Spotlight on Molly MacRae, Ocracoke Island, and a Giveaway!

Welcome to our monthly Spotlight feature where readers get to learn a bit more about the cooks in Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. This month it’s my turn. How would you like to take an island vacation with me?  

My husband and I first camped on Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, in 1979. You can only get there by ferry, personal boat, or small plane. Roughly sixteen miles long, a couple of miles at its widest point and no more than half a mile at its narrowest, the island is a spindly spider leg of sand as resilient as the ancient marine forest at its southern end. The small village of Ocracoke dates back to at least the early 1700s. It's far enough off the beaten path that, as they say on the island, “If the world ended today, Ocracoke would hear about it next week.”

We took our boys to Ocracoke every summer for years when we lived only a long day’s drive away in east Tennessee. An added attraction for kids, beyond miles of pristine sand, sun, shells, and the possibility of sharks, is the island’s history as a pirate haven and the many local ghost stories.

We’ve only made it back to the island a handful of times since the boys grew up and we moved to the cornfields of Illinois. We miss those yearly visits. That’s why I started writing my Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries. The books are my way of getting back to a place I love more often than I do in real life. Shall we spend a day there now? Come with me. 

Look at that beautiful sky! The beach is just over these dunes with some of the best shelling in the country.

 

Emrys Lloyd is the pirate ghost in the Haunted Shell Shop books. He loves watching crabs, especially the pale little guys called glass crabs or, appropriately, ghost crabs. He says they look “as if someone just said boo to them.”

 

Ocracoke has wild ponies, too.

From Come Shell or High Water: 

“Burt fiddled with his phone then held it for me to see. 'Have you seen the ponies?' He showed me a picture of half a dozen pretty animals in a corral. 'Back in the day they roamed the island. We’d round them up every Fourth of July and folks came from all over to buy them. These days they live in pens. End of an era but better for them, better for the vegetation.'” 

Ocracoke's beautiful lighthouse is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in North Carolina (and second oldest in the country).

 

Here’s Howard Street (which is real) where you’ll find The Moon Shell, the haunted shell shop (which isn't real outside the books).  

From There’ll Be Shell to Pay: 

“Howard Street dripped with atmosphere the way Spanish moss dripped from live oaks here and there on Ocracoke. It was believed to be the oldest street in the village, the small village dating back to at least the early 1700s. Short and made only of sand, oyster shell, and gravel, Howard was really more of a slow-paced lane.”

“The pickets are so much a part of the street’s shady, shadowed landscape, they might have sprouted from the thin soil. They might be a long line of ancestors standing watch with weathered, worn faces.”

“Small family cemeteries nestled in the deep green shade of the trees, the graves resting so quietly that tourists in vehicles or on foot don’t always notice them.”

The bookstore in the stories is real. You'll find Books to Be Red on School Street in Ocracoke.

From There’ll Be Shell to Pay: 

“There, set back from the street and tucked under live oaks and cedars, was Books to Be Red in a little old cottage with a blue front porch. If anyone had dreams of finding the perfect beach bookstore, this was it. A sandwich board with OPEN written on both sides stood close to the street.”

Springer’s Point Preserve, with more than 120 acres of marsh and maritime forest, is also real.  

From Come Shell or High Water: 

"'Would you like to hear some of the legends about the woods at Springer’s Point?' Glady shouted over her shoulder. 'The ghost stories?'

"'No, thanks,' I said.

"'Tell her about Teach’s hole,' Burt shouted. 'Edward Teach and Blackbeard. One and the same.'

"'Shall I tell you about Blackbeard’s headless corpse?' Glady asked.

"'No, I’m good. Thanks, anyway.'

"'Okey-doke, but you’re missing out,' Glady shouted. 'It swam three times around his ship before sinking out of sight.'"

From All Shell Breaks Loose: 

“If Blackbeard’s headless body is buried in the woods at Springer’s Point, can his ghost say yo-ho-ho?” 

And the graves of Sam Jones and Ikey D at Springer's Point? Yep, also real. Here they are.

From Come Shell or High Water: 

“'Sam is Sam Jones,'” Glady said. “'Been gone, oh, not quite fifty years.'

"'Always wore white shirts with pleats down the front.' Burt fingered invisible pleats up and down his chest. 'A genuine, grade A character. Born on a farm in Swan Quarter and left there to make his fortune.'

"'He and Ikey D,' Glady said. 'They loved a good singalong with friends and neighbors standing around the parlor piano.'

"'Ikey D was his favorite horse,' Burt said.

"Did I believe that last bit? Frankly, it didn’t sound any more far-fetched than a nature preserve full of graves and ghosts, and Glady and Burt gave no indication they were pulling my leg. So sure, a horse joining the old gang at the parlor piano? I’d go to that party."

You can see Sam, Ikey D, and friends at the piano here. If you look closely, you can see the pleats on Sam’s shirt.

Tidal inlets meander, here and there, toward the interior of the island. You'll find one of these brackish, tea-colored waterways in There'll Be Shell to Pay. 

From the book: 

“Some of the trees straggling near the banks leaned toward the water as though looking at their reflections. Water striders navigated around floating leaves. I stepped closer to the edge of the bank, taking care in case it had been undercut. I couldn’t judge the water’s depth, wondered what critters lived in it.”

 

Ocracoke has some of the best sunsets in the world. 

From All Shell Breaks Loose: “'Love the color of your chrysanthemums,' the woman said. 'They’re all the colors of last night’s sunset.'”

These aren't chrysanthemums, but I snapped these lovely gaillardias near the Ocracoke Preservation Society and they match the sunset pretty well, too.

Thanks for visiting Ocracoke with me. If you want to spend more time there, you can do that by hopping on the ferry yourself, or by reading the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries.   

Now for the giveaway! Readers, what island or body of water would you like to visit and why? Let me know in a comment below, along with your email address, and on Wednesday, March 25th, I'll randomly choose 3 people, U.S. or Canadian, who'll win their choice of any of the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries (though you'll have to wait a few months for book 3 to come out in June). 

 

 

Now available for pre-order – All Shell Breaks Loose

book 3 in the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries!

 

On North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island, Maureen Nash sells exquisite seashells to locals and tourists—with Bonny the shop cat and the ghost of a Welsh pirate for company. And when needed, she steps in to help the police solve a murder . . .

Dr. Irving Allred is boasting around town that he’s about to get his hands on an authentic haunted sword. But minutes after Maureen hears the story, a woman walks into the Moon Shell, sword in hand. She found it while walking her bulldog on the beach—and its blade is stained with what looks like blood. Looks like it’s time to call the sheriff’s department.

Allred is furious that his prize is now in police custody—and even more agitated that an unknown buyer was trying to outbid him. He’s convinced the sword will lead him straight to the ghosts he’s been hunting. He’s not the only one on the Outer Banks who’s been searching for spirits, though. An odd visitor also showed up at Maureen’s shop claiming the ability to sense them . . . though somehow she didn’t seem to notice Maureen’s spectral friend hanging about.

When a man who’d been camping nearby is found cut down along the shore, Maureen starts providing some unofficial assistance to Captain Rob Tate by digging into the island’s maritime history. But it’s not the only mystery she’s facing—because the shop’s resident ghost is seeing ghosts himself . . .

 

Happy reading! 

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Instagram or Bluesky.