Wednesday 09/11/2024 at 11:00 AM
William Rawlings
(The Garden of Earthly Delights) at Litchfield Country Club
In this, the third book in the John Wesley O'Toole mystery series, he has made the decision to ask his girlfriend Jenna to marry him, an effort to return both of their mixed-up lives to some sense of normalcy. They find themselves in Madrid, Spain, where O'Toole is attending an art exhibition. He plans to ask for Jenna's hand in the Prado Museum, standing in front of the magnificent painting, "The Garden of Earthly Delights." But Jenna, on seeing it, becomes emotional, in the process revealing more of her checkered past as a stripper and former drug addict. Importantly, she begins to speak of Mindy, her best friend who disappeared years earlier. When Mindy's remains are recovered from a shallow grave, it becomes evident that O'Toole's wish for a happy marriage will never happen unless the truth of Mindy's death is revealed. It's a wild plot, full of totally unexpected twists and turns!
$35

Tuesday 09/17/2024 at 11:00 AM
Daniel Cross Turner
(Riding Light) at Caffe Piccolo
From his peers in the rarefied air of poets and poetry, Dan Turner's first collection has garnered accolades that are themselves pure poetry: "...a spirited debut collection of love poems ... evoking, psalm-like, late summers on the South Carolina Coast"(Ashley Mace Havird); "...both traditional and innovative in form and subject ... if you look, right, as the poet says, heaven appears everywhere" (Mark Jarman); "... beauty is everywhere for a man in love ...this fine collection spreads the love through beach lyrics, bird songs, and briny testimony" (John Lane); "a superb first collection ... guided and paced so gracefully by Turner" (Adam Vines); "What a beautiful collection Turner has given us ... Truly a brilliant debut!" (Ray McManus). AND ... he is our own, the ever-innovative program director for the Georgetown County Library System after decades in academia, bringing his gentle sensitivity to all he shares. If you don't think you like poetry, come let us prove you wrong!
$35

Wednesday 09/25/2024 at 11:00 AM
Susan Boyer
(Sullivan's Island Supper Club) at The Village House, Litchfield
Boyer, the beloved Agatha Award-winning author of the Liz Talbot Mystery Series (all those wonderful Lowcountry B's – Boil, Bombshell, Boneyard, Bordello, etc.), launched the Carolina Tales series in 2023 with her new eccentric, vegan gumshoe Hadley Cooper solving "Big Trouble on Sullivan's Island." The second charming whodunit finds us amidst an eclectic mix of newcomers and natives, where lifelong resident and social maven Tallulah Wentworth's legendary monthly dinners have united an unlikely group of women into the very best of friends. To outsiders, this sunny, seaside haven is nothing short of paradise, but the residents of this beachside hamlet know that it harbors its share of troubles. Everyone has an opinion about the most hotly contested local issue – how to manage the maritime forest that's sprung up on accreted land – and civility is quickly running out at both town council meetings and in online forums. When a neighborhood meet-and-greet devolves into violence, several pillars of the community are led away in handcuffs. By the next morning, a very real, very dead body is the newest addition to Sarabeth Boone's spooky Halloween graveyard display. But who could possibly be responsible for such a heinous act? "Sullivan's Island Supper Club" weaves a tale of mystery, friendship and love – new love, old love, and second-chance love. Discover the lengths these women will go to protect each other and uncover the truth, even if it destroys the delicate balance of their seemingly perfect lives.
$35

Wednesday 10/02/2024 at 11:00 AM
Richard Porcher
(The Santee Canal: America's First Commercial Highway) at Quigley’s Next Door
A history of one of America's earliest canals and its impact on the people of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Completed in 1800, the Santee Canal provided the first inland navigation route from the Upcountry of the South Carolina Piedmont to the port of Charleston and the Atlantic Ocean. By connecting the Cooper, Santee, Congaree, and Wateree rivers, the engineered waterway transformed the lives of many in the state and affected economic development in the Southeast region of the newly formed United States. In "The Santee Canal," authors Elizabeth Connor, Richard Dwight Porcher Jr., and William Robert Judd provide an authoritative and richly illustrated history of one of America's first canals. Connor, Porcher, and Judd tell a comprehensive story of the canal's origins and history. Never-before published historical plans and maps, photographs from personal archives and field research, and technical drawings enhance the text, allowing readers to appreciate the development, evolution, and effect of the Santee Canal on the land and the people of South Carolina. Dr. Porcher, noted field biologist and former biology professor at The Citadel, authored the two "bibles" on "Wildflowers of the Carolina Lowcountry and Lower PeeDee" and "A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina."
$35

Tuesday 10/08/2024 at 11:00 AM
Bill Noel & Angelica Cruz
(Mosquito Beach, Overkill and Phantom) at Inlet Affairs
A three-fer from Moveable Feast cherished author of 26 mystery novels, seven of which have won the Best Mystery Novel award by Imaginarium, the Midwest's largest writers conference, and six of which are co-authored with daughter Angelica Cruz. Protagonist Chris Landrum, a retired bureaucrat, and his quirky friends on Folly Beach, have a penchant for finding dead bodies, getting deeper and deeper into suspicious territory, stumbling through red herrings and odd behaviors, to surprising and satisfying solutions. In the September 2024 release of "Phantom," co-authored with Cruz, Landrum is trying to avoid his least favorite holiday – Halloween – when a man walking within inches of him is gunned down. The dead man was on Folly for a conference of psychics, mediums, witches, palm readers and other with paranormal powers – was he and his beliefs the target or perhaps Chris himself? Enter the off-kilter imagination of Bill Noel to find out.
$35

Tuesday 10/15/2024 at 11:00 AM
Rachel Barnett and Lyssa Harvey
(Kugels & Collards) at Pawleys Tap House & Grill
Where people go, so goes their food. In "Kugels & Collards," Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey explore the food history, traditions, and memories of Jews in South Carolina, building on their blog of the same title. The book explores the diversity of Jewish South Carolina, with stories and recipes contributed from families with Sephardic and Ashkenazi heritage who have been in the state for hundreds of years, from descendants of Holocaust survivors, and from more recent immigrants from Russia and Israel. "Kugels & Collards" is also a story of cultural assimilation and exchange and considers how local ingredients and techniques have become part of the South Carolina Jewish table, including the influence of the generations of Black women who cooked for Jewish families. This collection, with more than 50 stories and approximately 80 recipes, as well as 60 historic and family photographs and professional photographs of finished dishes, showcases the diversity of Jewish cooking throughout the state. All book royalties will benefit the Jewish Historical Society of SC and Historic Columbia.
$35

Tuesday 10/29/2024 at 11:00 AM
Jackie Layton
(A Suspicious Breed; Clover Covered Corpse; and The Con) at Wahoo's Fish House, Murrells Inlet
This one-woman writing industry has published three new cozy mysteries in 2024. We'll feature all three as we try to keep up with her! "Clover Covered Corpse," the second book in A Texas Flower Farmer Cozy Mystery Series; "The Con," the second book in An Organized Crime Cozy Mystery Series set off the coast of Georgia; and "A Suspicious Breed," the sixth in the Low Country Dog Walker Series. In addition to delightful word play, Jackie's indefatigable imagination has created three spunky Southern accidental sleuths from three different professions who find themselves in (and then creatively extricate from) potentially deadly situations.
$35