In The Company Of The Writer Of The Lobster Shack Murder Mysteries
Words & Interview by David Jenkins
Photos by Bryan Derballa & Kendrick Brinson
Sometimes, you just need to read a gripping murder mystery set in and around a Conneticut lobster shack, and author Shari Randall is here to scratch that particular itch.
Having spent her early years working as a librarian, and getting a good handle on the reading habits of the American populous, she decided to take a peek behind the curtain and try her hand at novel writing. This resulted in her Lazy Mermaid trilogy of delightful “cozy” mysteries: ‘Curses, Boiled Again!’, ‘Against the Claw’ and ‘Drawn and Buttered’.
SANDWICH: You work in a genre which is referred to as the “cozy mystery.” What does that entail?
SHARI RANDALL: It’s funny, isn’t it? I just assume that people know what it is, even in the US, but they don’t. I was just at a big library conference and librarians are starting to connect with these books because they’re so easy to read. They’re a palate cleanser. They always promise a happy ending. The cozy mystery is best described as being along the lines of an Agatha Christie novel, or I always think of that TV series Murder, She Wrote. Do you know that?
Oh, absolutely!
So that’s what we aim for. On the most basic level, the cozy mystery aims to be either G or PG rated. You can have as many murders as you want, and they can be imaginative murders, with sex and everything else—you just can’t have it on the page. The gore and bad language, you keep off. You make a promise to your reader that you’re not going to bring in those elements. You also promise that justice will be served and the community will be set right again. And, of course, there’s always another murder next week. So you can have an HEA, which is happily ever after, or an HFN, which is happy for now.
I’m a big fan of a British TV show called Midsomer Murders, which sounds like it’s part of the cozy mystery family.
Oh yes, I adore that show. It’s got that little wink to it. It’s such fun. Solving the puzzle with them… yes, that’s a great show. It’s a cozy, definitely.
Can you tell me a bit about your background and explain how you came in to writing?
I was a librarian, and then my husband was offered his dream job and we moved up to coastal Connecticut. There are a lot of lobster shacks here. I was at a funny point because I thought, well, I’d worked as a librarian, should I try something new? I’d written short stories, and we were renting this funny little tumbledown house right on the water—a really great spot. I got a phone call from a friend who said, ‘you’re going to get a call from a number in New York and make sure you pick it up.’
It was her agent, who was offering me a chance to put a proposal forward for a mystery series set in a lobster shack. I was standing on my front step and, as I was speaking on the phone, I was staring across the water at a lobster shack. So I thought, yeah, sure, I’ll do it. Publishing is a weird world. They asked some authors to basically write half a book, and mine was the one they picked. I just had this sudden career change.
With this challenge of writing a mystery series set in and around lobster shacks, what research did you do into that world?
My husband and I had a great time with that. We did what we call the Great Lobster Shack Tour. We found a bunch of places. Route One winds up the Connecticut coastline and through New England, and you come across lots of little towns and they each have their own place that boasts of a “best lobster roll”. And that’s what we did. Tried lots and lots of lobster rolls. And everybody has their own little spin. It’s really interesting that you can take something that seems so simple and just mix it up in so many ways. A little like mystery stories, I guess?
It’s very difficult to get a lobster roll in the UK, especially somewhere like London.
I can imagine. I’m sure you know this, but there’s this little split between people who have a lobster salad with the mayonnaise base, and that’s more of a Maine lobster roll, and then in Connecticut, where I am, it’s hot and comes on a little hot-dog roll with butter. So there’s this little debate going on about which one is better.
Have you had any experience out on the water, with the lobstermen?
I've been sailing, but I’ve never been out on a lobster boat. I wish I had. There’s a woman in Mystic—I don’t know if she’s still alive—who they called The Lobster Lady, and she had a nephew that worked on lobster boats, and he became my research resource. In this area, there are people working on lobster boats—I can see them working going out and coming back in from my front porch.
The stories are all set in the fictional town of Mystic Bay, which is inspired by a real place. Is that right?
Oh yes, there’s a town called Mystic. I made it a little different because I didn’t want to get sued by anybody. They have this really interesting old bridge that goes up and down and lets the sailboats go in and out, and I got rid of that because I wanted to make my own little town. Oh gee, Mystic, Connecticut is always on these lists of most charming towns in America. And it really deserves to be: It’s super cute, it’s basically a tourist hub. And that sets up some really dramatic divisions that a writer can take advantage of. You have people who are working in the service industry and struggling a little bit, and then you have the people who come in and knock down their great grandfather’s house and build a monstrous beach home and only live in it for a few weeks per year.
One thing that makes the cozy mystery unique within the literary canon is that the stories also include recipes. Your special short, ‘The Queen of Christmas’, contains a great recipe for Hot Toddy.
Yes, cozy mysteries have to contain a lot of recipes. One of the things about these books is that the readers love to know how your characters celebrate the holidays. They get to really think of them as people, so cosies set during holidays are especially popular. My third book, Drawn and Buttered, is set during Halloween.
The impression I get, especially from reading online reactions to your books, is that you have lots and lots of fans who are very vocal about what they love about your books. Do you have any contact with your readers?
A lot of authors, especially in the cozy world, form Facebook groups. Mine is called The Cozy Mysteries Crew. Anyone can join. The authors—there are 12 of us—we pop in maybe one or twice a month and we host a day, or host a party, and people will come in and chat about the books. You really just form a connection. I just did a conference in Nashville and I got to meet some ladies I only knew through the Facebook group. So, the cozy world really does make those connections in ways that other genres don’t. It’s kind of funny. I’ve heard that mystery readers and authors are some of the nicest people. Poets are supposed to be the worst. I don’t know if that’s true.
Are you working on the fourth book in the lobster shack series?
My series is complete at three books. My publisher wants me to do another series, and this one is centred around an ice cream shop. These are the vagaries of publishing.
