Thank Goodness for Poisonous Snails

Poisonous snails: murder by mollusc solved by a cozy alien octopod. A Devilly Peen murder mystery.

When writer's block finally ties Devilly in knots, our eight-tentacled author and amateur sleuth decides her muse needs feeding and is persuaded to holiday at an all-inclusive resort. Murder, however, is on the menu at Ripples and Devilly is soon drawn into solving a gruesome death. This time, she will need all the contents of her poison sack to defeat a psychopathic octopod.

The village of Nether Vortex nestles in the outer spiral of the Great Pacific Gyre, where colonizing octopods have built a civilization out of a giant swirl of plastic waste. With its nosy neighbours and dark secrets, Nether Vortex-like small villages on any substrate-provides Devilly Peen with much material for her cozy crime novellas. These, she turns out at great speed, typing with multiple tentacles. When writer's block finally ties Devilly in knots, our eight-tentacled amateur sleuth decides her muse needs feeding and is persuaded to holiday at Ripples. This all-inclusive resort lies in a lagoon far from the Gyre, requiring Devilly to take an unaccustomed flight above water to a remote atoll.

With some trepidation, Devilly leaves her charming home of discarded Perrier bottles and her garden of sea anemones to the tender care of her secretary-cum-butler, Lawrence. However, murder is on the menu at Ripples and Devilly is soon drawn into solving a gruesome death. This time, she will need all the contents of her poison sack to defeat a psychopathic octopod.