Cedar Shoals: North Carolina coastal crime thrillers

Small-town police work with personal consequences

Luke Garrison is a police officer and Coast Guard reservist who notices the gate that should be locked, the count that does not match, and the signature that is not his. Recognizing a problem is different from speaking about it in a county where authority and family relationships overlap.

The series draws its tension from corruption carried through familiar institutions and familiar people. The author’s law enforcement and Coast Guard background informs the coastal setting, but the stories and their crimes are fiction.

Read the Cedar Shoals books in order

Start with Betrayal: an unlit aircraft, bundles dropped at an island airstrip, deputies under blackout, and Luke’s forged signature on a county cash receipt. Surge follows a hurricane and the movement of recovery money. Signed brings a thirty-year-old secret out of the marsh. Privilege turns toward Nora Garrison’s case and retaliation inside the courthouse.

The sequence is Betrayal, Surge, Signed, then Privilege. Their book pages provide the author’s descriptions, available purchase links, and announced release dates. A forthcoming title is not treated as available before publication.

Is Surge a sequel to Betrayal?

Yes. Surge is Book Two of Mike Anthony’s Cedar Shoals thrillers, following Betrayal. Read Betrayal first for Luke’s encounter with corruption in Merritt County, then continue with Surge’s hurricane-recovery investigation. Signed is Book Three and Privilege is Book Four.

When does Surge release?

Surge releases October 29th, 2026. Before Hurricane Imogen hits Merritt County, a grants officer warns Luke about a suspicious debris-removal contract. Her disappearance turns a storm rescue into an investigation of recovery money and the people using a disaster to conceal the truth.

Crime thrillers, not the apocalypse series

If you are looking for North Carolina police fiction, coastal crime thrillers, or stories about small-town corruption, begin here. For coastal apocalypse and survival fiction, visit The Bogue Banks Chronicles guide instead.

The common connection is Mike Anthony and the coast, not one continuous fictional series. The coastal-fiction guide also introduces his separate pirate and family-secret adventures.

Books in reading order

1. Betrayal

   Available now

   At 0152, Luke watches an unlit plane drop bundles on a forgotten island airstrip. Then county deputies roll in under blackout to collect them. He tells one person. By sunrise, the Sheriff's Office knows. Days later, a county cash receipt turns up with his signature forged on the line, and Luke has to prove what he saw before someone else finishes writing his story.

   Read about Betrayal

2. Surge

   Coming October 29th, 2026

   Before Hurricane Imogen hits Merritt County, a grants officer warns Luke Garrison about a suspicious recovery contract. Then she vanishes after a desperate call from a flooded causeway. As federal money starts flowing, Luke follows the paperwork—and the people using the storm to hide the truth.

   Read about Surge

3. Signed

   Coming November 28, 2026

   The storm leaves a thirty-year-old secret lying in the marsh. The report that closed the case carries a signature Luke never expected to see.

   Read about Signed

4. Privilege

   Coming December 19, 2026

   Nora Garrison takes on a case powerful people want buried. The retaliation comes from inside the courthouse.

   Read about Privilege