A Matter of Mercy

I’m thrilled to introduce you to my new novel, A MATTER OF MERCY, published August 1.  This one has so much of my heart in it.  Set in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, it began when I became friends with one of the oyster farmers, Barbara Austin, whom I met while walking the beach at low tide.  She was working in the shallows of the harbor.  I’d had no idea that oysters and clams were painstakingly farmed, nor that it takes three years and that they’re subject to predators, storms; all kinds of things can and do go wrong.  Neither had I known that it’s a traditional way of life to raise them, one based on the tides because “sea farmers” (now known as aquaculturists) can only work for an hour before and after low tide, while the racks and cages are exposed.  I wish there were enough space here to tell you all that Barbara taught me about the care, skill and back-breaking labor that goes into raising oysters and clams.  Or how tightly-knit the community of the aquaculturists.  She invited me to put on waders and learn to work a “bump rake” to dig up clams ready for harvest (I promptly fell onto my rear in ankle deep water), to cull, and to grasp the dangers of a hurricane or a red tide.  But it took a novel to show that much love and passion.

     When I heard about a lawsuit–one based on the Colonial Ordinance of 1640!–by the owner of a large vacation home on the bluffs above the harbor who wanted to shut the aquaculturists down because he didn’t like seeing their apparatus when it’s visible at low tide, I knew there was the seed for a novel.  The lawyer for the aquaculturists found a secret–completely unpredictable–way to fight back when losing everything looked like a sure thing.  Aquaculture is the economic lifeblood of the town.  The owner of the vacation home is there six weeks a year.

     In this book, the characters and their relationships are entirely fictional; the lawsuit and what happened is quite real.  I hope you’ll read it, and I hope you’ll be as caught up in this world as I’ve been.

     If your book club might be interested, I love to accept invitations to join a meeting in person or by Skype.  There are discussion question ideas posted on the website under Resources for Book Clubs.   There are follow-up articles from the Cape Cod Times posted, too–but don’t read them until you read the book, because they give away what happens in the lawsuit!  They’re marked with a spoiler alert to help you avoid them.

     A Matter of Mercy (Blank Slate Press ISBN 978-0-98580-861-7) is available at independent bookstores in trade paper, as well as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, in trade paper and e-books.  If you don’t see it in a store, please ask for it!  And please, do let me know what you think.  I genuinely love hearing from you.