Martin Shuller is the Sheriff of the town Huntersville, AZ. His story plays out in a series of books known as The Shuller Series, depicted below. To read about him through these books, simply click the image to be taken to where you can buy a copy. Otherwise, continue on to read his interview.

  • If you weren’t in your current career, what would you be doing?

Gees, I honestly don’t know.  I think I was always going to be a cop.  I don’t think I’m suited for anything else.  I was always a rules-oriented kind of kid.  In football, you had to play by the rules; in school, the same.  I liked order.  Yeah sure I cut up here and there, but nothing else stands out for me other than cop.  Maybe an umpire or referee.  Hmm.  That could work.  I do enjoy football, but mostly from my favorite armchair.

  • What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Betrayal.  Point blank.  I value honesty, being up front with someone.  You have to be able to look someone in the eyes and know that what you see is what you get.  Games and half-truths offend me, really it does.  When someone tries to or has pulled the wool over my eyes, and believe me it’s happened, once that ruse is found out, my opinion of you changes.  It hurts to know that someone you valued, trusted, lied to you.

  • What is your most marked characteristic?

I’ve been told I’m a bit of a hard-ass.  Its that whole rules thing I guess.  What can I say, I was born a cop.  <Hehe>.  I can be a bit stern, but I like to think I’m just rational, a realist.  I like to get to the point, to the heart of the matter.  It’s the investigation to the core of the matter that gets me.  Finding out the truth.  Really what I want to know is the why more than the how though, you know?

  • What is your greatest regret?

Hmm.  I think, I think I missed an opportunity with Vivian.  Vivian Nash, she was … a member of our town.  She was murdered, not too long after I came back from the case over in Columbus Cove.  She was a dear, dear friend.  Sweet little old lady.  Everyone loved her.  I’d look in on her when I could.  I would stop by for tea.  I miss her.  It’s funny the things you find out about someone when you have to sort through their lives after they’re gone.  You’d think she was an open book, but, well I guess there are things you never get to know about someone unless they tell you, huh?  Definitely a missed opportunity.

  • Are you lying to yourself about something that greatly affects your life?

I try not to let cases get to me.  It’s the job, it’s what I do.  I usually don’t have the big trying cases, not here.  Usually it is the run of the mill items.  We’re a small little town.  Nice and quiet, removed from the harshness of the big city BS, you know?  But when there is a big case, when there is one that hits like Vivian’s did, then, then it’s hard.  I try to keep it at arm’s length, trying not to get personal about it, but how can I not really?  I don’t really want to get into it, but it was hard.  Still is.  Jeanie, my girlfriend, thinks I buried it too deep and that I should try to come to terms with it.  But I have, I think, in my own way.  I understand, sort of, the situation.  What is getting emotional going to solve about it.  She’s gone.  Vivian’s gone and there is no resolution.  There are just some things I’ll never understand now and I have to accept that in the end.

  • What is something you always carry with you?

My badge.  It’s a part of me.  I leave the house and grab the keys, wallet, badge.  Even off-duty.  Don’t know why, really.  Habit I suppose.  When you’re a small-town sheriff, you’re always on-duty somehow.  The gun stays secured when off duty though, not that I ever had a reason to use it.  I clean it more than fire it, which is good.  I think the badge carries more weight around here than that gun does anyways.

  • Do you have any pets?

I had a dog when I was a kid.  Golden retriever.  Goldie.  Yeah, I know, real original.  She was a great dog.  I always thought of getting another one.  I just might.  I’ve got the yard for it.  Don’t think I could get another golden retriever though.  I’d need a big dog though, not a small one where I’d trip over the darn thing.  Yeah, maybe it’s time for a dog now.

  • Did you end up in the career you wanted when you were a kid?

Hehe, yeah.  Again, I think I was born a cop.  That’s what my mom always said anyway.  I was always the rule keeper in games, ref, that kind of thing.  I remember when I told my parents that I was signing up for the academy.  My dad just looked at me with a dead pan expression and said, ‘this is my surprised face’.  Again, I think I was just destined to be a cop.

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