Welcome to Cozy Wednesday!
I am delighted to share my thoughts about Come Shell or High Water (A Haunted Shell Shop Mystery) by Molly MacRae today!
Come Shell or High Water (A Haunted Shell Shop Mystery)
Cozy Mystery/Ghost Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – North Carolina – Ocracoke Island
Publisher : Kensington Cozies (June 25, 2024)
Hardcover : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 1496744276
ISBN-13 : 978-1496744272
Kindle ASIN : B0CK5DMFDR
Audiobook ASIN B0D687LHJ4
Audio CD ISBN-13 : 979-8874679422
From Molly MacRae, acclaimed author of the Highland Bookshop Mysteries, the first in a charming new series set on a beautiful barrier island off the coast of North Carolina and featuring a widowed folklorist, a seashell shop, and the ghost of an 18th-century pirate…
As a professional storyteller, Maureen Nash can’t help but see the narrative cues woven through her life. Like the series of letters addressed to her late husband from a stranger—the proprietor of The Moon Shell, a shop on Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. The store is famous with shell collectors, but it’s the cryptic letters from Allen Withrow, the shop’s owner, that convince Maureen to travel to the small coastal town in the middle of hurricane season. At the very least, she expects she’ll get a good story out of the experience, never anticipating it could end up a murder mystery . . .
In Maureen’s first hours on the storm-lashed island, she averts several life-threatening accidents, stumbles over the body of a controversial Ocracoke local, and meets the ghost of an eighteenth-century Welsh pirate, Emrys Lloyd. To the untrained eye, all these unusual occurrences would seem to be random misfortunes, but Maureen senses there may be something connecting these stories. With Emrys’s supernatural assistance and the support of a few new friends, Maureen sets out to unravel the truth, find a killer, and hopefully give this tale a satisfying ending . . . while also rewriting her own.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
In this first Haunted Shell Shop Mystery, former biologist and professional storyteller Maureen Nash has come to Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, to learn why a man from there sent her late husband a bunch of letters. She had traveled to the island with him and their family several times years ago but has no clue why anyone from the island would be contacting him now. Hurricane season is not the best time to travel to the island. Hurricane Electra had just passed through the area, but she needed answers. If nothing else she may get a story to tell about her mysterious adventure.
Her arrival goes seriously awry when she finds herself on the floor semi-conscious hearing two people discussing her and her car. The word “DEAD” comes out of her mouth more forcefully than intended and she remembers where she was before ending up on the floor. Maureen had stumbled over a dead body and she thinks she remembers where. Being the newcomer on the island she is Deputy Brown’s prime suspect but she is still confused by the other voice she keeps hearing, which she will come to find out is the ghost of Emrys Lloyd, an eighteenth-century Welsh pirate. A ghost who knew the deceased very well. Can her new friends help her find a killer and get the local police off her back? or will her story come to a violent end?
Maureen Nash loves seashells of every variety so Ocracoke Island would have been wonderful without the dead body. She is trying to figure out how to live life without her husband by her side. She has two grown sons, Kelly and O’Connor. They are both worried about their mom now that she is a murder suspect and stay in constant touch with her. She does her best to reassure them. Maureen meets Burt and Gladys Weaver when they find her in The Moon Shell unconscious sans her shoes and socks. The elderly siblings are a hoot and quickly attach themselves to Maureen. She is not totally honest with them but they really don’t let her get a word in edgewise. She heard another voice as she was waking up and soon realizes it is a ghost that only she can see and hear. They form a unique friendship. Ms. MacRae’s characters easily drew me into this story.
Maureen has rented a cute compact house on the island. “Like a jigsaw puzzle all the basics and a few extras” fit together in the place. The “mousehole” is perfect for one person. The author’s descriptions made it very easy to visualize. She aptly described The Moon Shell shop too from its porch to the office to the shelves and other nooks and crannies. The island is like a typical small town where the gossip flies but I do believe there are more quirky characters than typically found in most small towns.
Ms. MacRae has written a very entertaining and interesting mystery that stretched my imagination in places. It is filled with a plethora of twists, turns, secrets, lies, and misdirection. The showdown was crazy good with a very unexpected character coming through in the end. A lot happens within these pages and I didn’t have the guilty party pegged until they were revealed.
With an appealing mature protagonist, some curious supporting characters, a unique setting, and an intriguing mystery laced with plenty of humor Come Shell or High Water is an enjoyable lighthearted cozy ghost mystery. I am interested to see what Ms. MacRae has planned for these characters next.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to the Kensington Cozies and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.
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About the Author
Molly MacRae writes the Highland Bookshop Mysteries, about four women who reinvent their lives when they buy a bookshop in Inversgail on the west coast of Scotland, and the award-winning Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, about a textile preservation specialist in Blue Plum, Tennessee, who ends up with a depressed ghost on her hands.
Molly spent twenty years in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northeast Tennessee, where she managed the Book Place, an independent bookstore; may it rest in peace. Before the lure of books hooked her, she was the curator of the history museum in Jonesborough, Tennessee’s oldest town. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine for more than twenty years, and she won the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Molly lives with her family in Champaign, Illinois, where she connects children with books at the public library. Find more information about Mollie and her books on her website here.
Also written by Molly MacRae
Highland Bookshop Mysteries
Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” “As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.”
Sounds like a good read.
Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for this review, Dollycas! I’m honored and tickled that you like the book.