The Mushroom Shift - Joe Clifford Faust

As the year draws to a close, Monmouth comes to realize that the county's aging Sheriff will soon be succeeded by the political enemy who put Monmouth on the Mushroom Shift to begin with. Survival mode kicks in and he begins to consider his options, interrupted by his crumbling marriage, his drinking, and the never-ending parade of drunk drivers, family fights and perverts that make up small town police work.

This is most definitely not your average cop drama. And that's what makes it a good read.

 

I was intrgued by this small town and the goings-on of its citizens because, as we all know, small towns can be a little...shall we say 'odd'? Faust was able to really humanize his characters and their idiosyncrasies.

 

A few times I got confused with which nicknames belonged to whom, making certain situations and conversations difficult to follow.

 

The ending caught me off guard, it was not at all what I expected, but it was what I've been trying to find in a novel for a while now. Not your run-of-the-mill "happily ever after", but it left me content nonetheless.