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 love cozy mysteries and I especially love cozy mysteries with a paranormal theme so I was eager to read “Come Shell or High Water” the first book in Molly MacRae’s Haunted Shell Shop Mystery series. Truthfully, it took me a few chapters to get into this one – MacRae takes her time with the setup, slowly revealing details about main character Maureen Nash and other characters to the readers. I liked Maureen as a main character – still recovering from the loss of her husband, she sets out to Ocracoke Island to try and solve the mystery of cryptic letters sent to her husband only to find herself involved in a murder mystery. I also love the ghost in the story – Welsh pirate Emrys Lloyd – he not only adds a great touch of humor to the mystery but is very useful in helping solving the mystery. Rounding out the characters are brother and sister team Glady and Burt – they are great characters but, like every other character in the book including Maureen, they are keeping secrets that had me wondering if they could be trusted. I also liked the Shell Shop Setting – like everything else in the book, the details of the shop are slowly revealed to readers. The mystery was well done with quite a few surprises and just the right amount of suspects – the part where all was revealed was quite well done and suspenseful. In the end, while I thought the pace of the book was a bit slow, I was caught up in and involved with the characters and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

Interesting premise based on the synopsis but from the get-go, we’re thrown into a story that is very confusing. I get that Maureen is also confused but it makes for a quick jump into the first of a series with nothing established so you’re floundering trying to figure things out, and not in a good way; so many characters and scenes are introduced that it’s hard to get your bearings. Then the writing style was strange. I’m not sure how to describe it but maybe the short sentences make it seem clipped and this adds to the difficulty in connecting with the characters and the book on the whole. Sometimes a reader is just not compatible with the author and I think that might be the case with this one. I don’t think I will continue with this series.

Widowed folklorist Maureen Nash is a woman on a mission. Having persuaded a ranger friend to transport her across choppy waters still affected by hurricane season, she’s landed on North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island in search of answers.

Alas that it’s mostly alarming questions that she finds instead, beginning with the identity of the dead body she ran away from in terror before being woken up in a strange place by even stranger people. The latter introduce themselves as Glady and Burt Weaver, the neighbors who live in the home next door to the shop Maureen had originally come to visit. Well, not the shop specifically, but its owner Allen Withrow. Over the past few years, Allen had written several cryptic letters to Maureen’s late husband. A still-grieving Maureen has only just found the time and strength to come east from her home in Tennessee to ask him about them. But there are alarming gaps in her memory now, between landing on Ocracoke and waking in the Moon Shell store, gaps she’ll have to fill if she has any hope of uncovering the meaning of Allen’s strange missives.

She’s somewhat distracted in her quest by Allen’s shop, and especially by the gorgeous carved shell that once had pride of place in it. Being a malacologist – a scientist specializing in mussels and their shells – in addition to a folklorist, Maureen greatly appreciates not only the rarity of the shell specimen but also the artistry of its carving. Even more uniquely, the shell is haunted by the ghost of a long-dead pirate whom only Maureen can see.

The phantom Emrys Lloyd is eager to help Maureen not only regain her memory but also to solve the mystery of the letters. She’ll need all the help she can get, since Allen has gone missing. But as more strange things begin to befall the island, Maureen will have to figure out who in Ocracoke’s small community is willing to resort to murder and why, before she becomes the next victim herself.

The first book in Molly MacRae’s latest cozy mystery series is populated with charming, eccentric characters. The elderly Weaver siblings are a hoot, and I loved Maureen’s relationship with her adult children. The amnesia narrative is written in a manner as disorienting as the experience itself, but everything comes together satisfactorily in the end. Honestly, it’s so refreshing to read of older characters tackling tough and often dangerous problems. The inclusion of a friendly ghost also adds a delightful touch of the paranormal.

There were three muffin recipes included here and I decided to try out this one:

QUOTE
Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins
Yield: 12

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cups mashed ripe banana (two or three bananas, depending on their size)
⅔ cup brown sugar
⅔ cup unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Butter 12 muffin cups or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.

In a medium bowl, melt the butter, then whisk in the mashed banana, sugar, egg, and vanilla until well combined. Add to the large bowl and fold until combined but not over-mixed.

Divide batter evenly between muffin cups. Sprinkle tops with the chopped walnuts.

Bake until tops are golden brown or a toothpick or tester comes out clean, 15-20 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack before removing from pan.
END QUOTE

I skipped the walnuts, but otherwise baked this exactly as described. I did find that I wound up with enough batter for eighteen muffins instead of twelve, but that is definitely not a complaint at all. I love the buttery flavor of these muffins, and am seriously thinking of using this recipe the next time I have a bunch of overripe bananas to use. I might change it up a little and see if I can adapt the yummy flavors of this recipe into loaf form for a banana chocolate chip bread though: I can’t imagine it would be any less delicious than these muffins!

Next week, we head north to whip up a very different kind of muffin while investigating the death of a controversial children’s author. Do join me!

COME SHELL OR HIGH WATER by Molly MacRae
The First Haunted Shell Shop Mystery

Convincing her friend Park Ranger Patricia Crowley to bring her to Ocracoke Island right after a hurricane may not have been the best decision, but Maureen was eager to get some answers only found on the island. After finding an exquisitely carved shell in the water and literally stumbling across a dead body, Maureen wakes up in the shop with two concerned senior citizens peering at her. Swearing she saw a man in a tricorn hat and hearing a voice no one else can hear Maureen wonders how badly she's been hurt. Unsure of what happened and with gaps in her memory she'll try to piece things together. But on the island who can she trust?

I had such high hopes for this series, shells, an island setting, and a ghost! Instead I found a convoluted storyline and unpleasant characters. The beginning of the story is very confusing with the reader as baffled as Maureen as to what happened to her. She's just arrived, then she wakes up in the Moon Shell shop, then it's back to just after she arrived and she's exploring. She has gaps in her memory, which is fine, but the reader is also clueless as to what's going in. None of the characters are trustworthy, thus difficult to forge a bond with or even like. The little girl is annoying and even Maureen has secrets. She's fairly judgemental too, at least when it comes to pirates. Eventually the confusion began to clear and I was intrigued to discover the various truths. I found the very end quite compelling piquing my interest in reading the next book in the series.

The first book in a new series COME SHELL OR HIGH WATER has seashells, a pirate ghost, and secrets aplenty. There are also delicious sounding recipes for some of the muffins that Burt makes.

The first in a new mystery series, Come Shell or High Water takes us to a quaint coastal town in North Carolina where the recent murder of a local man spells trouble for recent visitor Maureen Nash who just so happened to literally stumble upon the body when arriving to the island.

Within 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 unravel the truth, find a killer, and hopefully give this tale a satisfying ending . . . while also rewriting her own.

While my foray into cozy mystery is still relatively new, I could tell early on that this new mystery series wasn't going to be for me. The main issue was the lack of coziness. All of the locals that Maureen interacted with were all standoffish and suspecting of each other. The author was clearly trying to through the reader off when it came to guessing who the murderer was, but with every character trying to solve the murder and all of them suspecting not only our main character but almost everyone else by creating multiple motives it became a bit bogged down with tension rather than buoyed by coziness.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

new-series, first-in-series, Outer Banks, hurricane, recipes, ghosts, storyteller, murder, electricity, concussion, paramnesia, amateur-sleuth, local-law-enforcement, suspense, malacologist, shell-collector, South Carolina, small-business, small-town, situational-humor, septuagenarian, siblings, investigations, island-life****

Within very few pages retired malacologist and professional storyteller (recently widowed) Maureen Nash is terrified when crossing the waters in the wake of a hurricane to the Barrier Island, Oracoke, slips in household water that has developed an electrical charge, met a 274 y/o ghost of a pirate, and gotten a concussion to complicate the electrical scrambling. Then things really get going!
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Kensington Books | Kensington Cozies via NetGalley. Thank you!
#HauntedShellShopMysteriesBk1

Come Shell or High Water by Molly MacRae is the entertaining story of a woman who appears in the middle of a hurricane on an island, Oracoke, on the Outer Banks, responding to letters written to her late husband. The man owned a seashell shop, but he wasn’t there. She checked into the place she’d rented: basically a hobbit house, but it was cute. When she went out for a walk on the beach, she kind of lost the pathway back through the woods, until a man waved her over. Once on the path, she tripped over a body. Not knowing what to do, she panicked and eventually called the local policeman, who was less than a disappointment. She also met, Burt and Gladys, a geriatric sister and brother, whom, she hoped, were helping here. The most surprising person she met was the ghost who inhabited the seashell shop. His name was Emrys and came from the 1700’s. He turned out to be quite a good companion.

Of course, her sons were worried. A murder and a ghost? She met a lot of people on the island. All odd. Entertaining, though. It was quite a journey to discover the murderer, and not without a second murder occurring. This is an auspicious beginning for a new series. Very interesting setting and a good character in both, Maureen Nash, the lead, and in the Weavers, next door. The star, however, will be Emrys who plays an integral part in solving the murder and in Maureen’s return to the island. It was fun and I look forward to more. Thanks, Molly MacRae, for this new series.

I was invited to read Come Shell or High Water by Kensington Books. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #KensingtonBooks #MollyMacRae #ComeShellOrHighWater

Come Shell or High Water by Molly MacRae sounded like a fun, paranormal cozy mystery. I started reading and I felt like I was plopped into the middle of the story. It made for a frustrating reading experience. The ending was better than the beginning. I enjoyed visiting Ocracoke Island. The shell shop was intriguing, and I enjoyed learning about different shells. I thought it was a convoluted tale (so much going on). The quirky characters overtake the story. My favorite character is the pirate ghost, Emrys. His comments had me chuckling. There is humor throughout the lighthearted story. The mystery clues are rehashed too many times (I got to know them by heart). There was minimal suspense, and the story could have used some tension in a couple of places. We are required to suspend our disbelief several times. I wish the author had not included an inept police officer (I’m sorry, but it is so cliché). I like that Maureen is a mature protagonist. I liked parts of Come Shell or High Water, but I had trouble with the writing style. It is different from the author’s previous works. The story felt forced (like she was trying too hard) and it was a little too cute. I am not sure that I will continue with A Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries.

This is the perfect cozy debut to the new "Shell Shop Mystery Series." The author has all the cozy elements we readers adore. The setting is beautiful Ocracoke Island. Our protaganist is a recent widow who has returned to the local shell shop for answers . Her husband had been receiving letters for some unknown reason from the shop owner. Her family had many happy visits to the island and Maureen is hoping to find answers to the letters and relive some memories.
Maureen arrives after a hurricane to find much damage and debri on the island. Maureen finds herself stumbling through debri onto a dead body and is electrocuted. She wakes up to find herself in the shell shop with no memory of how she got there. Two helpful locals Brother and sister are with her to help her. They are quite funny charachters that add a dose of humor thoughout. She recalls the dead body and they all realize it was the owner of the shop. Together with her rescuers she is determined to find out what happend to the shell shop owner. Add in a ghost and quirky residents of the island with a dose of humor and this is the perfect summer cozy read. I enjoy the likable protagnist who is a smart savvy investigator. I look forward to the next in series. This was a charming debut that cozy readers will adore.

Thank you to Net Galley, to the publisher and to the author for the availability of this fun cozy debut for review. My review opinions are my own

Unfortunately, this didn't really work of me. I really liked the island setting with the hurricaine afternamth and of course I loved the Welsh pirate ghost. I love the idea of Maureen's job and how her scope of knowledge is so wide and varied. The dead body shows up virtually from page one meaning that the mystery hits the ground running.

All of that said, I found this a bit confusing and chaotic. It was a bit like walking into a movie a third of the way through the action. There were a number of characters all talking a mile a minute and running around. As well, it felt like Maureen switched topics on a whim and with no apparent reason which made it a bit difficult to keep track of what was happening.

I've seen some postive reviews of this book calling it quirky and whimsical so this could be just a case of wrong book at the wrong time for me. I didn't hate it - I just felt like I never connected with the story. The author has another series that has been on my TBR and I definitely want to pick the first book up and see if that's a bit of a better fit.

Come Shell or High Water by Molly MacRae has our sleuth questioning her sanity.

What does Allen Withrow have anything to do with her husband?

Maureen Nash
Maureen Nash is a young widow with two young adult sons who have decided to come to Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, because of some letters. I have to admit that I didn't know if I would like Maureen, but as I got further into the book, I liked her. Maureen loves to tell stories. She was a malacologist until she retired but can now talk to a ghost pirate named Emrys Lloyd. I like how Maureen is focused on trying to figure out what happened to her before she had her concussion and why Allen Withrow sent her husband those letters.

The Victim
Allen Withrow was a very conflicted character when he was alive. He was born on the island but traveled a lot because of his father. His mom brought the two of them back to Ocracoke, and then he stayed put—well until Allen decided to leave. He wasn't a great person, and Maureen started to understand that while she was investigating his death. I don't think that he deserved to die, especially the way that he did, even if he didn't do a lot of good deeds, but he did make up for that after he died.

Five Stars
My rating for Come Shell or High Water by Molly MacRae is five stars. I also recommend it, as it's a great book. The two biggest things that brought me to this book were the cover and the plot summary. Ms. MacRae crafted an amazing read, and I can't wait to see what Maureen, Emrys, and the others on the island get up to in the next book. This author has made me a fan of her writing after this book.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Come Shell or High Water by Molly MacRae.

Until the next time,
Karen the Baroness

If you would like to see other reviews like this one, check out Baroness Book Trove.

Come Shell or High Water is book #1 in the Haunted Shell Shop Mystery series by Molly MacRae.

This is a great start to a new series. I enjoy reading books that are set in locations I’ve visited. I like Maureen and the fact that she encounters the ghost of a pirate. The mystery kept me engaged. The characters weren’t as well-developed as I would like, but it is the first book in the series. I definitely plan to read the next book.

Thank you to the author, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

I had a hard time getting into this one at first because the MC was addled and the neighbors prattled. I don't know why you would start off a new series with the MC being mixed up because of an electrical shock. I had a hard time getting a hang of the personality of Maureen in the beginning. As things settled down I began to enjoy it more.

There is a bit of the paranormal with a ghost haunting a shell that resides in the shop that sell shells that Maureen has come to visit. Her husband who recently died had received some mysterious letters from the owner. Of course, that is the body that Maureen stumbled over on her way to the shop. While the ghost provides some intrigue and light-hearted moments the mystery is firmly grounded in the mundane world. Maureen has help navigating this coastal island and its inhabitants from two older sibling neighbors who can talk a lot but also provide a lot of humor.

Overall a good mystery and a decent story that I would enjoy reading about again minus the confusing beginning.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

There's a lot to love about this cozy mystery. It has an amazing setting, an intriguing premise, and a great cast of characters. I did struggle to get through the first few chapters. feeling like I'd missed important information. It's the first book in the series, but protagonist Maureen Nash is suffering from electrocution and a concussion. She's confused and she's also not telling her new neighbors exactly why she came to Ocracoke Island just before a hurricane hit. Once I'd verified that I hadn't missed previous books and realized that things weren't supposed to be clear, I started enjoying the read a lot more and I can't wait to spend more time on the island with Maureen and her friends and family.

Molly MacRae writes interesting and quirky characters and settings in her cozy mystery series. In this first in a new series, widowed Maureen Nash moves to Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, in search for answers. She finds more than she bargained for with a body, a storm and an 18th Century ghost. The premise is good and, hopefully, the series continues to develop effectively. The first few chapters are a bit disjointed but once you met the characters and the storyline evolves, it’s a good cozy.

This book started off in a confusing manner, and I felt like I never really understood Maureen’s reason for being on Ocracoke Island. The characters were rather quirky which didn’t help to clarify where the story was going.
I expected to like Come Shell or High Water more than I did. I enjoy paranormal cozies and I did like Emrys, the ghost.
There were shell pun and jokes. A great deal of confused and amateur sleuthing.
I grew to mostly like Maureen. My favorite characters were O’Connor, Emrys, and the Ocracoke ginger cat.
The way the book ended I was intrigued enough to potentially pick up the next book in the series.
Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington for the opportunity to read this book.

What a fun story! The storyline was fun and kept me on my toes. I kept wanting to read to find out what happened. A variety of characters (including a ghost!) and an unique location made this a delicious read.
My only hiccups were that I didn't quite connect with the main character (and her name was bothering me for unknown reason) and I had a difficult time imagining parts of the location.
But I loved Emrys. My favorite character.

A cute mystery that although not masterfully written is enjoyable enough to while away a few hours with.

Come Shell or High Water is the first book I have read by Molly MacRae that I have read. I really enjoy reading cozy mystery books and when I see a new author to me, I am eager to read it.
This one had a lot going on and the characters were hard for me to follow and get to know them. The ghost that was a pirate took some getting used to as I was reading.
I read this book but for me it was not my favorite.
Thank you NetGalley, Molly MacRae and Kensington Books for the ARC. This is my personal review.