Dying on Edisto by C. Hope Clark Book Tour and Giveaway :)
Dying
on Edisto
The
Edisto Island Mysteries Book 5
by
C. Hope Clark
Genre:
Cozy Mystery
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
Prologue
Slade
BODIES WEREN’T foreign to me, but
they weren’t commonplace either. Trying to keep my feet out of the
water, I stooped over, not too much, to study the corpse floating
face down about three feet away. The ears were chewed on by some kind
of creature. A denim shirt clung to a pudgy back, and the torso
gently rocked though no boat stirred the South Edisto River. The last body I’d discovered in
Newberry, my most recent major case, made me vomit my breakfast
burrito, and if I hadn’t skipped lunch today, I’d have upchucked
here, too. We were supposed to be on vacation. Or
rather, I’d been ordered by my boss to take a vacation. “Go take basket weaving or
something,” he’d said, his way of telling me to get out of his
hair for a while and quit finding investigations where there were
none. Sorry, but when I thought there was a case, there usually was a
case. My record proved it. He sort of pissed me off. So I’d Googled basket weaving and
South Carolina Lowcountry, and made reservations for a week at Indigo
Plantation. I was from this piece of the state, and revisiting would
be nice. Plus, I planned to make the biggest, gaudiest basket in the
world, and set the damn thing on his desk when I returned. Patiently, Wayne had stood guard on dry
land, while I searched for the right grass for a basket, along the
edge of the river. But as I waded calf deep in the water, a heavy
something bumped me from behind.
Imagining a gator, I screamed,
teetered, and fell, making the lawman come running. Wayne saw the body before I did. “Don’t
touch it, Slade!” he’d yelled. From sitting waist deep in brackish
water, slick mud under my butt, I scrambled like a crab at surf’s
edge, putting distance between me and the dead man. “It touched me
first,” I yelled back. Gently but quickly, he rolled the man
over and checked for a pulse. I’m sure my eyes rolled. Skin color
and missing eyelids told us what we needed. I couldn’t stop staring
though I was sure I’d regret it in my dreams. “Stay here and guard the scene,”
Wayne said, in his federal agent voice, the boyfriend in him gone.
“Don’t disturb anything. And don’t let anyone else disturb
anything.” Then off he waded to shore and left me.
Just like that. Before I could ask what to do if the body tried to
float off.
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.
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