The Mermaid Mystery

September 1, 2024
Myers' latest (after her Pennsylvania Dutch and Den of Antiquity series) is a stand-alone mystery set in Tidal Shores, South Carolina. T he town was a tourist mecca until COVID-19 struck. The city council is determined to bring tourists back, but how? One of their members, a taxidermist, has an idea: he's already used the top of an albino bonobo and the tail of a goliath fish to concoct what-- with human hair and subtle makeup--could pass for a mermaid. Why not suggest that "Miss Lucy," as he dubs the creature, is a real mermaid? What sounds like a wacky idea soon catches on, and the magic works, with hordes of curious tourists flocking to see Miss Lucy. Zoe Porter, a journalist from North Carolina, is sure she'll win a Pulitzer if she gets the first crack at the Miss Lucy story. But when "Mermaid Fever" takes hold across the entire country, there are devastating consequences for Zoe and for Tidal Shores. Biting satire, dark humor, and searing social commentary overlaid with a veneer of Southern charm make for a provocative read.

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Starred review from September 15, 2024
A wacky plan to save a town leads to big trouble. Tidal Shores, South Carolina, has never recovered economically from the Covid-19 pandemic. Now a group calling itself the Big Ten has come up with a novel way to revive the coastal town. Taxidermist Gunner Jones melds together the body of an albino female bonobo with the bottom of a goliath tigerfish and calls it a mermaid. The idea is for Miss Lucy to be found washed up on the beach, making Tidal Shores famous and enabling the town residents to sell mermaid-related merchandise. Following the truism that a sucker is born every minute, boat captain Hoyt Hunter will take people out and convince them that the dolphins that follow his boat are mermaids. Pledged to silence about the genesis of Miss Lucy, the Big Ten soon convince a sizable segment of the population that mermaids exist and start raking in money hand over fist. Zoe Porter, a reporter for theObserver Today, lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is the great-granddaughter of Big Ten member Georgina Legare, aka Gan-Gan. Arriving in Tidal Shores to cover the mermaid craze before the TV talk showDr Pat and Pal blows it open, she stays with Gan-Gan and takes in the show's taping, which is quite a spectacle. Determined to expose the fake mermaid, Zoe finds that it's not easy to overturn a big lie. When Jones is murdered, Zoe turns sleuth to catch his killer. A hilarious tale with some serious wisdom about how easy it is to create a cult that refuses to believe the truth.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.