Maine's baby eel black market inspires a new wave of crime fiction

Summary

An article about how elver (baby eel) poaching in Maine has inspired a growing subgenre of crime-thriller books and TV shows. The piece focuses on Joshua Viertel's upcoming novel "The Glass Eel," co-written with his father Jack Viertel, which is a mystery set in Maine's elver black market. The article explores the real-world context of Maine's lucrative and often illegal elver fishing industry, where baby eels can fetch thousands of dollars per pound due to high demand in Asian markets, and how this unusual criminal underworld has captured the imagination of crime writers.