Small-town secrets, quirky characters, and slow-simmered plots and an Akita under the table, judging everything. Harper Burton writes the kind of cozy mystery where the dog has opinions, the alibi never holds, and the pie is always homemade—sometimes with poison. After twenty years in emergency management handling real-world emergencies (and enough paperwork to qualify as a natural disaster), she now sticks to fictional crises—ideally involving tea, a dog, and a suspiciously well-timed power outage. She lives in the Carolinas with her husband, a rotating crew of grandkids, and an Akita who—unlike Hatchi—would absolutely leave her at the train station for a hot dog. Murder at Buttermilk Cafe is her first cozy mystery and the debut of the Windmere Cove Cozy Mystery series—a celebration of quirky neighbors, cinnamon-laced secrets, and the undeniable truth that dogs always know who the killer is.