‘ve gotten hooked on this mystery series involving a Florida Deputy Sheriff in a small town where everybody knows your name. In each entry, the town itself and its inhabitants are all characters themselves. The sheriff is John Lee Quarrels someday to be ex-father in law. The daughter/wife left John Lee for another woman but wants to be a friend with benefits to him. Her sister has also gotten involved in a no strings attached way. His dead best friend’s sister is his current best friend and partner most of the time and she has a crush on him and more. One of the characters who is just awful enough to both hate and laugh about is the Chief Deputy who is a loose cannon and brother in law to the Sheriff with lots to say about the sheriff. John Lee’s mother had him at age 18, was married to his father for 2 years and after they split up, she left her parents, old hippy types to raise him.
In this entry, his bio dad, who John Lee does not know, comes into his life and brings some extremely dangerous people who are after dad into the town in a way that impacts many folks. This entry is particularly violent but the violence is necessary to the story and we do get some relief from the quirky parts of the town’s dynamics. These are NOT comic novels so much as novels where humanity in its full range is displayed and therefore it can be pure evil, just obnoxious, or sweet and loving. Good series!