Another steller mystery from C. Hope Clark in the Edisto series. Police Chief Callie Morgan has dealt with feeling at odds and unaccepted in the community. These undercurrents hinder her attempts to solve a series of burglaries, as well as a body of a prominent citizen. Her strength and her frailties make this a fascinating portrayal of policing in a small North Carolina tourist town.

Edisto Tidings
The Edisto Island Mysteries, Book 6
by C. Hope Clark
Was the first book I read by the author and series. The author does a great job of giving background info got through many established relationships in this mystery series. It’s Christmas time on Editso Island where the small community has many temporary renters for the Christmas season. Gifts are being taken from the renters' places, The gifts are taken by the “Edisto Santa”, a long time tradition where someone plays Santa, giving gifts to the poor who might not get something otherwise.
Police Chief Callie Morgan moved from the Boston PD to the island where she spent holidays with her family. Callie’s surprise birthday party at the new Mexican restaurant is interrupted when a prominent citizen finds a body. The body
of Callie's biological mother's estranged husband, Ben. Callie and her small police force now have two investigations. She gets support from her former boss from Boston in trying to get to the bottom OG it all. . She must step on some toes, but she feels an obligatited to the people who purchased the missing gifts. Locals stick together.
I enjoyed the setting and the already established relationships in the community.
I received a complimentary ARC from Belle Bridge Books through NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine only.

Edisto Tidings
An Edisto Island Mystery #6
C. Hope Clark
Bell Bridge Books, October 2019
ISBN 978-1-61194-956-8
Trade Paperback

As you can see, I’m a little out of season with this book as the story takes place at Christmas but, never you mind, a good story is a good story no matter when, right?

And a good one this is. Police Chief Callie Morgan is called to the scene of a murder—or is it a murder? There’s a body for sure, and it was found on a vacant lot owned by a contentious local, but there’s a very personal twist in that the victim is her biological mother’s husband. Obviously, Sarah, Callie’s mother, has to be a prime suspect along with the lot’s owner who also knew the victim.

Meanwhile, Callie also has to deal with a number of thefts that seem to be perpetrated by Santa. Somebody is stealing Christmas presents but might have an altruistic if criminal purpose. The resort town’s short-term rental visitors will be leaving in a few days and, if any of them are involved in these crimes, Callie’s timing had better be good. Fortunately, some of her friends are quite helpful when it comes to solving crimes and the police department staff is intelligent and reliable.

I really like this series, largely because Callie is so normal; she’s not on a power trip, she has heavy-duty baggage but is coping as well as one could hope, she’s smart as a whip and she cares about her job and the people she serves. Callie is a former big city cop so she has some skills not always easily found in small town departments but she also knows that the people of Edisto Island are not the least bit backward or dumb. In other words, she fits in well.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, June 2020.

This is book 6 in the Edisto Island Mystery series and it's a good addition. It could be read as a stand alone but you'll get from the story if you've read some of the previous books. Chief of Police Callie Morgan is called away from her birthday party when a dead body is found in a vacant lot. Between the murder and the recent rash of break-ins around town she's not getting much Christmas shopping done. The town's secret Santa might be the killer and Christmas is coming fast. A good revisit with most of the series regulars. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is the first book I have read in this series but I plan to start at the beginning. I loved the island and the characters, and it takes place at Christmas. It is very well written and a fun read.
Many thanks to Bell Bridge Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was my first read by the author and series and so I was a bit lost at the beginning. There is a plethora of relationships in the series but the author does a great job of giving background information. Edisto Island is a small community where there are many renters that come and go each week. It is Christmastime on the island and gifts are being taken from the renters' places, one each house with an exception or two. The gifts are taken supposedly by the Edisto Santa, a long time tradition where someone plays Santa, giving gifts to the poor who might not get something otherwise. But in the past, were gifts stolen to fulfill the gesture? Or is this a new act?
Police Chief Callie Morgan moved from the Boston PD to the island where she spent holidays with her family. Her surprise birthday party at the new Mexican restaurant is interrupted when someone clearing a lot owned by a prominent citizen finds a body. The body turns out to be Callie's biological mother's estranged husband, Ben. Sarah has just arrived on the island for Christmas and Callie's birthday and so is a suspect along with others who might have it in for Ben.
Callie and her small police force have their hands full with two investigations but her former retired boss from Boston gives her support. She steps on some toes when she recovers the stolen gifts from the poor recipients but she feels an obligation to the people who purchased the gifts. This is a fine line indeed. Locals stick together.
I enjoyed reading and trying to unravel this mystery and also discovering this new to me author. I plan to check out her other books. This is series has a great setting with a cast of interesting recurring characters. Highly recommended.
I received a complimentary ARC from Belle Bridge Books through NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine only.

Edisto Tidings by C. Hope Clark is a wonderful mix of holiday mystery and suspense. Police Chief Callie Morgan spends a hectic two days before Christmas trying to track down what exactly happened in the suspicious death of Ben Rosewood. Until Callie receives the report from the coroner, she has to keep an open mind to the possibility that Ben was murdered. How did his body end up on a vacant lot in the middle of the day? She is also on the trail of home burglaries on the island. Some vacationers have had their home burgled and a wrapped Christmas present is missing from under the tree. One holiday rental has three gifts missing. Is there a connection to the burglaries and the Edisto Santa legend? This Edisto Island mystery is fast-paced with interesting characters, and a very tense scene before the ending!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and post my review of this book.

Existing Tidings is a very well written mystery. I enjoyed the plot and the characters. I will definitely be reading more books in this series. I received an arc from the publisher and this is my unbiased review. I highly recommend this book.

I was initially drawn to this book because my family visited Edisto Island a few years ago. Reading a book with a familiar setting was a draw.

I really enjoyed the mystery in this quick read. I found the main character likable and I’m looking forward to picking up the first five books of the series to get filled in on all I’ve missed out on!

Thanks go to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Edisto Tidings by C. Hope Clark was a fun and entertaining southern mystery.  This is my first book by this author and will now make a point of finding her previous books.  This is probably a book series but was an easy stand alone.  The characters were nicely developed and relationships very understandable.  I loved the low country small town setting.  Looking forward to future novels. Thank you Net Galley for the chance to read this novel.

Callie Morgan is all set for a calm Christmas on Edisto Island. That is until her surprise birthday party when she is called away suddenly because a dead body is found. Then some of the tourists staying on the island for Christmas are missing some of their Christmas presents. Callie is racing around trying to figure out who is stealing Christmas presents and who murdered Ben. There are some surprises along the way. Did Edisto Santa steal the presents? What is the new restaurant owner hiding? As Callie spreads her small department thinly and pulls a 48-hour shift investigation herself, she gets some help from the new restaurant owner. Interesting read and I really like it. I would definitely recommend it.

EXCERPT: 'How many rants have I endured, with you talking about wanting to kill this person, kill that person, kill anyone who got in your way?' Her hand stopped at Callie. 'Like her?'

Callie only raised a brow, switching her focus from Aberdeen to Brice.

'I never said I'd kill anybody,' he said to Callie.

'Like hell you didn't!' Aberdeen yelled. Her voice was stuck on high volume. 'Shooting, drowning, electrocuting ' - she turned to Callie still counting - 'and don't forget poisoning, ' she said.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: 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.

MY THOUGHTS: I am afraid that Edisto Tidings is not going to be my favourite Christmas book. Not anywhere near it.

I may be somewhat hampered by the fact that I have not read any of the previous five books in this series, but to be truthful, after this I am unlikely to. I was expecting an entertaining romp featuring a Secret Santa who steals from the rich in this beach enclave, and gives to the poor. I expected eggnog and jingle bells, and a rather merry read with a good deal of Christmas cheer.

Instead, there are complicated family relationships- lets just take Sarah as an example.....she lost her daughter to her lover's wife, and is doomed to watch from afar as they raise her daughter, all the while enduring a miserable marriage to a caustic spouse, and being scorned by Edisto residents following a fatal car accident. And that's only one character!

This was an easy, if not joyous read. In fact it was often a little too simplistic in terms of plot, which may be just as well considering how complex the characters are. I could not make sense of some of Callie's deductions, or lack of them. There were things that stood out that she just didn't see. And that frustrated me!

Not a book that I will be recommending. I was drawn by the cover, a peaceful sea scene. But underneath are strong currents of deception and corruption with little Christmas cheer.

🎅🎅.5

THE AUTHOR: C. Hope Clark was born and reared in the South, from Mississippi to South Carolina with a few stints in Alabama and Georgia. The granddaughter of a Mississippi cotton farmer, Hope holds a B.S. in Agriculture with honors from Clemson University and 25 years’ experience with the U. S. Department of Agriculture to include awards for her management, all of which enable her to talk the talk of Carolina Slade, the protagonist in most of her novels. Her love of writing, however, carried her up the ranks to the ability to retire young, and she left USDA to pen her stories and freelance.

Hope is married to a 30-year veteran of federal law enforcement, a Senior Special Agent, now a contract investigator. They met on a bribery investigation within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the basis for the opening scene to Lowcountry Bribe. Hope and her special agent live on the rural banks of Lake Murray outside of Chapin, South Carolina, forever spinning tales on their back porch, bourbon and coke in hand, when not tending a loveable flock of Orpington and Dominiquer hens.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Belle Books Inc., Belle Bridge Books via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Edisto Tidings by C. Hope Clark for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon and my webpage

Another excellent instalment in this series, it's the second I read and I think it improves with each one.
It's well written, entertaining and engrossing with a solid mystery and a well written cast of characters.
I look forward to reading the next instalment in this series.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The Edisto Island Mysteries #6

Police Chief Callie Morgan is back with another mystery to solve. It's almost Christmas and Callie is busy getting ready for her son to come home and making sure the Island is safe. The tourists have gone home and things are pretty quiet with just the residents and a few families coming in for a holiday at the beach.

It's also Callie's birthday and her surprise party is just that! A surprise party at the new restaurant in town whose owner is quite hunky and mysterious and her former boss and friend, Stan isn't filling her in on anything. Before she can even enjoy her own party, a body is found on a plot owned by local pain in the bum, Brice! And the dead man is Ben, his attorney and Callie's kind of step-dad.

When renters begin reporting thefts of Christmas gifts, the town seems to want to ignore it. Turns out it is kind of a tradition. Edisto Santa, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. And when Callie demands the gifts be returned, she is suddenly the bad guy.

So what do the thefts and a dead man have in common? You will never guess!

I love this series. Mainly because my Momma is from Charleston and was born in Walterboro and my family still has property on Edisto. But the writing is so good. From the first page, we kick into high gear and never let up! There is no page after page of backstory, just my need to know who this Santa fellow is!!!

Great Tale!

NetGalley/BellBooks   October 21, 2019

Another cracking good murder mystery with Edisto Beach Police Chief Callie Morgan once more in the driving seat. It might be number 6 in the series but it doesn't feel like it. This time she investigates a dead man found on a building site but this time her arch nemesis, town Councillor Brice is very quiet - the body was that of his lawyer and his wife's lover, they'd had a row and wife was trying to sell their real estate on the side, and he is a suspect, but then so are various other characters. On top of this it's Christmas, and the Edisto Santa has ramped up their activities by stealing from the wealthy and giving to the poor. Is it a new Santa or the old one gone off the rails? Callie tries hard to sort out both the death and the thefts without treading too harshly on sensitive toes, not always succeeding but always persisting. It's well written, likeable characters and a good read. We might have a new romance for Callie and, if so, I hope that it doesn't take over from her police work! Thanks to Alya, Marketing and Productions Coordinator for BelleBooks, Inc. for inviting me to review this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review..

3 stars

This was a good book with which to spend an afternoon. It was an easy read and made sense as the storyline went along. I found the writing a little simplistic though. It seemed to take off in tangents that really had nothing to do with the main story. I would almost call it a cozy.

It is a police procedural that focuses on a woman police chief on a small island off the coast of the US. Everyone knows everyone and during the summer there is a boom in population due to the tourist season. Many of the homes and cottages on the island are rented out to these visitors.

When a body is found on a vacant lot about to be cleared, Police Chief Callie Morgan is alarmed to realize that she knows the man. In fact she knows him rather more than she would like to. At the same time, there is a spate of burglaries going on. Christmas presents are being opened and stolen.

Unfortunately, the suspects in both cases are islanders, so Callie must be very careful in her investigation not to ruffle any feathers, so to speak. But determined and thorough police worl captures both perpetrators while ruffling only a few feathers.

I want to thank NetGalley and BelleBooks, Inc./ Bell Bridge Books for forwarding to me a copy of this good book for me to read, enjoy and review.

Loved it. Eager for the next one. I haven't read all the books in this series, but have enjoyed getting to know the characters and the island. I need to go back and fill in with the ones I missed while I wait for the next one..