Deborah Sharp Books In Order

Publication Order of A Mace Bauer Mystery Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Deborah Sharp is a renowned American author of humor, thriller, mystery, and suspense stories. She is a former reporter, having worked for the USA Today for several years before deciding to trade sad news reports with light fiction. Sharp is widely popular for her Mace Bauer Mysteries. She has set this series in native Florida with a sweet tea and barbecue set. All the books penned by Sharp are funny and have a soft Southern touch to them. In addition to writing full-length novels, she also writes essays and short fictions that have appeared in various national journals and magazines. Her humor stories have been broadcast on the NPR. For her brilliant character developments and stories in the Mace Bauer books, Sharp was interviewed by a former employer, USA Today, by Al Roker. Author Sharp claims just like her main character, Mace Bauer, her roots are also set in Florida. She is said to have been living there from the time when Disney and Miami Vice were not popular.

Being an ex-reporter, Sharp is well aware of the places in Florida that are not seen on maps, including Molasses Junction, Himmarshee, and Muse. By setting her stories in these places, she has tried to give a sense of Authentic Florida to her fans. To create her wacky ‘Mama’ in the form of Mace Bauer’s mother, she had to borrow from Okeechobee, a town famous for ranching, and from the past life of her family in south Florida. When Sharp took the decision of becoming a reporter, she was pursuing her Ph.D. in psychology. The excitement of taking up the role of a reporter was so much for her that she left the program and never felt even a little bit sad about it. However, the news reporting world also could not hold her for very long and she left it for writing fiction.

Sharp jokes about saying that she doesn’t have any plans to leave anything else, though, there is a slight chance that she might have to let go of her husband of twenty-plus years, Kerry Sanders, who works as a reporter for NBC. The couple lives happily in South Florida. They do not have any children of their own, but like to be around kids whenever they can. Sharp doesn’t even keep pets in her house. Once, she had a goldfish, but it could not last long in her family. In the Mace Bauer novels, Sharp has mentioned Mace Bauer as Mama’s middle daughter. She has two sisters and lives with her mother in rural Florida, who has been married for more than 4 times. Mama is depicted as a real Southern woman. She has impeccable manners and provides sweet tea service to her customers. Her antics include finding trouble most of the time and forcing her daughters, Maddie, Marty, and Mace to help her in getting out of those troubles.

Mama feels proud to say that she has enjoyed a lot in her youth and tries to motivate her daughters to enjoy their lives too. She tries to set them up with handsome cowboys quite often, but they don’t show any interest in the men she finds for them. Sharp received great motivation with the worldwide success of the first novel, Mama Does Time. After that, she continued writing and added four more titles in the subsequent years. She enjoys writing a lot and hopes to come up with several more exciting novels in the later years. Along with writing independently, Sharp also contributes to the series of other writers by collaborating with authors such as Linda Gordon Hengerer, Ritter Ames, Randy Rawls, Teresa Trent, Terry Ambrose, Maggie Toussaint, Joanna Campbell Slan, Nancy Jill Thames, Margaret Lucke, C.A. Verstraete, Jeffrey Marks, etc.

The Mace Bauer Mystery series written by author Deborah Sharp contains five books released between 2008 and 2013. Each of these books features the primary protagonists in the roles of Mama and Mace Bauer. The debut book of the series is entitled ‘Mama Does Time’. It was released in 2008 by the Midnight Ink publication. The novel opens by introducing Mama as a Southern lady with real traits and good manners. She wears pantsuits and owns a sweet tea shop. Sometimes, her three daughters, Marty, Maddie, and Mace, come to assist her in the daily chores of her shop. Mama often lands in trouble and then her daughters have to strive to get her out of those troubles. One night, when Mace is relaxing on her couch and watching a TV show when she gets a call from Mama.

It turns out that a dead body has been found in a vintage convertible’s trunk that Mama owns. As the victim is found in her car, the police see Mama as the prime suspect. Mace knows that her mother can never be a killer. So, she sets out to find the real killer and clear Mama’s name. A handsome detective is given the charge of the case, who seems adamant at proving Mama’s guilt. While Mace is looking for evidence and investigating possible suspects, she comes across one of her former boyfriends at a local bar. When nothing seems to be going their way, Mace and her sisters become desperate to prove Mama’s innocence. If they do not come up with something concrete soon, they will not be able to save their mother from going to prison for murder.

The second volume of the series is called ‘Mama Rides Shotgun’. It was also published by Midnight Ink in 2009. This book opens by showing that Mama is preparing to get married for the fifth time. Before tying the sacred matrimony knot, she decides to take Mace on a trip to Florida Cracker Trail for having some country-gal bonding. Mama looks forward to enjoying the 60-day trek with her daughter before taking a new husband. After having a good start to the trip, the joy comes to a sudden halt when the wealthy owner of the ranch is found murdered. Lawton Bramble, a former boyfriend of Mama, had a lot of enemies. During the initial investigation, the police list several suspects having the motive to kill the victim, including his son Trey, his young widow, and his childhood friend.

Mace finds the young widow’s grief fake and also some flow in Trey’s behavior. She learns that Lawton’s childhood friend was wronged by him in business and love. Marty and Maddie come to visit Mace and Mama after learning about the shocking murder of Lawton Bramble. Detective Carlos Martinez is asked to handle the investigation once again. His presence around her makes Mace nervous. She tries to investigate the case on her own and find clues that would take her to the killer. But, Carlos Martinez doesn’t let her do that. He again suspects that Mama is the murderer and tries to establish her guilt. But, her daughters come to her rescue again and prove him wrong. They not only find the real killer, but also catch him before Carlos can.