Murder and Myrtle Hill Plantation — Robert Ray

Dane Hunter is having the worst first day on the job ever as Camden Grove's new police chief. His first call leads him to the massive Myrtle Hill Plantation, where he faces the corpse of Ethel Chapman Bowman, a sixty-two-year-old widow and mother of a South Carolina senator and gubernatorial candidate. The back of her head is splattered all over the wall behind her, and a thirty-eight-caliber revolver is in her limp hand. The scene screams suicide, and would probably be a classic open-and-shut case but for the seventy-eight-year-old housekeeper, Isabelle Ricks, who adamantly states there is no way Ethel would or could kill herself. Dane must juggle his newly-repaired marriage while navigating small-town relationships. He's aided by five local women with paranormal psychic and healing gifts. There is much more to Camden Grove than meets the eye. Unexpectedly, the women help Dane and his wife understand their nonverbal twins, who seemingly communicate with each other without speaking. But as he struggles to balance his personal and professional lives, everyone in Camden Grove wants Dane to resolve the mystery quickly, especially the campaigning senator since he's a potential suspect along with a host of others who surface throughout the investigation into just what happened in the Myrtle Hill Plantation bedroom.