This sexy, funny novel, first published as an electronic book, proves there's still room in the Florida caper genre for a newcomer. Jane Ellen Ashley is a gorgeous blue-eyed oyster shucker who's on the run because she believes she caused the accidental drowning of a prominent Senator's slightly inebriated son. And Happy Harry Harper is a down-on-his-luck English professor who's also fleeing a Caribbean island because he thinks he's wanted for a murder he may or may not have committed. When two seasick mobsters offer him money to sail their boat back to Miami and transport a coffin they swear holds the body of a Honduran national hero whose family wants to bury him in their adopted land, it looks like the answer to Harry's prayers. How Jane Ellen and Harry manage to evade their pursuers, find each other, and save the pristine fishing grounds of her beloved Apalichola Bay makes for one of the wittiest romps through territory previously claimed by plenty of other writers from Carl Hiaasen to Dave Barry. Oyster Blues is a side-splitting debut from a writer to watch. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
The seventh bestselling e-book on Amazon.com last year, Michael McClelland's first novel, Oyster Blues, introduces two endearing characters, bookish Florida oyster-shucker Jane Ellen Ashley and equally bookish Happy Harry Harper, who inadvertently get mixed up with the mob and murder as they amble along the path to true romance. A Featured Selection of the Mystery and Literary Guilds, this one may be short on dialogue but serves up plenty of lively exposition. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Jane Ellen Ashley and Happy Harry Harper are a couple of born losers, each on the run from a less-than-perfect past until a chance encounter brings them together, and without a moment's hesitation they sail off into the sunset in a contraband boat with mobster bullets flying around them. Enough already? That's just the beginning. There are the questionable contents of a casket, two murders to solve, a legislator to implicate, and the mob to placate before they can think of living happily ever after. Wacky characters, a breathless pace, off-the-wall dialog, and a plot that skates on the edge of fantasy bring to mind the best of Elmore Leonard; while a Florida setting, environmental issues, and dirty politics call to mind Carl Hiassen and S.V. Date. A former best seller in e-book format, Oyster Blues debuts in print, and well it should, for it is a wonderfully quirky, rib-splittingly funny, slightly preposterous crime novel that mystery aficionados will find perfect for a lazy afternoon. Recommended for all public libraries. Thomas L. Kilpatrick, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., CarbondaleCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
Donald Westlake An exuberant debut! Michael McClelland has an imagination that runs ahead of him like a field full of rabbits, bouncing, fascinating, unpredictable, and a joy to watch. Oyster Blues is a gas.


Book Description
"Happy" Harry Harper is anything but. He has to get off a Caribbean island quick before someone nails him for a murder that may or may not be his doing. Desperate, he takes a job from two mob goons to sail their boat to Miami with a coffin -- the contents of which are dubious at best. Then he meets Jane Ellen Ashley, a blazing blue-eyed oyster shucker (who also might have accidentally killed somebody), and the trouble really rolls in. They've just stumbled onto a big-money scam involving some very dangerous people -- which puts them on the endangered species list. Now, they're both on the run from...well, pretty much everyone. And while Harry wants to make Jane his catch of the day, Jane wants to save her beloved Apalachicola Bay -- and both of them want to avoid a fatal case of the...Oyster Blues


From the Publisher
Full of thrills, “spills” (trust us on this one) and memorable characters, Michael McClelland’s first novel is a joyous ribald romp of a read. Welcome a brilliant new novelist while having the most fun you can have in an eBook!

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Happy" Harry Harper is anything but. He has to get off a Caribbean island quick before someone nails him for a murder that may or may not be his doing. Desperate, he takes a job from two mob goons to sail their boat to Miami with a coffin -- the contents of which are dubious at best.

Then he meets Jane Ellen Ashley, a blazing blue-eyed oyster shucker (who also might have accidentally killed somebody), and the trouble really rolls in. They've just stumbled onto a big-money scam involving some very dangerous people -- which puts them on the endangered species list.

Now, they're both on the run from...well, pretty much everyone. And while Harry wants to make Jane his catch of the day, Jane wants to save her beloved Apalachicola Bay -- and both of them want to avoid a fatal case of the...Oyster Blues

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The seventh bestselling e-book on Amazon.com last year, Michael McClelland's first novel, Oyster Blues, introduces two endearing characters, bookish Florida oyster-shucker Jane Ellen Ashley and equally bookish Happy Harry Harper, who inadvertently get mixed up with the mob and murder as they amble along the path to true romance. A Featured Selection of the Mystery and Literary Guilds, this one may be short on dialogue but serves up plenty of lively exposition.

Library Journal