Based on 4 1/2 years Joe Clifford Faust spent working in Law Enforcement, The Mushroom Shift is a snapshot of a different world that isn't that far in the past. Yet while it comes from a time before political correctness, its theme of men struggling to hang on to their jobs is as relevant now as when the book was first written. It’s also the most unusual police story you’ll ever read, with no gunshots or car chases, where the mundane becomes a grind. Profane and darkly funny, it captures all the humor and horror, the triumphs and tragedies that are a part of daily life for those who wear a badge. It tells the story of Clarence Raymond Monmouth, a deputy with the Badlands County Sheriff’s Department in Modern Times, Wyoming, who is finishing his third year on the despised Mushroom Shift – midnight to eight a.m. – in the final weeks of 1985. 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. 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. Along for the ride are Mona, Monmouth’s wife, whose aspirations of taking her band to Nashville are putting pressure on their marriage; Al Renfew, Monmouth’s colleague and best friend, whose keys to the family bar also makes him Monmouth’s enabler-in-chief; Stan Braverman, a wet-behind-the-ears rookie with a knack for bringing out the worst in people; dispatchers Cody Sheridan, whose abusive husband is the bane of the Mushroom Shift’s existence, and Cowboy, whose pnemonic devices drive everyone to distraction; The Sarge, the shift’s long suffering commander, who desperately tries to keep their morale up; and William Howard Garland Tibbs, the County Sheriff, part legend and part accident waiting to happen. The Mushroom Shift is Faust’s truest novel, based on 4 1/2 years he spent working in Law Enforcement. It’s the most unusual police story you’ll ever read, with no gunshots or car chases, and where the mundane becomes a grind. Profane and darkly funny, it captures all the humor and horror, the triumphs and tragedies that are a part of daily life for those who wear a badge.
Joe Clifford Faust was born in North Dakota, raised in Alberta and Wyoming, went to college in Oklahoma, and now lives in Ohio. He has been married for more than thirty years to the same woman, has two adult children, and has worked at a local advertising agency since 1997.
When not writing, he can be found ministering to his Church family, eating chili, badly singing and playing original songs on the guitar, playing wargames, and reading books on his Kindle.
He is currently at work on his next novel, which he says, "May involve either UFOs, amnesia, or dogs. I haven't decided which."
