Writing Crime

How would you describe the plot of your book?

Oceanographer Mara Tusconi and lobsterman cousin Gordy find an old Maine eel fisherman with a bullet in his chest one spring night and confront the deadly world of international eel trafficking.

What was the A-ha moment that motivated you to write the book?

Maine’s newspapers featured story after story about trafficking of glass eels, also called elvers. I write mysteries with environmental understories so it was an obvious focus for the next book in my series.

What excited you most about writing this story?  

I knew nothing about glass eels including their biology and ecology, why they are trafficked, how/why/when Mainers net them, etc. My bookcase includes a whole shelf of eel books now!

Is there a place featured that you would like to visit?

As a graduate student (a long time ago) I did visit the Sargasso Sea, a locale featured in the story because glass eels swim thousands of miles to mate there, although nobody has witnessed that.

What prepared you to write this book?

I’m a marine ecologist which clearly served me well.

Marine ecologist and award-winning environmental educator Charlene D’Avanzo studied the New England coast for over thirty years. Her Mara Tusconi mysteries take readers into the stunning beauty of Maine’s marine waters and grave threats facing them. An avid sea kayaker like her protagonist, D’Avanzo lives on Littlejohn Island, Maine.