Mama Rides Shotgun »

Like the main character in her “Mace Bauer Mysteries,’’ her family roots were set in Florida long before Disney or Miami Vice. As a native and former reporter for USA Today, she knows the spots not found on maps: Molasses Junction. Muse, and now, Himmarshee, her own tiny slice of “Authentic Florida.’’

To create Himmarshee, Deborah borrowed from the present-day ranching town of Okeechobee, and from the south Florida of her family’s past.

Not far from Ft. Lauderdale, her dad used to walk to town, leading the family cow. A generation later, Deborah rode her horse over the same citrus- and ranch-dotted terrain. Now, it’s all interstates and strip malls.

The difference between Mace’s hometown and hers: Deborah will never let Himmarshee be spoiled by sprawl.

The News-Press in Fort Myers gave Deborah her first job, in 1982. Her favorite assignment: getting cast as a zombie when Day of the Dead filmed on Sanibel Island. Her fellow extras raved about her lurching.

A News-Press bonus: she met TV reporter Kerry Sanders in Immokalee, both of them shivering at dawn to see whether a winter freeze would ruin the green pepper crop. They’ve been married since 1989. No kids; no pets, but had goldfish once. Turned out badly—not a good omen for higher life forms.

When they moved back to Deborah’s hometown in 1991, the occasional stories she’d been writing for USA Today became a flood. Miami’s loony nature gives it a lock on headlines.

And then, 9/11, and everything changed. One of her last assignments before she left the paper was profiling soldiers killed in war. Grieving parents; spouses; kids. She couldn’t absorb all that sadness anymore.

So, at age fifty, fiction-writing beckoned. She’d get to determine the endings. Punish the bad and reward the good. And, she’d throw in some romance, too.

She likes writing about Mama because the character makes her laugh. And doesn’t everyone need a smile now and then?

TV APPEARANCES

◊ NBC's Today Show from November 4, 2008

◊ "Mayor's Book Talk" from January 14, 2009

◊ NBC6 "South Florida Today." from July 17, 2009

◊ NBC's Today Show from August 4, 2009

◊ WJXT-TV from November 17, 2009

Mama's fixin' to get hitched to Husband #5. But first, she coerces her daughter, Mace, to saddle up for some country-gal bonding on the Florida Cracker Trail. The trek takes a deadly turn when Lawton Bramble—wealthy rancher and one-time beau of Mama's—keels over in his Cow Hunter Chili.

Lawton had a horde of enemies and a famously bad ticker. Could a grudge-wielding rival have "spiced" the cattleman's chow? With (or maybe despite) the help of her sisters and her sexy ex-beau, Detective Martinez, Mace sets out to corral a low-down varmint who's determined to kill again.

TV APPEARANCES

◊ NBC's Today Show from November 4, 2008

◊ "Mayor's Book Talk" from January 14, 2009

◊ NBC6 "South Florida Today." from July 17, 2009

◊ NBC's Today Show from August 4, 2009

◊ WJXT-TV from November 17, 2009

Acclaim for Mama Does Time, the first Mace Bauer Mystery:

"A humorous, touching reflection on familial love and politics."
—Mystery Scene

"Native Floridian Deborah Sharp's acute comic timing and detailed perceptions of old Florida sparkle in her lively debut . . . highly entertaining."—Oline H. Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

"Who knew that a who-dun-it would not only keep you guessing—but have you laughing! Deborah Sharp is the new Edna Buchanan."
—Hoda Kotb, NBC Today Show co-anchor

Children's Literature

Mystery fans, rejoice! Here is an appealing new park-ranger-turned-amateur-sleuth with perseverance, humor, strength, and wiliness. While this was written with an adult audience in mind, sex and violence mostly occur "off-screen." Readers see less of those story elements than they would from most primetime television. Instead, they see Mace Bauer, a keenly observant Floridian with questions about suspicious occurrences. Also, they see her loving, contentious relationships with her mother and two sisters, as well as her budding feelings for Detective Martinez. The mystery here occurs on the road. Getting ready to marry her next husband, Mama takes her daughters on a Florida Cracker Trail for some female bonding before the big day. Soon, a wealthy rancher dies on the trail. Lawton Bramble had once dated Mama, so they are particularly troubled by his sudden death—all the more so when additional bodies begin to pile up. Can Mace get to the bottom of this mystery before the murderer comes after her? Readers do not have to have read the first "Mace Bauer" mystery to know what is going on, but if they have not already read it, they will be looking for that book when they turn the last page of this one. Reviewer: Heidi Hauser Green