A brutally murdered federal agent and distrust among his close colleagues greet Port Stirling Police Chief Matt Horning as he faces down a second homicide in his new Oregon hometown.

Federal agent Clay Sherwin, who was briefly a suspect in a murder in Shallow Waters, book one in A Port Stirling Mystery series, has been found shot through the heart and decapitated in a marshy area near the Pacific Ocean.

Just when his police department gets back to normal after solving its first murder in decades, along comes another dead body, but this one has ominous overtones never seen before in Port Stirling. Did Matt Horning bring this trouble with him when he fled a painful professional experience in Texas four months earlier?

With his colleagues Detective Jay Finley, Cadet Fern Byrne, and Oregon State Trooper Ed Sanders assisting him, Horning must also deal with the federal officials from the State Department to investigate Sherwin's death.

Is there really an international drug ring operating in his remote coastal village where nothing ever happens? Is this what Matt Horning bargained for when he took this job last winter? As spring blooms on the Oregon coast, are there also blossoming forbidden feelings within him?

The intimidating 300-foot bluffs ringing the white-sand pristine beaches may present the perfect locale for those intent on evil. Dogged by his own demons, Horning must quickly face the facts; this is more than a few bad guys exchanging pot for cash. Much more. Does he have the resources and the experience to take back Port Stirling from those who would harm its peaceful vibe before it's lost forever? Can he outsmart the bad guys?

In this shocking story based on a real-life incident, Midnight Beach continues the saga of Matt Horning and Port Stirling.