The ninth book in the Maine Clambake Mystery series starts with one woman getting Shucked Apart from her last oyster farm purchase!
Julia’s long-time boyfriend Chris introduces her to Andie. Andie has a problem. She was attacked and robbed of two buckets of baby oysters. While they are worth $35,000, it requires an expensive river farm to raise the oysters. Therefore, Andie thinks someone is trying to ruin her business. Could it be another oyster farm? Or could it be her fired and disgruntled former employee? Or is it the rich summer house owners who think Andie’s farm is ruining their views? Or could it be lobstermen who want the river for their own cages? Julia decides to find out!
Shucked Apart is a slice-of-life tale set on the rural Maine coast. The characters are genuine and have unique motives. In addition, readers will learn a lot about how oysters are farmed and eaten. There might be a bit too much about oysters for me. The “teaching” slowed the plot significantly in my opinion. But if you find a slow-paced cozy mystery pleasant, or love oysters, you may like this book more than I did. 3 stars.
Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.