Bill Noel

First Light Bill Noel

Early mornings used to be Chris Landrum's favorite time on the small South Carolina island he calls home-until a stranger joins him along a lonely stretch of road. After a car suddenly barrels toward them in the predawn darkness and slams the stranger into the hereafter, Chris's peaceful retirement is thrown into a tailspin once again.

Even though the police declare the stranger's death a tragic accident, Chris knows better. Distressed, Chris heads to his photo gallery, hoping for a distraction from the day's horrific start. But when another man is murdered in his beachside home within hours, Chris soon learns that the only thing the victims have in common is First Light, Folly Beach's newest place of worship, led by nontraditional preacher Burl Ives Costello. Assisted by his friend and self-proclaimed private detective, Charles Fowler, Chris begins to dig into Costello's suspicious past. As Chris and Charles become more convinced that Costello is somehow tied to the deaths, the body count rises and no one is safe.

In a new Folly Beach mystery, a retiree turned amateur sleuth and his quirky pals must put everything on the line-including their lives-to catch a killer before they become part of the death count.