Motel Murder

'The Motel Murder,' first in the Midge Sumpter mystery series, features the characters and landscape of poor, rural North Florida. Surrounded by millions of acres of pine and palmetto forest land and corn and tobacco farms, the sleepy little town of Seminole Pines sees more than its fair share of violent crime. Gigantic Sheriff Beaumont 'Pee-Wee' Marion attempts to keep a lid on that crime with the understaffed and overworked Wassahatchka County Sheriff's Department. Two of the department's deputies, crack young detectives Denise 'Midge' Sumpter and Jake Leon, investigate a bloody murder that took place in Midge's grandmother's motel. The characters in the story are as colorful as the language in which Midge relays the tale: a barbecue chef who cooks with a machete, a fugitive meth cooker who operates a still on the side, a drug addict who is far too intelligent to be the failure that he is, a smug middle-aged divorcee who lives in a swanky gated community, and a missing girl. The language is the vernacular of rural North Florida, sometimes rough but always colorful. With grit, determination, intelligence, and a sense of humor, Midge and Jake pursue the case to the satisfying and surprising end.