Molly MacRae's "There'll Be Shell to Pay"

Molly MacRae spent twenty years in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Upper East Tennessee, where she managed The Book Place, an independent bookstore; may it rest in peace. Before the lure of books hooked her, she was curator of the history museum in Jonesborough, Tennessee’s oldest town.

MacRae lives with her family in Champaign, Illinois, where she recently retired from connecting children with books at the public library.

Here MacRae dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, There'll Be Shell to Pay:

There’ll Be Shell to Pay is the second book in the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries. The books follow Maureen Nash, a fairly recent widow in her early fifties. She’s a malacologist—a scientist who studies mollusks—and a storyteller who’s inherited a shell shop on Ocracoke, a barrier island off the North Carolina coast. The shop is haunted by the ghost of an eighteenth-century pirate.

In this new story, Maureen travels back to Ocracoke, having spent several weeks settling affairs in her hometown in Tennessee. She expects a warm welcome from Emrys Lloyd, the ghost. He’d written a letter telling her he’d discovered treasure in the shop’s attic. But Emrys doesn’t appear when she arrives. Instead she finds an envelope addressed to Rob Tate, captain of the Ocracoke station of the Hyde County Sheriff’s Department. When Tate comes to get the envelope, he finds a note inside consisting of a single line and a signature. The line reads The dead woman is Lenrose. It’s signed Maureen Nash. The handwriting and the signature are Maureen’s.

I cast most of the series characters last year when book one, Come Shell or High Water, came out. Those choices still stand and you can read them here. But I neglected to cast Rob Tate or his deputy, Matt Kincaid. Tate is in his mid-forties. He’s the kind of man with a clear, calm voice who shakes a hand without trying to crush it. Jake Gyllenhaal would make a fine Rob Tate. Matt Kincaid, Tate’s deputy, is young (mid- to late-twenties), good-hearted, and a bit clumsy. Owen Patrick Joyner looks right for the part and has the comedy chops.

The Fig Ladies—Kathleen Thomas, Roberta McLaughlin, and Paula Diamond Román—have come to Ocracoke to assess and possibly help the fourth member of their group—Lenrose Sullivan. Lenrose hasn’t been acting like herself for several months. She’s on the island with her husband, Shelly. These women have only known each other online, though, so how can they be sure this woman is Lenrose? Emrys has met Lenrose. He insists she’s dead and the woman with Shelly is an imposter. Too bad he’s useless as a witness. Only Maureen sees and hears him. In my dream cast, Sally Field plays Kathleen, Laurie Metcalf plays Roberta, Carol Kane (of twenty years ago) plays Paula, and Joan Cusack plays Lenrose. If Jeff Daniels can act smarmy, condescending, and menacing he lands the role of Shelly Sullivan.

Visit Molly MacRae's website.

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The Page 69 Test: Plaid and Plagiarism.

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My Book, The Movie: Scones and Scoundrels.

The Page 69 Test: Crewel and Unusual.

The Page 69 Test: Heather and Homicide.

Q&A with Molly MacRae.

Writers Read: Molly MacRae (July 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Come Shell or High Water.

My Book, The Movie: Come Shell or High Water.

Writers Read: Molly MacRae.

--Marshal Zeringue