<DIV>Winter in Alpine should be quiet, but the town is humming. At the Alpine Advocate, editor Emma Lord and her staff are on deadline with a feature about the opening of RestHaven, a new rehab and mental health facility. Front Street is buzzing with gossip about Emma's recent engagement to Sheriff Milo Dodge. And now that fool Wayne Eriks has climbed an electric pole in the middle of a storm and got himself electrocuted. Sheriff Dodge doesn't buy the idea that Wayne's death is an accident. But how - and, more important, why - he died is only one of the conundrums that keep the sheriff and Emma working overtime. After the Advocate's House & Home editor disappears, Milo and Emma suddenly have too many loose ends to solve before they can even think about tying the knot.</div>