Some years ago when I was talking with my editor, at the time, Audrey LaFehr at Kensington Publishing, I asked her, “Do you think my readers, who have loved all my Smoky Mountain titles, would follow me if I also wrote a few books set at the beach?” She asked what I had in mind and I told her about my idea for a trilogy of books set at Edisto Beach, South Carolina, my family’s favorite vacation spot. She reacted positively, “I think your readers will love going on vacation to the beach with you. The books will still be the kind and  style of books they like—and, besides, most everyone loves to take a little vacation to the beach.”

With that supportive okay, and along with the Smoky Mtn book I was continuing to work on, I began to plot and plan a new Edisto Trilogy in the South Carolina Lowcountry.  It was a joy creating the story of Claire Avery and her young daughters Mary Helen and Suki in the first book, Claire at Edisto … and then continuing the saga with Mary Helen grown and finding her way through a hard time in Return to Edisto.  Now in the final book, the youngest daughter Suki is forced to face hurts and  problems in her career that bring her back to Edisto, too.

In all three books I enjoyed taking readers to visit at Edisto Beach, South Carolina, and to nearby Beaufort and Charleston. I hoped, also, to wrap my readers in the sweet story of Claire and her girls and how they each found their way from sorrows to new happiness. In Edisto Song, Suki has happily attained her dream of becoming an internationally acclaimed concert pianist but the life is not what she envisioned. As the book begins, she is dragging with illness and wisely listens to the counsel of her neighbor to head to the concert hall to talk to her agent Jonah about taking time off after this performance to heal. However, some new shocks send her life spiraling in a new direction.

Suki’s old friend since childhood, Andrew, has flown to New York to attend her concert and he is shocked when Suki collapses on stage. Andrew is even more stunned later at the hospital at Suki’s plans for her future which threaten to send his well-ordered life right out the window.

I won’t tell you more now about this new story, but a special pleasure I can tell you is that you will re-meet many of the characters from the first two books again—Claire and Parker Avery, Mary Helen and J.T., all the gang at Edisto, Kizzy Helton, and other island friends. You’ll also get to visit at Andrew’s beach house, The Sandpiper, at Edisto … and get to know his mother Nora Cavanaugh better.

You may remember from Return to Edisto that Andrew and his mother Nora Cavanaugh live in Beaufort and both work at Westcott Antiques for Parker Avery, as does Drake Jenkins, Parker’s store manager. As an added pleasure in this book, you’ll get to spend a lot of time in downtown Beaufort, South Carolina, and enjoy visits around this charming, historic Southern town. You’ll also learn more about the Westcott Antiques store and get drawn into the lives of many new Beaufort characters as well as being swept into an exciting new mystery that threads its way through the story. Beaufort is a delight –as is Edisto—and you’ll be wanting to visit both places after finishing this book filled with love, warmth, friendship, suspense, and an array of fun, unexpected events. I hope you’ll all enjoy this “finale” book in the Edisto Trilogy.

P.S. You might be pleased to know that, due to the wonderful reception to this new trilogy, I’ve decided to begin writing another series of books set on the South Carolina coast that will be called The Lighthouse Sisters, following the lives of four sisters who grew up at a lighthouse and inn.

… So have fun visiting Edisto and Beaufort in Edisto Song … and know that you have more fun Lowcountry books to look forward to in the future.

Note: All photos my own, from royalty free sites, or used only as a part of my author repurposed storyboards shown only for educational and illustrative purposes, acc to the Fair Use Copyright law, Section 107 of the Copyright Act.