Hey, ya’ll. Starla Cupp here, co-owner of the Dixie Cupp Diner located in the tiny town of Sugar Hill, Virginia. My day? Well, it starts around four in the morning. I live upstairs over the diner in a cozy apartment, so my commute consists of trying not to fall down the stairs. My business partner and best friend, Poppy and our morning cook, Gladys get in about half an hour later. Poppy is good at paying our bills and keeping track of our bottom line, but I like being out on the floor, waiting tables and taking care of my customers. If you can’t tell already, the Dixie Cupp Diner is my happy place – noisy, fun, and full of people I’ve known all my life.

While Gladys fires up the grill and slides the first big pan of her famous biscuits into the oven, I get the coffee pots going. Then the early birds start arriving, so Poppy and I work together to fill their orders quickly and get them on their way. There’s a little break and then the morning regulars start arriving. There’s Mayor Gillespie, who holds court at the end of the counter. There’s dear old Mrs. Blake who defended the English language at Sugar Hill High (illustrious home of the fighting Honey Badgers) until she retired. Eva and Anna Lord, twins who own the yoga studio down the street, come in with their good friend Tiffany Samples – she runs the health food store. Poppy’s fiancé, Tom Brown pops in for a quick breakfast and she usually takes a break to chat with him a minute or two.

Another regular customer is our new Chief of Police, Tucker Ashe. Tucker and I grew up next door to each other. He joined the military and traveled the world. I stayed right here in town. It took the murder of our mailman to bring him back to Sugar Hill, where our friendship took up right where it left off. However, lately, I’ve been wondering if my feelings for him might run a little deeper.

After the morning rush, Poppy and I make the deposit at the bank and then go for a walk in the park. She’s determined to fit into that wedding dress! Back at the diner, I head up to my place for a nap. Later, I help with the dinner crowd and close down the diner at night. What do I do when I’m not working or trying out new recipes? Well, much to Tucker’s dismay, I’m usually in the middle of solving a murder. That’s gotten me (and sometimes Poppy) into hot water more than once, but I just can’t help but get involved.

Want to learn more about Starla Cupp and the zany characters in Sugar Hill, Virginia? Then check out Raisin Bread and Somebody’s Dead, Book 3 in the Dixie Cupp Diner Mysteries. If you enjoy small towns, a feisty heroine and a mystery that has more twists and turns than a plate of spaghetti, you’ll enjoy Raisin Bread and Somebody’s Dead.

It’s springtime in Sugar Hill, Virginia and that means its Blowout Bonanza Bake Sale time. Starla Cupp agrees to donate loaves of her famous raisin bread. Then Starla gets a call from a celebrity chef with a wildly popular reality TV show who wants to come to her diner and prepare one of his famous meals – and he’s paying her for the privilege. She sure could use some new appliances, and maybe some small renovations, and this is a great way to pay for it.

Starla thinks she has everything under control until the contractor sprucing up her kitchen finds a skeleton behind a wall. With the renovations already behind schedule, dozens of loaves of raisin bread to bake, and a beautiful new newspaper editor in town who’s taken a liking to Tucker, Starla still can’t stay out of the investigation. Especially when this discovery uncovers an unsolved double murder that took place in her beloved diner almost fifty years earlier.

Are the two connected?

You betcha.

Can Starla solve this cold case before the celebrity chef arrives or is it already too late to bring a killer to justice?

She’s sure gonna try.

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Meet the author
I’m Willow Monroe, and I live in a small town in Virginia much like Sugar Hill. I spend my time reading, writing and poking at the characters who live in my head to see if they have a story to tell. When they do, I write it down. I’ve always loved reading cozy mysteries so I decided to try and write one, which resulted in Mall Santa Murder, the beginning of the Gemma Stone Mysteries. Oh, what fun! After that, there was no stopping me. You can keep up with new releases of the Dixie Cupp Diner Mysteries as well as my other series at pinwheel-books.com. I’m hoping you’ll check in with me often. Keep your crash helmet and your parachute ready because it’s gonna be a wild ride.

All comments are welcomed.