A Gripping Mountain Mystery That Will Keep You Turning Pages

"In these hills the rivers keep secrets"

A wealthy developer is found dead. A Black Cherokee herbalist faces a lifetime in prison. And a former drug smuggler turned dog treat baker holds the key to the truth.

Mary Susan Baade thought she'd buried her past as a marijuana kingpin when she opened her charming dog treat bakery in Franklin, North Carolina. But when Atlanta developer Hollis Blackwood arrives with plans to bottle and sell sacred Cherokee spring water, her peaceful mountain sanctuary explodes into deadly conflict.

When Blackwood turns up murdered, seventy-three-year-old Eliza Whitaker—who publicly threatened him with ancient Cherokee justice—becomes the obvious suspect. But Mary knows better. As she and Walter Allen, a former congressman with his own hidden government connections, dig deeper into Franklin's secrets, they uncover a shocking web of corruption that reaches from local pharmacies to corporate boardrooms.
Because some secrets are worth killing for... and some are worth dying to protect.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT from the author:

Okay, okay...this isn't just some run-of-the-mill tale about mountain life. My new novel, Sanctuary, is out, and let me tell you—it's a straight-up vortex of mystery, hodgepodge mountain culture, and dogs eating pastries. Yeah. You heard me.
So here's the rundown:
Set in Franklin, North Carolina—where the mountains are as old as time and the stories they hide go deeper than the roots of the oldest oak.
A developer ends up dead (I'm not saying karma's real...but maybe?)
A Black Cherokee herbalist is wrongly accused. This gal knows plants, not murder.
And the hero? A former drug runner who now owns a dog bakery. It's absurd. It's brilliant. It's kind of beautiful. It's also as much real as not.
This thing's been cooking for years. Real places. Real tensions. Characters that could've easily walked out of a dive bar or a conspiracy podcast. If you like suspense, grit, soul, and Appalachian madness wrapped in moonshine-soaked prose, you're gonna love it.
Big gratitude to my wife, Susan Stowell—who kept this dream alive while I was neck-deep in rewrites and existential spirals. And to everyone who's been part of this ride, thank you and I hope you enjoyed all the detours on these backroads through the mountains.
Let Sanctuary mess with your sleep schedule.
Let it haunt you in the best way.
Then tell me about it—I want to hear your thoughts. Reviews, reactions, hot takes. Bring it all.

Walter A Cook