque town of Alpine in the foothills of Washington state’s Cascade Mountains -- home to Emma Lord and her weekly newspaper The Alpine Advocate -- has long charmed and enthralled mystery lovers. Now, with The Alpine Zen, Mary Daheim has a...



  • Judith McMonigle Flynn has her hands full with unexpected family ties and a dead body in the backyard in this delightfully zany mystery in Mary Daheim’s popular Bed-and-Breakfast series. Rodney Schmuck and his wife, Millie, Hillside Manor’s la...



  • Emma Lord is back and better than ever! This time around, the amateur detective partners up with a rookie sleuth to investigate a string of murders in her beloved Alpine, Washington. For a small town nestled in the Cascade Mountains’ foothills, ...



  • In this charming madcap entry in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Bed-and-Breakfast series, innkeeper and amateur sleuth Judith McMonigle Flynn’s plans for a relaxing vacation go awry when she realizes her fellow guests have a different...



  • New year, new murder . . . Emma Lord is on the case when death finds its way back to the wintry mountain town of Alpine. After a relatively calm and cozy holiday season, neither Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, nor her husba...



  • Unexpected visitors bring old baggage and big trouble to Hillside Manor, threatening the livelihood and life of innkeeper and amateur sleuth Judith McMonigle Flynn in this charming Bed-and-Breakfast mystery from beloved New York Times and USA Today b...


Award-Winning Books by Mary Daheim

Pride's Captive
1986 RT Reviewers Choice Award -- Civil War Romance


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Mary Daheim has published 72 books.

Mary Daheim does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Lady MacDeath, was published in September 2022.

The first book by Mary Daheim, Love's Pirate, was published in July 1983.

Yes. Mary Daheim has 3 series.