Normally, Ocean Grove, New Jersey is known for Victorian charm and family fun, not murder. In Missing by the Midway, book 1 in the Ocean Grove Mystery series, murder and mystery are commonplace and Douglas Carter-Connors is responsible for solving the crimes. Douglas Carter-Connors is not a common name, but he is not a common detective. In fact, he's not a detective at all; he's the kindly Dean of Students at Asbury College, a small, private college on the Jersey Shore. Everyone calls this family man "Dean Doug" and in most places, his life would be considered boring-- but not in Ocean Grove. One of Dean Doug's students, Jessica Philmore has disappeared. He learns of this from Jessica's mother, who, a few days later also disappears. Thus, Dean Doug is plunged into a new and uneasy role of detective-- calming the faculty and students at the College, reassuring the local community, and working with the Ocean Grove Police Department to find Jessica. Dean Doug's investigation connects him with many Ocean Grove residents including the Mayor and town's funeral home director, Theodore Carcass (pronounced Carcass), and Reverend Malificent Brown, the Unitarian Minister who chain-smokes and hosts monthly sushi-suppers. These peculiar individuals sometimes help, but often hinder, Dean Doug on his search for Jessica, which ends with a deadly ride on a runaway Ferris wheel! Doug's adventure also provides this amateur sleuth, and readers, an appropriate introduction to the Ocean Grove Mysteries.