The Man Who Never Checked Out

The First Herman Krause Mystery

The Man Who Never Checked Out begins when fourteen-year-old Herman (Herm as he hates to be called) Krause, the son of the manager of the Quarter Deck Hotel along the shore of southern New Jersey, discovers the body of a murdered guest. He makes this discovery while with his cool-headed frenemy, Becca Collins. Herm is a part-time cleaner (never to be called a maid), and Becca is a bus person, as she insists on being called, who clears tables in the restaurant.
When it becomes apparent that the violent death of a guest may jeopardize his father's job, Herman decides that he must solve the crime, especially given the obvious incompetence of the police headed by Chief Philpot, who is more interested in concealing the crime than solving it. With occasional advice from the hotel's bartender, Sarge, who is rumored to have once been in black ops, Herman, with vital assistance from Becca, pursues the case to its dramatic and dangerous conclusion.