Max Hurlock, along with his wife Allison,is the amateur detective in a new series of mysteries set in the Roaring 20s and based on real-life cases. Max and Allison live near St Michaels on Maryland's Eastern Shore, but they get involved in mysteries all over. Along the way they often run into real life figures from that era and deal with bootleggers, flappers, speakeasies, and all the things that made the 20s such a fascinating time in America.

Max is an Eastern Shore native who graduated from the University of Maryland in Engineering before joining the Navy in World War 1. While a lowly Ensign,Max solved a murder on his ship and everyone began calling him Sherlock Hurlock. After the war, Max married Allison and returned to the Eastern Shore. He bought a war surplus Curtiss Jenny biplane and runs a flying service. Max's reputation as a detective brings him to the attention of the outside world, and soon local police are stopping by to ask his advice on their tougher cases. Max is sure the attention will fade.

As time goes on, however, Max finds his reputation as a detective growing and more and more clients seem to find their way down the oyster shell road and up to his door. By 1923, Max is spending more time on sensational cases and less on flying and engineering work. Max approaches his cases with a combination of country boy common sense and scientific analysis. He never takes sides, being content to simply discover the truth.

Allison is a Goucher graduate from Towson who writes free lance magazine articles and has literary aspirations. Allison is still getting used to the slow pace of life on the Eastern Shore and views local customs with a mixture of affection and amusement. Though not an investigator herself, she often supplements Max's investigations with what she learns researching her latest article. Allison is great at deftly obtaining information from women and men usually feel a need to tell her everything. This may have something to do with her uncanny resemblance to movie star Mary Miles Minter.

Max's country boy ways sometimes don't quite mesh with Allison's big city sophistication, but together they make a great team.

The first book in the series, Death on a Golden Isle is due out by early November and the next book, Death of a Flapper will soon follow.

Future books in the series will find Max and Allison traveling to different places solving
more sensational cases based on real life crimes.