Guest Molly MacRae plus *Giveaway*

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News Flash: Madspangler and Luis are Molly’s lucky winners! Congratulations to you both, and please check your email.

Edith writing from north of Boston on the penultimate day in May!

I’m excited to bring you Molly MacRae, my fellow blogmate from Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, as today’s guest. Come Shell or High Water, the first book in her new Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries, will be out in a month, and you get a sneak peek at all of it today! I was lucky enough to read an early copy. I had to gush and glow in my endorsement, which included, “Nobody does ghosts like MacRae.” Mind you – I don’t write paranormal books and I don’t normally read that kind of story. But when Molly writes one? I’m all over it.

Plus, Molly’s giving away two ARCs to lucky commenters here.

Check out the blurb: When widowed folklorist Maureen Nash visits a legendary North Carolina barrier island shell shop, she discovers its resident ghost pirate and the mystery of a local’s untimely death . . . 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 . . .

How Wicked?

Cozy mysteries are the gentler, kinder mysteries, with no overt sex or violence, right? So just how wicked can a cozy main character be without turning off readers? Pirate wicked? Hmm.

That question started worrying me as soon as I signed the three-book contract for my new Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries. The ghost in the series is an 18th century pirate. Both my agent and the new editor like the idea of this pirate in the shell shop, and I do too, because there’s a definite aura of romance about those parrot-loving, rum-drinking, treasure-burying, scurvy dog rascals. But real-life pirates didn’t tend to be cozy people, so I began to wonder how I could justify letting one into my cozy books.

Before I tell you how I solved the problem, you might like to know the origin story of this problematic character. It’s a cozy story too. A bedtime story. It all started one night while I was brushing my teeth . . .

Our bathroom sink, at the time, was one of those faux marble things (very faux). It was beige (oh so beige) with random swirls of white running through it. So there I was, brushing my teeth, getting ready to spit, when one of the random white swirls became a picture the way clouds do on a fine summer afternoon. Just like that, staring out at me from the sink, was the face of a pirate with a big moustache, plumed hat, and staring, hollow eyes. My first thoughts were, “The ghost of Blackbeard!” and “Our sink is haunted!”

(Edith: Maybe ya had to have been there…)

The idea of a pirate ghost was too good to waste. The idea that he haunted an object in a house or a shop appealed to me too. Just maybe not a sink.

And so the ghost Emrys Lloyd came to life. Emrys was a Welshman who sailed to the colonies with his two older brothers to seek a better life. The three became successful merchants in the Virginia colony. They had contacts up and down the coast, including on Ocracoke, one of the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. Emrys met his death at Ocracoke. Now he haunts The Moon Shell, a shell shop, in Ocracoke Village. More exactly, he haunts the large helmet shell in the shop.

In Come Shell or High Water, book one in the series, Maureen Nash arrives on Ocracoke at the tail end of a hurricane. After tripping over a dead body she meets Emrys. Due to events in between tripping and the meeting, Maureen isn’t sure he exists. The two end up sleuthing together, but Maureen can’t help wondering about the ethics of working with a pirate.

Isn’t it interesting that she has the same question I did? Thankfully, Emrys answered the question for us. He was only a pirate by accident, he says, and only once, and it didn’t it didn’t work out well for him. Maureen has decided to trust him and I’ve decided that works for me too.

Readers: what do you think of “wicked” main characters in cozies? Who are some of your favorites? I’ll send two of you an advance copy of the new book!

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” In addition to the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries, Molly writes the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch she writes books for Annie’s Fiction and Guideposts. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. You can connect with Molly on her website.

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Published by Edith Maxwell

Agatha Award -winning author Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Beyond the Page) and short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Dot and Amelia Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries series, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the Cece Barton Mysteries (all from Kensington Publishing). She lives north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and cat Martin, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook.

57 Thoughts

  2. I love pirates and yours sounds especially fun! I don’t mind a wicked character as long as they get their “comeuppance ” or end up having a good side. Good luck on your new book!

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  4. I’m good with it. Especially a repentant pirate! What fun. I’m reminded of the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, although I’m not sure that Captain Gregg had a dasteredly bone in his incorporeal body. Sounds like Emrys doesn’t either.

    All the best with the new series, Molly.

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    1. Thank you, Kait. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is one of my favorites – the book and the movie.

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  5. I enjoy a good “wicked” main character, and I’m really looking forward to a pirate one.

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  6. I especially love pirates (just finished Black Sails on Paramount Plus). I like wicked characters and I trust that the writer will make him/her as wicked as they want to. I would say Edward Teach is one of my favorites. aprilbluetx at yahoo dot com

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    1. Edward Teach was a piece of work. Twisting fuming punks into his beard – diabolical!

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    2. Bill and I just tried to watch Black Sails. I thought I would love it because I love the time period and pirates were more interesting as a group than the stereotypes would tell you. But we only got through 2 episodes. Maybe I’ll give it another try.

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  7. This sounds so good! I can’t even think of a wicked main character in a cozy. Wicked people are usually the victims.

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  8. don’t most people have at least a little bit of “wickedness” in them? just depends on how much and how it is channeled.

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  9. I am with Kait as it reminded me of “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” and I love pirate and nice ghost stories. It sounds like a great book to read. We have always wanted to visit Ocracoke and have not, so in reading this book, I would get some sense of the place and a small visit. One of my favorite ghosts is Trixie the usherette that died by falling over the balcony in a movie theatre in the 1920s or 1930s. She is in Margaret Dumas Movie Palace Mysteries. Now she is a nice ghost but in Karen White’s Tradd Street Mysteries there are always bad ghosts trying to hurt other ghosts and people. I love those books also. So, your book is right up my alley. Tyrone Power used to play a pirate that you loved.

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    2. Glad to hear you like pirates and nice ghosts, madspangler. And I agree, Margaret’s Trixie is a great character!

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  10. I enjoy reading about wicked characters and pirates would definitely be neat!!

    Thanks for the chance!!

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  11. Welcome Molly! Congratulations on your upcoming new series! I have enjoyed your mysteries, and I also love it when you post delicious recipes on Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen! This new series sounds very intriguing, because you are the author 🙂 Like Edith, I don’t usually read mysteries with paranormal subjects, but your story about your “haunted sink” is enough to entice me to read and get hooked on your new series. I must say that I can’t think of a “wicked” main character…I mostly read cozies, and the protagonists are always someone to become BFFs with, and the “wicked” ones are the ones you root to be the murder victim 🙂 Luis at ole dot travel

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    2. Thank you for your kind words, Luis, and thanks for stopping by. This pirate ghost is definitely BFF material.

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  12. My favorite pirate was Captain Daniel Gregg in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, the 1947 movie. There’s also Peter Ustinov’s Capt Blackbeard in Disney’s Blackbeard’s Ghost movie. A favorite wicked ghost character is Jack Shepherd, private investigator in Cleo Coyle’s Haunted Bookshop series. I have a crush on Jack.

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  13. Congratulations on the new series, Molly, and welcome back. I always see things in the swirls of marble in my mom’s house. I love how your imagination took you to the new series.

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    1. Thanks, Sherry! Do you see things in tree knots, too? Sometimes there are interesting little faces peering out of the wood.

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  14. Welcome back to the Wickeds, Molly! I like the idea of pirates. They were early practitioners of democracy and for a brief period thwarted two empires, England and Spain. I can easily romanticize them.

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    1. Nice to be here, Barbara. I seem to remember reading that England encouraged piracy for a time, too. History is full of good stories.

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  15. I love the idea of a ghost pirate character. I can’t think of a wicked fictional character, but I enjoy reading about the gangsters of the 1920s-30s.

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    1. Some of those gangsters were pretty piratical. Glad you like the idea of a pirate ghost!

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  19. One of my all time favorite reads is a book called The Pyrates by George MacDonald Fraser. It’s a rollicking adventure tale of an outrageous band of pirates.

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    1. I love George MacDonald Fraser! I haven’t read that one. I’ll look for it. Thanks, Ginny!

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  21. Not a Cozy, but the description makes me think of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. I love that movie. I can’t think of any “wicked” main characters, but I really like characters who are sarcastic, I relate to them better. sue.stoner72@yahoo.com

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    1. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is an enduring favorite. And I’m with you – a good dose of sarcasm can do wonders for a character.

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  22. Hi Molly,
    Your book sounds very interesting. I have read books where there has been a Sassy Ghost from the 20s as well as other types so a Pirate Ghost sounds like fun. I am looking to try out your new book and give you an honest review.

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    1. Thanks, Anonymous! Glad you think the book sounds like fun. I certainly had a lot of fun writing it.

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  23. When I think of a wicked pirate that I enjoy I often think of Jack Sparrow. He is a wily one.

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  24. There has to be villians from time to time in any story. Cozies like other books need to be believable and in order to do so there has to be good and bad as in real life to keep a balance so to speak. As for naming some, sorry I’m somewhat brain dead or working on fumes at the moment. I know there have been some, and I’m sure I enjoyed them, but with much going on and litttle sleep none are coming to me at the present time. Monday we took off from Arkansas to Minnesota to photograph bears in their naturally environment. After 1,002 miles in a day and a half and getting up at 4 and not getting to bed before 10:30, this old woman is tired – too tired to think. 🙂 Headed home on Saturday so maybe by Monday I’ll think of one. LOL

    Thank you for the fabulous chance to win an ARC of COME SHELL OR HIGH WATER! I would love the opportunity to read and review this book that is already on my TBR list.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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    1. That’s a long trip, Kay! I hope you get to see your bears. A few years back we went to Tennessee with our grandsons and saw 18 bears. Excitement all around. Thanks for stopping by.

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  25. I like the pirate storyline. I’m also a fan of ghosts in cozies. Looking forward to reading “Come Shell or High Water”.

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    1. Thanks, Dianne! The way I look at it, ghosts and pirates are people, too, and surely some of them must be delightful.

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  26. Late to the party but want to say I am intrigued by this book! Love that area and the pirate stories are fascinating. Definitely adding this book to my list!

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