NC native Mimi Montgomery’s debut novel is a cozy murder mystery featuring designer dogs, Botox and zany celebrations in a Southern town
By Bailey Garrison
North Carolina-born journalist Mimi Montgomery’s first novel, Murder Bites, releases this month, and it’s a cozy mystery set in the fictional town of Glenville, South Carolina. Here, women are obsessed with their perfectly manicured, Gucci-wearing designer dogs — especially because their town is the setting for the forthcoming season of a canine reality TV show. Main character Margot, meanwhile, is a reluctant city transplant with a rescue dog who finds herself constantly at odds with her neighbors. When the town dog walker is found murdered, Margot becomes the first suspect and must team up with two unlikely town residents to clear her name.
Have you always been a writer?
I grew up in Gastonia, just outside of Charlotte, and I always wanted to write. I was on the literary magazine and the newspaper in high school, and then I worked for the newspaper in college. I wanted to go into journalism because it seemed like the easiest way to get a job writing, and I got a graduate degree in journalism from Georgetown. I worked for a few places (including WALTER!)before I landed at Axios, where I now work. I would get up early in the morning to work on my novel before work, and I did that for about a year, signed with an agent and sold it to Penguin Random House in 2024.
Why did you switch to fiction?
I always wanted to write a novel. The news cycle can be heavy and extremely fast, and the creativity of writing a novel was a good reset for my brain.
What gave you the idea to write a mystery about designer dogs?
Once, as I was visiting Gastonia from D.C., I realized I was playing into the whole “big-city girl in a small town” stereotype — but then I was like, Wait, but I’m from here, too! Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, and I wanted to play with some of the nuances surrounding them. The idea for the dogs came because my now-husband and I adopted an English bulldog. We didn’t have kids at the time, so before I knew it, we were, like, taking the dog to the dog bar for her birthday party. I was definitely part of the group I’m lampooning.
Did growing up in NC influence the setting?
A small town in the South is a ripe setting for stories. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone’s always in each other’s business. Anytime anything happens in Gastonia, my group chat blows up. But I didn’t want people to think I was writing about Gastonia, so I set it in South Carolina. It’s a fictionalized town, but the influence is still there. And people in the South are funny. Southerners are so unabashedly themselves.
What do you love about this story?
I loved writing about these characters; they’re all more nuanced than they appear. And I loved that it’s a story about three women who are in different stages of their lives; I wanted to explore these sides of womanhood. But really, I just love making people laugh. I want readers to have a good time.
This article was first published in the August 2026 issue of WALTER Magazine.
