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 that the sword will lead him straight to the ghost he’s 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 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 . . .
Molly MacRae is the award-winning author of the Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, the Highland Bookshop Mysteries, and the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries. Born and raised in Illinois, MacRae spent twenty years in the foothills of Tennessee’s Blue Ridge Mountains, where she was the director of the history museum for Jonesborough, the state’s oldest town. During that time, MacRae and her family started taking vacations to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where she fell in love with Ocracoke Island, the setting for her Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries. MacRae, a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, has won the Sherwood Anderson Award for short fiction, and several of her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. She currently lives in Champaign, IL with her family. For more information on Molly and her books, please visit MollyMacRae.com.