Up till now, Florida detective fiction has prowled through the hot, sexy, slightly bizarre babel of South Florida. Deadlift reveals a different Florida.
DEADLIFT, set in the mid-1980s, is situated in central Florida in Winter Haven, located between Orlando and Tampa. DEADLIFT reveals Bubba Simms, a Sheriff's Department sergeant, who kills the man who raped his wife and, then, conceals the crime. He leaves the police community to become a private detective.
While he searches for truth in his detective work, he is compelled to face the reality of his crumbling marriage. Bubba Simms begins to find the isolation of Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe. While the novel is action-driven, DEADLIFT depicts the humor, character, and community of a Florida that clings to the traditional South while being changed by the influx of others.
