C. Hope Clark
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, all of which enable her to talk the talk of Carolina Slade, the protagonist in her first series. Her love of writing, however, carried her up the ranks to the ability to retire young, and today she pens stories full time.
Lowcountry Bribe is the first in the Carolina Slade series. It took first place in the Phillip Mangelsdorf Award, third place in Alabama Writer's Conclave Competition and honorable mention in The Writing Show Chapter Competition as judged by bestselling mystery author C. J. Box. The novel enjoyed semi-finalist status (top 100 out of 10,000) in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. It won the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion award as did the third in the Slade series, Palmetto Poison. It likewise won the EPIC award for ebook mystery, then the following year, Tidewater Murder, won the same award. The Slade series has been exciting and welcomed by readers everywhere.
Hope’s second series is The Edisto Island Mysteries. Murder on Edisto has been advertised and presented at every visitors’ center in the state of SC, and has been selected to sit in most of the rentals along the South Carolina lowcountry community of Edisto Beach, where the series is set.
Hope is married to a 30-year veteran of federal law enforcement, a Senior Special Agent, now a private 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 researching and strolling the sands of Edisto Beach.
She also currently manages FundsforWriters.com, a weekly newsletter service she founded that reaches almost 40,000 writers to include university professors, professional journalists and published mystery authors. Writer's Digest has recognized the site in its annual 101 Best Web Sites for Writers for over 15 years.
She’s freelanced and published many trade and online publications, and speaks at several writers’ conferences, book clubs, libraries and bookstores each year. Hope is a long-term member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Clemson University Alumni Association (Go Tigers!) and MENSA. Her website is www.chopeclark.com
Her Books from BelleBooks/Bell Bridge Books:
Craven County Line
Badge of Edisto
Edisto Heat
Burned in Craven
Murdered in Craven
Reunion on Edisto
Salkehatchie Secret
Edisto Tidings
Dying on Edisto
Newberry Sin
Edisto Stranger
Echoes of Edisto
Edisto Jinx
Murder on Edisto
Palmetto Poison
Tidewater Murder
Lowcountry Bribe