Sometimes the best way to know a person is by asking questions, where you can learn more about what makes them tick. Let’s see who is visiting us today.

Name, Age, and Profession
Hi, I’m Kate Chambers. I’m in my mid-thirties, and, thanks to my grandmother who left me her café, I’m a cook and café owner in a small town in East Texas. Before that I was a paralegal in the big city of Dallas, and now I’m glad to be back in my hometown.

Home Life
My significant other, David Clinkscales, is here too. He’s a lawyer and was my boss in Dallas. Now he practices mostly from Wheeler, though he does have to go to Dallas more than I like. No, we don’t have children! You shouldn’t ask that—we’re not married–yet! We share a rescue Golden Doodle called Huggles—he’s a big, loveable goof, but he’s also a good watchdog.

Family
I have a twin sister, and on really bad days I call Donna the evil twin, behind her back, of course. If I really want to irritate her, I call her “Don.” She hates it. I’ve got to tell the truth—she’s a whiner and a complainer. But I adore her husband, Tom, the mayor of our town, and their three children.

Residence
David, Huggles, and I live in Gram’s house right next door to the café. Makes it really convenient. I grew up in this house—Gram raised us because our parents died in a car wreck when we were very young. Our favorite room in the house is the kitchen—I cook a lot, and David keeps me company. We also both haul out our computers and work at the wonderful, old, wood kitchen table, with all its nicks and scars.

BFF
My best friend only recently came into my life. She’s Ambra Russo, wife of the new Methodist minister, Tony. They’re from the Bronx, so they’ve had quite an adjustment to life in a small town. But Ambra’s real, no pretense, she laughs a lot, and she’s as interested as I am in historical preservation.

Amateur Sleuth
Since I’ve been back in Wheeler, I’ve accidentally run into several suspicious deaths. Now I’m not an officer of the law, but in each case, I’ve felt compelled to find out what was going on. After all, Wheeler is my town. And David is always glad to help me—well, sometimes he’s a bit reluctant and tries to warn me off. But most of the time. . .

That personal stuff
I don’t know what my favorite meal is, but after the café it’s not chicken-fried steak. Maybe a good rib-eye with a nice salad, or coquilles St Jacques. Chocolate mousse is definitely my favorite dessert, and though this sounds strange after I cook all day, cooking is my hobby. I love to dream up and fix a gourmet menu—and I get to do that bigtime in Murder at the Bus Depot. Vacations spot? I haven’t been on a vacation in so long, except a weekend in Dallas, that I don’t know. I guess wherever David chooses. My favorite author? I love to read mysteries, so I’ll say Deborah Crombie—she’s an East Texas (well, sort of) girl like me, even though she writes Brit stories. Fun stuff No favorite sports team—I could care less. We don’t have a movie theater in Wheeler, and I’ve never gotten used to Netflix and other programs that let you watch at home. I’m woefully ignorant about movies, let alone Broadway shows. Nope, not for this country gal.

Typical Day
I’m a morning person, up at 5:30, sometimes reluctantly, to start sticky buns rising. I’d have a lot of disappointed customers if I didn’t have those ready by seven or so. A typical day would be work from six in the morning until six at night, go back about nine to total up the day and close the café. But there’s never a typical day. Mystery and murder seem to get in the way.

You can learn more about Kate in Murder at the Bus Depot , the fourth book in the “Blue Plate Café” mystery series. The first book in the series is Murder at the Blue Plate Café.

Is the depot a symbol of the worst episode in a town’s history or does it stand for revitalization, bringing the citizens of Wheeler together with pride in their community?

Kate Chamber’s trouble antenna go up when Dallas developer Silas Fletcher decides to help “grow” Wheeler. She and her brother-in-law, Mayor Tom Bryson, have less spectacular and drastic ideas for revitalizing the town. When Old Man Jackson dies in an automobile accident, the specter of the past comes back to haunt the town. Thirty years ago, Jackson’s daughter, Sallie, was murdered at the bus depot. The murder is still unsolved.

Kate and Silas clash over almost everything, from the future use of the abandoned depot to a fall festival celebrating Wheeler.

Another murder at the depot blows the town apart, and Kate know she must do something to solve the murders and save her town, let alone the festival she’s planning.

Purchase Link
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About the author
Murder at the Bus Depot is the fourth Blue Plate Café Mystery by Judy Alter. In it she explores the tension between a developer who sees great possibilities in a small town and residents who want to preserve the history and atmosphere of their town. The conflict is complicated by a resurgence of interest in a thirty-year-old unsolved murder.

Judy Alter is the award-winning author of three mysteries series: Kelly O’Connell Mysteries: Skeleton in a Dead Space, No Neighborhood for Old Women, Trouble in a Big Box, Danger Comes Home, Deception in Strange Places, Desperate for Death, and The Color of Fear; three in the Blue Plate Café Series: Murder at the Blue Plate Café, Murder at the Tremont House, and Murder at Peacock Mansion; and two Oak Grove Mysteries: The Perfect Coed and Pigface and the Perfect Dog.
She is also the author of historical fiction based on lives of women in the nineteenth-century American West, including Libbie, Jessie, Cherokee Rose, Sundance, Butch, and Me, and The Gilded Cage, and she has also published several young-adult novels, now available on Amazon.

Her work has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. She has been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and the WWA Hall of Fame.

Judy is retired as director of TCU Press, the mother of four grown children, and the grandmother of seven. She and her dog, Sophie, live in Fort Worth, Texas.

All comments are welcomed.