Maureen is still getting used to life on Ocracoke Island, learning how to play the “shell game” of her business—and ghost whispering with the spirit of Emrys Lloyd, the eighteenth-century Welsh pirate who haunts her shop, The Moon Shell. The spectral buccaneer has unburied a treasure hidden in the shop’s attic that turns out to be antique shell art stolen from Maureen’s late husband’s family years ago.
Victor “Shelly” Sullivan and his wife Lenrose visit the shop and specifically inquire about these rare items. Not only is it suspicious that this shell collector should arrive around the time Maureen found the art, but Emrys insists that Sullivan’s wife is an imposter because Lenrose is dead. A woman’s corpse the police have been unable to identify was discovered by the Fig Ladies, a group who formed an online fig appreciation society. They’re meeting on Ocracoke for the first time in person and count Lenrose among their number, so the woman can’t possibly be dead.
But Lenrose’s behavior doesn’t quite match the person the Fig Ladies interacted with online. Now, Maureen and Emrys—with assistance from the Fig Ladies—must prove the real Lenrose is dead and unmask her mysterious pretender before a desperate murderer strikes again . . . (Summary via Goodreads)
I fell in love with Come Shell or High Water, the first book in the Haunted Shell Shop Mystery series by Molly MacRae, and was looking forward to the next book. There'll Be Shell to Pay, the second book in this series did not disappoint !!! MacRae makes readers fall in love with everything within this series !!
Maureen's late husband Jeff and his family have ties to Ocracoke Island and when Maureen finds out that the Moon Shell shop was willed to Jeff or his heir, she decides to visit it and falls in love with the shop, the island, her neighbors, the cat and ghost that came with the shop and so much more.
Unfortunately Maureen and her neighbors, brother and sister duo, Glady and Burt, seem to get involved in "helping" Captain Tate in solving the murder cases ... with the help of the resident ghost Emrys.
In There'll be Shell to Pay Maureen returns to the island after packing up some belongings from her old house. She is looking forward to unpacking and making the apartment above the shop cozier. But it isn't long before Maureen is pulled into a murder case, especially when her resident ghost was able to write a note to Captain Tate and signed her name to it. Usually Emrys is floating around the shop or apartment as he is "tied" to the shell that the shop is named after. Seeing as Maureen is the only one that can see and communicate with him, she has to figure out where he is.
I don't want to say much more because I don't want to give away too much. You really need to read the book so you can be swept away to the island and enjoy everything it has to offer.
MacRae is able to open the readers imagination. While you read this book and the first one, you will have no problems "seeing" everything and may even feel like you have sand in your toes. I would love to venture to Ocracoke Island and stay for a bit. And boy, oh boy, the way that she ends There'll Be Shell to Pay !!! Dang, now I have to wait to see where she takes the story next .... but that's okay, I'll be ready !!!!!
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