A mystery story without a murder and a detective (of sorts) who isn't a mammal.
The "detective" is an observant old octopus that lives in an aquarium in a town, Sowell Bay, on the West Coast of the USA. We find out, later in the story, that the octopus was a rescue who was injured and given to the aquarium to rehabilitate and ended up staying there.
The octopus, who is called Marcellus, has a close friend at the aquarium, an older lady, Tova, who comes in to clean in the evening after the aquarium is closed. Tova knows a secret about Marcellus. That he knows how to escape his tank and he travels around the aquarium at night, visiting the other tanks and snacking on the other creatures displayed there. Tova discovered him tangled up and stuck one night and she freed his from his bonds.
Marcellus knows he is quite elderly, octopuses only live three to four years, and his time is running out. But he has developed a bond with Tova and he senses things about her and knows she still grieves the loss of her only son, Erik, who was just eighteen when disappeared one day while out boating. His body was never found and exactly what happened to him not known.
Tova has an accident at work and has to take a few weeks off to heal. The aquarium hires a man who is new to the area to handle the cleaning until Tova returns to work. Cameron has come to town looking for the man he hopes is his father. Cameron's mom never revealed who his father was and she vanished from Cameron's life when he was just a youngster. Cameron has reason to believe that a man from Sowell Bay may be the man he is looking for. But he has not been able to confront the man, who always seems to be away on business. About to run out of money, Cameron takes the janitor job at the aquarium.
Marcellus quickly discovers some very interesting information about Cameron, information that Tova needs to know. But getting that info to Tova is going to take all his octopussy wiles to accomplish. And when he succeeds, Tova repays him in the kindest way possible.
This was a charming story, especially the interactions between Tova and Marcellus and his ruminations on his life in the aquarium and on the humans who come to peer at him. All the characters in the story are decent, caring people, sometimes a little misguided, but essentially good at heart. Even the man for whom Cameron came to Sowell Bay to find.
