Murder at the Bus Depot

Blue Plate Café Mystery #4

by Judy Alter

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.

Genres: Mystery

269 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 14, 2018

About the author

After an established career writing historical fiction for adults and young adults about women of the nineteenth-century American West, Texas author Judy Alter turned her attention to contemporary cozy mysteries and wrote three series: Kelly O’Connell Mysteries, Blue Plate Café Mysteries, and Oak Grove Mysteries. She has most recently published two titles in her Irene in Chicago Culinary Mysteries--Saving Irene and Irene in Danger.
Her most recent historical books are The Most Land, the Best Cattle: The Waggoners of Texas and The Second Battle of the Alamo, a study in both Texas and women’s history. Judy’s western fiction 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 at the Fort Worth Public Library. She was named One of 100 Women, Living and Dead, Who Have Left Their Mark on Texas by the Dallas Morning News, and named an Outstanding Woman of Fort Worth in the Arts, 1988, by the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women
Judy is a member Sisters in Crime and Guppies, Women Writing the West, Story Circle Network, a past president of Western Writers of America, and an active member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
Retired after almost thirty years with TCU Press, twenty of them as director, Judy lives in a small cottage—just right for one and a dog—in Fort Worth, Texas with her Bordoodle Sophie. She is the mother of four and the grandmother of seven. Her hobby is cooking, and she’s learning how to cook in a postage-stamp kitchen without a stove. In fact, she wrote a cookbook about it: Gourmet on a Hot Plate.

Reviews

[Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a developer arrives in town he divides opinions, some like his ideas others, including Kate Chambers, are scared he will turn Wheeler into a cookie cutter town by getting rid of the local businesses and bringing in chain stores.  What is worse is his ideas for the bus depot, he seems to want to turn it into a side show as there is still an unsolved murder attached to it - he also seems to be egging on the surviving family members (and Kate is worried he is trying to set up some sort of television "cold case" programme), then the father of Sallie (the murdered woman) dies in a car accident, then someone else is killed at the depot and before long tongues start wagging again.  Was the original killer her husband, a lover or someone else? Now Kate, along with her boyfriend David and her brother in law Tom has to get to the bottom of the new killing as well as solving the old one, if they want Wheeler to survive!

[Doward Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The old bus station stands in silent rebuke to an unsolved thirty year old murder! Sallie Thurgood was working alone in her T-Shirt shop in the bus depot, when she was brutally murdered! Was it her husband, her supposed boyfriend, a stranger or someone else? The alibis for the husband and boyfriend held up. No other suspects came to light, so the case is still unsolved. Silas Fletcher plans to change all that by capitalizing on the cold case murder and turning the abandoned bus depot into a tourist attraction!

Wheeler, Texas is a few miles outside Dallas and is everything that a small town should be and Kate Chambers likes her town, just the way it is. She is totally opposed to everything Silas envisions for "growing" the town and bringing in tourists. Kate, along with the mayor, her brother-in-law Tom, start exploring other ideas to bring in tourists. Kate and Tom are exploring a yearly festival to bring in the tourist trade because Big box and chain stores are not what the small town needs! When Sallie's father dies under suspicious circumstances, Kate knows that Sallie's killer is still alive and still killing! Can Kate and her lawyer boyfriend, David, solve the two murders and keep Silas from ruining their town with his development plans? What has Silas stirred up with his greedy plans? Can Kate solve the murders without becoming a third victim?


I found the characters to be very realistic and the murder plots extremely well done. The writing flowed in such a way that it pulled you into the story and kept you there. I am going to read the other books in this series as I found this to be a very entertaining adventure. Cozy and traditional mystery fans will both enjoy this book!

[Judy Fleener · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was eager to read another book in Judy Alter's series Blue Plate Cafe series. The characters are real and believable. Kate Chambers is one of the good people I have met in books. The cast that surrounds her is sometimes quirky and often enter entertaining. I was not disappointed.

[Sandie · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Kate Chambers inherited her grandparents' house and cafe in small town Wheeler, Texas, she left her job and came home to run the cafe. Her grandparents raised her and her sister and it just felt like the right thing to do. Now, a few years later, she is part of the town's power structure. Everyone comes to the cafe and its a hub of the community. Her sister runs the local B&B and her BIL is the mayor and owner of the hardware store. She sees the local law enforcement daily and is in close contact with the new pastor and his wife. Everything is just as they all like it.

But change is coming. Little Wheeler has caught the eye of a big-time developer and his vision of what the town could be is very different from theirs. He wants to build tons of houses to lure those who work in Dallas to live here instead. He wants to tear down the old houses and businesses and bring in box stores and fast food restaurants. In reality, he wants to turn Wheeler into Dallas Mini.

Kate and her friends are determined that that can't happen. They hit on the idea of moving the old bus depot and making it a community center. It has been abandoned for years ever since a young Wheeler wife was killed there one night. That murder was never solved and the bus depot closed soon afterwards. Now maybe there's a second life for the depot.

But old wounds never quite heal. Soon there are rumors about the old case and old hard feelings show up again. Soon there is even a new murder at the moved structure and Kate is right in the midst of everything. She and her lawyer boyfriend solved other murder cases in the past and it looks like they need to step in and help with this one. Can Kate and her crew find the answers the town needs?

This is the fourth novel in the Blue Plate Cafe series. Alter has written about small town life in a believable fashion and the reader doesn't have to make wild leaps of faith to follow the action. Each step seems logical to follow on that which has gone before and she captures the spirit of a small town where everyone knows everyone and what they are going through and how to help. This book is recommended for cozy murder mystery readers.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small town mystery reads well as a stand alone. The crime and drama surrounding it will draw you in.
Besides knowing each others business, and offering opinions even when facts are not really known, the residents of Wheeler, TX, "an unremarkable small town sixty miles east of Dallas," although not actually in the renowned area of East Texas, both have each others' backs and are willing to in-fight like family. Matter of fact, quite a few are related in one way or another.
At the moment things are quiet around Wheeler, so quiet in fact that several businesses are considering moving elsewhere. At the local cafe, the town movers and shakers are discussing ways to draw more tourists, and more prosperity, into Wheeler. It seems their only "claim to fame" is a decades old unsolved murder.
A land developer wants to play on that murder story to create a tourist attraction. The longtime residents don't want the character of their town to change that drastically. This developer, Silas Fletcher, was a difficult character to accept and understand. His personality was all over the place. Other than being motivated by money, I couldn't get a solid read on him. He was the only part of this story I didn't feel was settled at the end.
Much of the story deals with family relationships, good and bad. There are similarities reflected in different families, each handled differently. A smidge of the paranormal exists here, but it will not distract from the mystery for any who don't like unusual elements.
The story flows smoothly, with one suspect providing all the inflammatory incidents required.
Kate does not intend to be in the center of all the fuss, but for some reason everyone brings their troubles, and loud voices, to her place of business.
Dysfunctional relationships, bad romantic histories, and greed all play a role in this story.
It takes you all the way to the last pages before things are resolved.

[Sandra Stiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

If mystery is your go to reading genre then you must check out Judy Alter’s series.
Her characters are well developed, the setting feels like any town you may have visited or gone through at one time. There is enough mystery here to carry you through from beginning to end.
The main character Kate Chambers operates a small café in the town of Wheeler, Texas. It is a town that is quaint but on the verge of losing some of it’s vital businesses. Enter Dallas developer Silas Fletcher. He wants to help revitalize the town starting with the old bus depot. The bus depot was the site of a 30 year old unsolved murder. Kate isn’t thrilled with Silas’ plans for the old depot so she tries to save it because of its historical significance. Enter another murder. Kate decides that if she is going to save her town and keep its quaint charm then she is going to have to find the murderer on the loose.
This is the fourth book I have read by Judy Alter. However, this is the first one I have read of this series. It held up as a stand-alone book even though it was part of a series. However, now I need to go back and read the first three in the series. From the time I was small mysteries were my favorite genre. As an adult who teaches middle school, I am more in tune with middle school mysteries than adult mysteries. So, when I come across an author who writes wonderful adult mysteries I want to shout his/her name from the top of the world, or at least from my blog. Please pick up a copy of this wonderful book. You will find the characters as charming, and the mystery as engaging as I did.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a developer comes to Wheeler, Texas and threatens changes, Kate Chambers, owner of the Blue Plate Cafe, along with some of the others in town, decide to form a preservation society to keep the town just as it is, thus preserving it as an “authentic” small town. But what makes it different from any other small town is that Wheeler has an old, dilapidated bus depot, the site of an unsolved murder.
In order to raise money. the society decides to hold a raffle, with the prize being a gourmet dinner for two, cooked by Kate Chambers, at the newly restored bus depot, which volunteers would help to repair, paint, and decorate. Just as the project is getting underway, there’s another murder. Is the current crime and the old unsolved murder somehow connected? Will Kate be the next victim? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
This is the second Blue Plate Cafe Mystery I’ve read, so I’m familiar with the main characters whom I really like, and I enjoyed this mystery as much as I did the first.

[Stef · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sooo sorry, as I really like the Blue Plate Café, but this I found not very intriguing. You can see it took me over a year to read - and that's not because I'm a slow reader.
Half the fun with the Blue Plate Café is the family setting, and this book is more about other people's families, maybe that's why it didn't interest me as much as the first three.

[Peggy Clayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a new author for me and I liked the book. It is a cozy mystery and was a good book it did keep me guessing . Judy hit a double with this book.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

kindle