The Edisto Island Mysteries

Latest release: May 17, 2024

Series

Books

Book 1·Sep 2014

A big city detective. A lowcountry murder.

Peace, safety, a place to grieve and heal. After her husband is murdered by the Russian mob, Boston detective Callie Jean Morgan comes home to her family's cottage in South Carolina. There, she can keep their teenage son, Jeb, away from further threats.

But the day they arrive in Edisto Beach, Callie finds her childhood mentor and elderly neighbor murdered. Taunted by the killer, who repeatedly violates her home and threatens others in the community, Callie finds her new sanctuary has become her old nightmare. Despite warnings from the town's handsome police chief, Callie plunges back into detective work, pursuing a sinister stranger who may have ties to her past. He's turning a quiet paradise into a paranoid patch of sand where nobody's safe. She'll do whatever it takes to stop him.

"A phenomenal read."--Sharon Sala, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author

Is it a flesh and blood killer--or restless spirits?

According to Sophie the psychic, beautiful Edisto Beach becomes a hotbed of troublemaking spirits every August. But when a visitor dies mysteriously during a beach house party, former big-city detective Callie Morgan and Edisto Beach police chief Mike Seabrook hunt for motives and suspects among the living. With tourists filling the beaches and local business owners anxious to squelch rumors of a murderer on the loose, Callie will need all the help she can get--especially once the killer's attention turns toward her.

Edisto Jinx is a phenomenal read from beginning to end. The psychological twists are as intriguing as the vivid imagery of Ms. Clark's writing. From characters with just the right amount of flaws to make them realistic, to the eerie peek into a madman's mind, it is a gem of a story I didn't want to end.--Sharon Sala, author of Cold Hearts, book two of the Secrets and Lies trilogy. August 2015 from Mira Books

Edisto Jinx has everything you want in a good island read: sand, food, drinks, people you care about, beautiful sunsets, secrets, murder, and page-turning suspense. C. Hope Clark took me to one of the most unspoiled South Carolina islands and gave me plenty of reasons to want to stay with Callie Morgan and a richly drawn cast of beach-town regulars. Pull up a beach chair, dip your toes in the gentle waves, and enjoy!--Cathy Pickens, author of the Southern Fried mysteries and Charleston Mysteries: Ghostly Haunts in the Holy City

C. Hope Clark is the award-winning author of the Carolina Slade Mysteries and now the Edisto Island Mysteries. During her career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she met and married a federal agent--now a private investigator. Together they plot murder mysteries at their lakeside home in South Carolina. Visit Hope at chopeclark.com.

"A phenomenal read from beginning to end." - Sharon Sala, bestselling author, about Edisto Jinx

Murder came in with the tide . . .

Edisto Island is a paradise where people escape from the mainstream world. Yet for newly sworn-in Edisto Police Chief Callie Jean Morgan, the trouble has just begun . . .

When a rookie officer drowns in a freak crash in the marsh, Callie's instincts tell her it wasn't an accident. As suspects and clues mount, Callie's outlandish mother complicates the investigation, and Callie's long-time friendship with Officer Mike Seabrook takes a turn toward something new--but is shadowed by the unsolved mystery of his wife's death. Everyone's past rises to the surface, entangling with death that cuts to the bone.

The roar of the surf made Callie's steps soundless, her thoughts louder. Two and a half weeks on the job, and she'd lost an officer. Edisto hadn't sacrificed an officer in its entire history, and the first female chief had to be the one to break the record.

She sniffled. Salty breezes began to clear her sinuses, but nothing could assuage the guilt clinging to her like the muggy air

Sarah lived. Francis died. And somebody had to be disappointed at that freakish turn of events, because she suspected it was meant to be the other way around. Crime was for people who lived across the big bridge on the mainland. But whether the natives liked it or not, the brake lines were cut on Edisto. She didn't want to go down that path, but one of them might be a frustrated, unfulfilled killer.

C. Hope Clark is the award-winning author of the Carolina Slade Mysteries and now the Edisto Island Mysteries. During her career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she met and married a federal agent--now a private investigator. She plots murder mysteries at their lakeside home in South Carolina when not visiting Edisto Beach. Visit Hope at chopeclark.com.

A cold case heats up . . .

A dead man in Big Bay Creek, spring break, and a rogue FBI agent would be enough to drive Chief Callie Jean Morgan to drink . . . if she hadn't already quietly crawled inside a bottle of gin to drown her sorrows over a life ripped apart by too many losses.

When her investigation into the stranger's death heats up an unsolved abduction case, Callie finds herself pitted against the town council, her son, the agent, and even the raucous college kids enjoying idyllic Edisto Beach.

Amidst it all, Callie must find a way to reconcile her grief and her precious taste for gin before anyone else is killed.

C. Hope Clark is the award-winning author of the Carolina Slade Mysteries and now the Edisto Island Mysteries. During her career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she met and married a federal agent--now a private investigator. She plots murder mysteries at their lakeside home in South Carolina when not visiting Edisto Beach. Visit Hope at chopeclark.com.

One death. Two detectives. And unexpected backup.
A Callie Morgan and Carolina Slade crossover! (A standalone mystery)

When a renowned--and now dead--travel blogger washes ashore on the banks of Indigo Plantation, Police Chief Callie Morgan of Edisto Beach agrees to head the investigation as a favor to the county sheriff, whose reasons are as questionable as the death itself.

When death turns to murder and a watchdog from the county makes her investigation difficult, Callie reluctantly turns to Carolina Slade and Wayne Largo, vacationing agents with the Department of Agriculture. Because poison is growing on this plantation, and someone knows how to use it well.

"Page-turning...[and] edge-of-your-seat action...crisp writing and compelling storytelling. This is one you don't want to miss!" --Carolyn Haines, USA Today bestselling author

"Her beloved protagonist, Callie, continues to delight readers as a strong, savvy, and a wee-bit-snarky police chief."--Julie Cantrell, NY Times and USA Today bestselling author

C. HOPE CLARK has a fascination with the mystery genre and is author of the Carolina Slade Mystery Series as well as the Edisto Island Mysteries, both set in her home state of South Carolina. In her previous federal life, she performed administrative investigations and married the agent she met on a bribery investigation. She enjoys nothing more than editing her books on the back porch with him, overlooking the lake, with bourbons in hand. She can be found either on the banks of Lake Murray or Edisto Beach with one or two dachshunds in her lap. Hope is also editor of the award-winning FundsforWriters.com.

When the discovery of a body on a vacant lot puts an end to Police Chief Callie Morgan's surprise birthday party, Christmas week loses some of its charm. Not only does she know the dead man, he's a relation . . . of sorts.

Soon she's juggling a murder investigation and a rash of burglaries that may have been committed by the mythical Edisto Santa--a holiday secret Santa, who may have taken a page from Robin Hood's book and begun robbing from the tourist rich and giving to the local poor.

Since the suspects for both crimes are Edisto residents, no matter how delicately Callie treads, this holiday season will pit Callie against her beloved Edisto and leave her feeling like the Grinch, Scrooge, and Old Man Potter rolled into one. But she has no choice. Murder trumps Santa.

This year Callie is making a list and checking it twice.

Praise for C. Hope Clark: "A sparkling Edisto Island setting, a flawed heroine, a riveting mystery."--Karen White, New York Times bestselling author.

Hope Clark's books have been honored as winners of the Epic Award, Silver Falcion Award, the Daphne du Maurier Award.

"Murder, corruption, and page-turning intrigue . . . characters that bring a vivid literary element . . . and create a strong emotional response to their tangled lives."--Susan Cushman, author of Cherry Bomb and editor of Southern Writers on Writing.

About the Author: C. HOPE CLARK has a fascination with the mystery genre and is author of the Carolina Slade Mystery Series as well as the Edisto Island Mysteries, both set in her home state of South Carolina. In her previous federal life, she performed administrative investigations and married the agent she met on a bribery investigation. She enjoys nothing more than editing her books on the back porch with him, overlooking the lake, with bourbons in hand. She can be found either on the banks of Lake Murray or Edisto Beach with one or two dachshunds in her lap. Hope is also editor of the award-winning FundsforWriters.com.

Planning a reunion is going to get someone killed. . .

Edisto Beach Police Chief Callie Morgan has no desire to relive her senior year and the nightmare of a murder and a suicide that shook her high school to its core. But when the reunion committee convenes on Edisto Beach for a planning retreat, she has no choice. Every person on the committee could be a suspect in the unsolved murder, and one classmate, now a bestselling author, threatens to weave them into a tell-all true crime novel.

Until she disappears the first night of the committee retreat.

Callie must sort fact from fiction in a race against the clock to find a cold case murderer who may have just killed again.

Edisto Heat

Book 8·May 2022

5.0

Fire steals her breath and took her husband years ago, but Edisto Beach Police Chief Callie Morgan will have to face the flames again when an arsonist stalks the beach. One fire could be carelessness, but three? Trouble is, the all-too-easy suspect may be an intellectually disabled young man who idolizes her in particular and law enforcement in general.

With the town unsettled by the fires and a string of breaking-and-entering crimes, they're screaming for closure. They want someone's head on a spike, and Callie must fight against time and popular opinion to unearth the real arsonist, who is clearly willing to kill.

Her island is angry, scared, and looking to her for answers. If she doesn't find them, Callie will be forced to pay a price.

Praise for the Author:
"Ms. Clark delivers a riveting ride, with her irrepressible characters set squarely in the driver's seat."
—Dish Magazine on Echoes of Edisto

"Page-turning…[and] edge-of-your-seat action… Prepare to be absorbed by Clark's crisp writing and compelling storytelling. This is one you don't want to miss! " —Carolyn Haines, USA Today bestselling author on Dying on Edisto

Hope Clark's books have been honored as winners of the Epic Award, Silver Falcion Award, the Daphne du Maurier Award

"Entertaining and compelling start of a new series. "—Anna Maria Giacomasso, NetGalley Reviewer on Murdered in Craven

Author Bio:
C. HOPE CLARK has a fascination with the mystery genre and is author of the Carolina Slade Mystery Series as well as the Edisto Island Mysteries, both set in her home state of South Carolina. In her previous federal life, she performed administrative investigations and married the agent she met on a bribery investigation. She enjoys nothing more than editing her books on the back porch with him, overlooking the lake, with bourbons in hand. She can be found either on the banks of Lake Murray or Edisto Beach with one or two dachshunds in her lap. Hope is also editor of the award-winning FundsforWriters.com.

A Callie Morgan and Carolina Slade crossover! (A standalone mystery)

Regret has become ex-Police Chief Callie Jean Morgan's constant companion. Her half-assed, "good ol' boy" replacement in the town of Edisto deepens her guilt at having abandoned her citizens, her officers. When her friends Carolina Slade and Wayne Largo arrive unannounced and determined to uncover why the hell Callie gave up her badge, the group is pulled into a mystery they shouldn't have to solve—but no one else seems to care that the Edisto Witch has turned up dead behind the cemetery.

In fact, Callie and posse have caught the new chief in a lie about the death.

She'll have to decide whether to stay safely retired, save Edisto from an unforeseen criminal element, or take that job offer in her hometown…

The dead still speak to Callie Jean Morgan. Whether she's on the job or not.

"When a shocking murder leaves more questions than answers, retired police chief Callie Jean Morgan reclaims her true purposeâ€"solving big crimes in a small town. Packed with plot twists, suspicious new characters, and the Edisto Beach community readers have come to love, C. Hope Clark fans will be cheering." —Julie Cantrell, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Perennials

"Characters that linger in your mind long after the last page is turned." —Karen White, New York Times Bestselling Author

Hope Clark's books have been honored as winners of the Epic Award, Silver Falcion Award, the Imaginarium Award, and the Daphne du Maurier Award.

"I am grateful that the mayhem of the Edisto Island Mysteries is restricted to these enjoyable works of fiction, and I am a big fan." —former Mayor Jane Darby, Town of Edisto Beach, SC

"Ms. Clark delivers a riveting ride, with her irrepressible characters set squarely in the driver's seat." —Dish Magazine on Echoes of Edisto

Author Bio:
C. HOPE CLARK has a fascination with the mystery genre and is author of the Carolina Slade Mystery Series, and the Craven County Mysteries as well as the Edisto Island Mysteries, all set in her home state of South Carolina. In her previous federal life, she performed administrative investigations and married the agent she met on a bribery investigation. She enjoys nothing more than editing her books on the back porch with him, overlooking the lake, with bourbons in hand. She can be found either on the banks of Lake Murray or Edisto Beach with one or two dachshunds in her lap. Hope is also editor of the award-winning FundsforWriters.com.

When a storm blows out power to half the beach, all hell breaks loose.

Edisto Beach Police Chief Callie Morgan is called to investigate a break-in at El Marko's, the restaurant owned by the man who's unexpectedly become a real part of her life. Then she sees Mark slide an unspent .41 caliber bullet from the bar into his pocket. A bullet seemingly left as a calling card. A bullet he has no intention of mentioning to her.

Before they got involved, Callie knew ex-SLED agent Mark Dupree had a past, one he kept carefully buttoned-up and private around her. She understood, but now that past has come calling and his secrets could get someone killed. Suddenly, the man she thought she knew so well is gone, lost in secrets he won't share.

Soon more bullets are left as warnings, all on the doorsteps of people in Mark's life. Adding to the uncertainty and chaos is a new-to-town psychic, warning anyone who will listen that she sees danger around Mark, vowing that within six days someone will die.

The hell of it is, Callie isn't certain the psychic is wrong. She's got six days to unearth a past Mark doesn't want her to know and to protect the town she loves from whatever blew in with the storm.

Award Winning: Hope Clark's books have been honored as winners of the Epic Award, Silver Falcion Award, the Imaginarium Award, and the Daphne du Maurier Award.

About the Author: C. HOPE CLARK has a fascination with the mystery genre and is author of the Carolina Slade Mystery Series, and the Craven County Mysteries as well as the Edisto Island Mysteries, all set in her home state of South Carolina. In her previous federal life, she performed administrative investigations and married the agent she met on a bribery investigation. She enjoys nothing more than editing her books on the back porch with him, overlooking the lake, with bourbons in hand.

A missing woman.
An unidentified body.
Summer is just getting started...

Police Chief Callie Jean Morgan's hope for a day of nothing but traffic tickets is shattered when one of five women who regularly vacation together on Edisto Island is reported missing. Hours later, a body washes up on the sand—but not the body of the missing young lady.

Unable to identify the dead woman, leaving her with a possible murder on her hands, Callie worries the clock might be ticking down to yet another tragedy. She has no choice but to dig into the secrets of the women's group, who now seem unconcerned about their missing member. Tracking down information on the ladies is like chasing air. Even the older residents of Edisto are unwilling to talk about the well-established, yet evasive group known as "The Summer Ladies."

Edisto is heating up, and so is Callie Jean Morgan.

Praise for the Edisto Island Mysteries:

"Another page turner."—Brenda Burke, Amazon Vine Reviewer on Edisto Bullet

"A great series."—Lynn Simmons, bookseller, Books-A-Million

Hope Clark’s books have been honored as winners of the Epic Award, Silver Falcion Award, the Imaginarium Award, and the Daphne du Maurier Award.

About the Author:C. HOPE CLARK has a fascination with the mystery genre and is author of the Carolina Slade Mystery Series, and the Craven County Mysteries as well as the Edisto Island Mysteries, all set in her home state of South Carolina. In her previous federal life, she performed administrative investigations and married the agent she met on a bribery investigation. She enjoys nothing more than editing her books on the back porch with him, overlooking the lake, with bourbon in hand. She can be found either on the banks of Lake Murray or Edisto Beach with one or two dachshunds in her lap. Hope is also editor of the award-winning FundsforWriters.