It’s so nice to meet you all. I’m Macy Hatfield, and together with my brother Boaz “Bo” Hatfield, we just opened the Barks & Beans Café in the quaint town where we grew up—Lewisburg, West Virginia.

The Barks & Beans Café is unusual, because when you stop in for your fave cup o’ joe or tea, you can head into our dog-petting section to enjoy it. Every day, we get a different variety of shelter dogs that customers can enjoy petting. My friend Summer runs the shelter, and she’s always looking for ways to match up customers with her dogs. In fact, she brought MY new dog to my attention. He’s a black Great Dane named Coal. He wound up dropped off at the shelter when his owner, Gerard, was actually murdered at a nearby spiritual healing center. I know, it’s crazy, right?

Coal is full of personality, and he keeps me constant company. We live in the back section of my great Aunt Athaleen’s house. Barks & Beans is in the front of the house, since my brother Bo paid to renovate the place. It’s a huge, rambling old place, but it’s been well-kept and there’s a perennial flowerbed garden out back that always reminds me of Auntie A. She’s the one who raised Bo and me after our parents died in a freak flood when I was only two. She passed away this past January. . .unfortunately, that was just after my husband admitted he was cheating and left me.

But it turns out that Lewisburg is a great place to put the pieces of my life back together. I’ve been crazy about dogs all my life, but haven’t been able to own one in the rental house I shared with my ex. Now I have a new friend in my big lug of a Dane.

Sadly, my brother and I recently returned to my place only to discover that Coal had gone missing. Bo thinks he escaped out the window, but my gut is telling me someone took him—possibly the masseuse at the spiritual center who showed up with a highly unconvincing story that Gerard had wanted her to keep his Great Dane if anything happened to him. I’m going to have to do some checking into the center, which strikes me as shady in more ways than one.

Excuse me while I head out to search for one of the best dogs I’ve ever had, but in the meantime, you can feel free to hang out at Barks & Beans with one of Charity’s caramel macchiato cupcakes and a foam-art latte from Kylie. Just do me a favor and don’t tell my brother Bo what I’m up to.

Join Macy and Bo Hatfield as they run the Barks & Beans Café. . .and run into some twisted villains hiding out in the small town of Lewisburg! No Filter is Book 1 in the Barks & Beans Café cozy mystery series, and it’s out now! Iced Over, book 2 released July 27, 2020.

Welcome to the Barks & Beans Café, a quaint place where folks pet shelter dogs while enjoying a cup of java. . .and where murder sometimes pays a visit.

Fed up with her go-nowhere job, newly single Macy Hatfield moves back to her small hometown in West Virginia. She joins forces with her brother Bo in his crazy new venture—the Barks & Beans Café, which caters to dog lovers and coffee drinkers alike.

When a golf instructor is murdered at the nearby spiritual center dognapped. She launches into a relentless search for her newfound canine friend, but along the way, she digs up a cruel and confident killer.

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About the author
Heather Day Gilbert, an ECPA Christy award finalist and Grace award winner, enjoys writing contemporary mysteries set in her home state of West Virginia. Her novels feature small towns, family relationships, and women who aren’t afraid to protect what they love.

Find Heather on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can find all her books at heatherdaygilbert.com.

All comments are welcomed.