NEWBERRY — Chapin author Hope Clark will be the featured speaker at the Friends of the Newberry County Library’s annual Literary Luncheon on Tuesday, May 1. The luncheon will take place at noon at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. Tickets are now on sale to the public at the library and at Books on Main.

Hope Clark’s mystery novel, which is called “Newberry Sin,” has just been published, and copies will be available for purchase and signing at the luncheon. This new novel is the fourth in a series, which features a character named Carolina Slade. Hope Clark was also the featured speaker at the Friends’ luncheon in 2013, shortly after the release of “Lowcountry Bribe,” her debut novel in the series.

The author worked for 25 years as a county manager for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She met her future husband, who is a 30-year veteran of federal law enforcement and a senior special agent, on a bribery investigation within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They now live on the rural banks of Lake Murray outside of Chapin.

In between publication of Carolina Slade books, she also wrote a series of Edisto Island mystery novels and a non-fiction book called “The Shy Writer Reborn.” In addition, she currently manages a web site called “Funds for Writers,” a weekly newsletter service she founded that reaches over 40,000 writers, including university professors, professional journalists and published mystery authors. She speaks at several writers’ conferences and book clubs a year.

“Newberry Sin” is a fictional novel set in Newberry. Names of many Newberry places and people will be familiar to those who read the book. As the story begins, a call comes in at WKDK radio station, with the information that a farmer has been found dead at Tarleton’s Tea Room. Carolina Slade, an agriculture manager, teams up with a part-time DJ at the station. Together they look into a mystery that revolves around the fact that farmers in Newberry County are being forced to sell off their land.

The Friends of the Library’s annual Literary Luncheon, which has been a tradition for nearly 20 years, has featured many other prestigious authors as speakers, including Mary Kay Andrews, Mary Alice Monroe, Kathryn Wall, and Dorothea Benton Frank.

All profits from the luncheon will be used for the benefit of the Newberry County libraries.

Clark
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_author-pic-4.jpgClark

Audrey Henry for The Newberry Observer