Every August, four women gather together to spend a week at the beach, renting a new house each year. The ritual began when they were in their twenties and their husbands were in medical school. Their only criteria was oceanfront and isolation, their only desire to strengthen their far-flung friendships. They called themselves the Girls of August. But when one of the Girls dies tragically, the group slowly drifts apart. Years later, after a new marriage...

"Crime writer turned amateur sleuth, Jen, has taken over the running of the local bookstore in her hometown of Riddleton. But balancing the books at Ravenous Readers is nothing compared to meeting the deadline for her new novel. Dodging phone calls from her editor takes a back seat, however, when the local police chief is poisoned. To solve the murder, Jen must dust off her detective hat once more. With everyone in town seemingly a suspect, and evidence...

In every book we read, no one ever thought anything bad was happening until it was too late. Patricia Campbell's life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile m other-in-law needs constant care, and she's always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings...

"Set in early 1950s rural South Carolina, One Good Mama Bone chronicles Sarah Creamer's quest to find her "mama bone" after she is left to care for a boy who is not her own but instead is the product of an affair between her husband and her best friend and neighbor, a woman she calls "Sister." When her husband drinks himself to death, Sarah, a dirt-poor homemaker with no family to rely on and the note on the farm long past due, must find a way for...

"Dre Ross has one more shot. Despite being a successful political consultant, his aggressive tactics have put him on thin ice with his boss, Mrs. Fitz, who plucked him from juvenile incarceration and mentored his career. She exiles him to the backwoods of South Carolina with $250,000 of dark money to introduce a ballot initiative on behalf of a mining company. The goal: to manipulate the locals into voting to sell their pristine public land to the...

A literary novel on a Southern dilettante. Newly graduated architect Simons Manigault of North Carolina passes up a job for drink, literary talk and affairs with women. One day an older man shows him a home for burned-out hippies and Manigault, who narrates the tale, sees the light. By the author of Edisto.

Known for her moving characters and emotional honesty, Mary Alice Monroe brings readers a beautifully rendered story that explores the fragile yet enduring bond between mothers and daughters. Caretta Rutledge thought she'd left her Southern roots and troubled family far behind. But an unusual request from her mother--coming just as her own life is spinning out of control--has Cara heading back to the scenic Lowcountry of her childhood summers. Before...

"A chance meeting on the Isle of Palms, one of Charleston's most stunning barrier islands, brings former sweethearts Adam Stanley and Eve Landers together again. Their respective spouses, Eliza and Carl, fight sparks of jealousy flaring from their imagined rekindling of old flames. As Adam and Eve get caught up on their lives, their partners strike up a deep friendship--and flirt with an unexpected attraction--of their own. Year after year, Adam,...

Although not perfect, life for Dylan Styles is initially just the way he likes it. Once a professional student, he finds his footing in Digger, South Carolina, the small farming community where he grew up. Here on his grandparents' old farm, Dylan and his wife, Maggie, find happiness in the daily rhythms of the natural world. Maggie's pregnancy only adds to their contentment. However, a complicated delivery changes everything; their son is stillborn,...

A story on a series of fifteen-year-old unsolved crimes and a television show featuring a renowned psychic draw reporter Nicole Sullivan and police chief Joe Franconi into a perilous search for a murderer when the killer returns.