Welcome to the Smoky Mountains
Where stories rise from the land, and the best memories are made in the mountains.
Welcome, friend. Whether you’ve come here searching for your next Smoky Mountain adventure, a cozy mystery to curl up with, or simply a quiet place to breathe, we’re glad you found your way to our valley.
I’m Walter A. Cook, a writer shaped by the Great Smoky Mountains — their fog‑soft mornings, trout‑bright streams, small‑town streets, and the people who make this region feel like home. My wife Susan and I live just outside Franklin, North Carolina, in a small valley bordered by a creek and wrapped in 360‑degree views of the surrounding mountains.
This is the world that inspires every story I tell — a place where mystery and comfort live side by side, where community matters, and where the land remembers.
And we’d love for you to be part of it.
Join us in the Smokies — in story and in person.
Walk the same small‑town streets we wander. Hike the same mist‑soft trails where ideas rise like fog. Fish the same cold, clear streams that carry memory through the hollers. Meet the people, visit the places, and feel the rhythms that breathe life into my books.
Whether you’re planning your first visit to the Smoky Mountains, returning for the hundredth time, or simply longing for a place that feels like home, you’re welcome here — in our stories, in our valley, and in the mountains that shape us.
Settle in. Explore. Read. Wander.
The best memories are made in the mountains, and we’re grateful to share them with you.
Ready for your next small‑town obsession?
Meet Franklin, NC
where friendship is fierce, secrets run deep, and Mahjong nights don’t always end quietly.
If you love Tonya Kappes’ quirky Southern charm or Lucy Score’s big‑hearted small towns, you’re about to fall head‑over‑heels for Franklin’s Tuesday Mahjong group — a tight circle of women who laugh hard, love deeply, and solve murders with the kind of loyalty you wish you had in real life.
In The Dragon Lied, widower Frankie O’Hara stumbles onto a photograph that shatters everything he thought he knew about his wife’s death. The “accident” wasn’t an accident at all — and someone in Franklin has spent years making sure the truth stayed buried.
Good luck keeping secrets from this Mahjong crew.
Donnie has instincts sharper than her tiles. Maya reads the river like it’s whispering clues. Mabs can follow a paper trail straight through a locked door. Dodo’s wild theories suddenly don’t seem so wild — and the cats agree. And Bea Tran, quiet, steady, and unshakeably perceptive, sees the lie long before anyone speaks it.
As the women dig deeper, they uncover a dangerous scheme still running beneath their peaceful mountain town — one that’s profitable, deadly, and far from finished.
This isn’t just a cozy mystery. It’s friendship-as-family, Southern grit, laugh‑out‑loud moments, and a twisty puzzle that keeps you flipping pages long past bedtime.
If you crave mysteries with heart, humor, and a community you’ll want to move into, Franklin is waiting for you.