62. Clammed Up by Barbara Ross

#1 A Maine Clambake Mystery

listened on Audible

378 pgs.

2013
Adult cozy mystery
Finished 7-9-2024
Goodreads rating: 3.92
My rating: 3.75
Setting: contemporary Maine coast

My comments: I don't usually go for so-called "cozy mysteries", but I liked the cover of this one.  Maybe I just miss a good lobster dinner, but I thought I'd try just for the heck of it.  It really wasn't too bad.  I wasn't especially fond of the narrator....I think if I read it myself I would have given the protagonist a totally different demeanor.  Her voice sounded younger than 30 years old, more excitable, and even made her sound a little bit more know-it-all than I imagined her.  Pretty decent mystery with a lot of local color, set in a small community just a 10-minute or so drive from Bath.

Goodreads synopsis:  Julia Snowden returned to her hometown of Busman’s Harbor, Maine to rescue her family’s struggling clambake business—not to solve crimes. But that was before a catered wedding on picturesque Morrow Island turned into a reception for murder. When the best man’s corpse is found hanging from the grand staircase in the Snowden family mansion, Julia must put the chowder pot on the back burner and join the search for the killer. And with suspicion falling on her old crush, Chris Durand, the recipe for saving her business and salvaging her love life might be one and the same.

PICTURE BOOK - Lucy Loves Sherman by Catherine Bailey

Illustrated by Meg Walters

2017 Sky Pony Press

HC $16.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.96 - 26 ratings

My rating:  4 (I had to take away a point for the red lobster...)

Endpapers"  Cute and simple, 1-inch circles of paler blue on medium blue, with Lucy, Sherman, and her cat's head sticking out of three of the circles.

1^st line/s:  "Lucy loved Sherman from the moment they met."

My comments: Oh my goodness, what a cute story!  Clever and illustrated beautifully!  I do have a problem with it, though, and some people would say, "author's license," but it gives kids misinformation....lobsters are NOT red or orange until they're cooked.  98% of lobsters are a greenish brown until then.  But I still loved it....

Goodreads:  Girl meets lobster. Girl loves lobster. But can girl save lobster?
          That’s the question at the center of this sweet and sassy picture book about Lucy, her shell-y friend Sherman, and the seafood-loving town they inhabit.
          Lucy loves Sherman from the moment they meet at Flotsam’s Fish Market. Oh sure, he’s an eighteen-pound, eighty-year-old crustacean, but he’s also polka dotted. And blurble-y. And he smells like the ocean! Unfortunately, Nana is not hooked on the idea of a pet lobster.
          Things only get worse when Lucy meets Chef Pierre and discovers that Sherman’s fate is on a plate! She must rescue Sherman, even if it means getting into hot water with all the grownups. So Lucy takes action. But will the efforts of one little girl be enough to save Sherman from the bib and butter?
          As humorous as it is inspiring, Lucy Loves Sherman explores an unlikely, yet utterly charming friendship, and the challenge and thrill of finding your voice and being an activist.