Into the Fire

No Filter is Book One in this Barks & Beans Café Cozy Mystery Series by Heather Day Gilbert. 

Macy Hatfield is recently divorced when her brother Bo calls with a new business venture that not only surprises her but requires her to move home to her deceased Auntie A's home in Lewiston, West Virginia, where she and her brother were raised after their parents died in a flood. It sounds like just what she needs.

Bo has already done extensive remodeling to Auntie A's house and is close to opening. Macy's moved into the other portion of the house and is impressed and grateful for the added addition to the place for customers to interact and hopefully adopt shelter dogs while enjoying their coffees, other drinks, and magnificent homemade pastries. Macy's a dog lover and finds her match in the beautiful black Great Dane "Coal" recently brought to the shelter because of the murder of his owner who was a golf instructor at the multi-faceted Ivy Hills Spiritual Center. Their connection is immediate and heartwarming. When Macy discovers an underside addition to Coal's collar, she senses it must be important and removes it, securing it in her hidden safe until memorizing the information on it and handing it over to the police. 

The adventures amp up as Macy gets sucked into "investigating" who might've killed the golf instructor after someone breaks into the house and takes Coal. Multiple suspects, strange events at the "spiritual" center, and determination to find her dog keep driving her forward. Bo gets involved to help, and one solution comes through a curious source. 

In order not to reveal too much, suffice it to say, it's a good cozy mystery for fans of the genre, and Heather gives the reader plenty of suspects, some surprises, some real danger, an amazing brother, and a good dog to help Macy along the way. No Filter provides an extra bonus in this story for dog lovers who treasure that connection between a man or woman and that certain dog. Not exactly a cliffhanger but an inkling of what's ahead in the series.

Father, please continue to bless Heather's writing, providing all she needs for her to tell the stories you have just for her to tell. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.