Blackbeard’s Curse: A Crystal Coast Mystery

Clara Dare Ivankova, an independent and strong-willed attorney, has always been the black sheep in her old Southern family. But when she returns home to North Carolina's beautiful Crystal Coast to attend her Uncle Jack's funeral, she begins to realize that while she has always managed to avoid most of the family drama, she may have unintentionally sacrificed too much.

When Clara Dare is summoned back home a month later, she finds her Aunt Eloise in a fierce legal battle over Uncle Jack's estate. New details about Uncle Jack's secret life arise that, combined with Clara Dare's cousins' strange behavior and the discovery of a series of cryptic journal entries made by the infamous pirate, Blackbeard, just months before his capture in 1718, soon draw Clara Dare into a race against time with a ruthless killer.

With the help of her childhood friend, Detective Tara Thompson, her brother-in-law, Vasek, and a contingent of her mother's friends who are privy to all of the local gossip, Clara Dare must get to the bottom of the nearly 300-year-old mystery of Blackbeard's treasure before another body is found and priceless artifacts are lost forever.

North Carolina native Chessen Parker attended Meredith College and Duke University School of Law. This is the first book in her amateur sleuth series. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her partner, David, and their cats where she enjoys volunteering and of course, writing mysteries.