Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe

Anna Kate arrives in Wicklow, a small town in the mountains of Alabama, to bury her grandmother, Granny Zee. Zee ran the Blackbird Cafe, and Anna Kate means to be in and out: close the cafe, settle the estate, go home. She has no wish to make friends or get to know her father's side of the family.

Wicklow has other ideas. It is a quirky Southern town, and it is also the place her mother left long ago. Anna Kate feels a pull toward it that she cannot explain. Much of that pull centers on the blackbird pie, which everyone in town keeps talking about.

The book is Southern fiction with a touch of mystery, built around a family secret that comes clear only gradually. As Anna Kate learns more about her past, she has to weigh whether to stay or leave, and whether she can let go of the hurt she carries.

Expect a warm, small-town read with a gentle pace. The grief is real, but the tone leans toward comfort, and the story moves through the cafe, the townspeople and the slow uncovering of what happened in Anna Kate's family.