Crosshairs: A Novel of Suspense (ISBN 1596635479)

What an Ending!:
Crosshairs is a great back-country suspense novel. The characters brought Klinkton County alive and made it a 'real' place. Sheriff Eichenlaub proves to be just what the town needed. The author keeps you guessing right up to the end and leaves you in shock with the ending. Great book! I will be reading the next Jesse Eichenlaub mystery!

Suburban Fiction book review of Crosshairs:
Jesse Eichenlaub has just been elected Sheriff of Klinkton county, a rural backwoods community of gun lovers that hosts a popular and always dangerous hunting season. Having no previous law enforcement experience Jesse is put under the spotlight by opportunistic locals who mistake his academic demeanor as a sign of weakness. With an abundance of patience and a firm desire to make a difference he takes every opportunity to bond with the residents while guarding his back from the unfortunate incidents of his past. However, it's the present that threatens to take his job, his girlfriend and perhaps his life. A series of shootings precedes the fabled hunting season forcing the sheriff into action. As the investigation limps along on under funded crutches each succeeding death makes it clear that these are not accidents. Now the newly minted sheriff and his staff are racing to link together seemingly ordinary folks in order to establish a motive and track down the killer. As a mystery Crosshairs hits the target dead center. The characters provide a light, fluid backdrop for a story that is driven by black coffee and personal secrets. Crosshairs presents the reader with the widest possible range of gun toting characters imaginable. From a lesbian Olympic target shooter to a hefty, aggravated county commissioner, everyone is armed with lead. In light of their weapons you'd assume that any individual was capable of justifying a murder but the author teaches you that it just doesn't work that way. It takes more than a motive to commit the ultimate sin.

Keeps you guessing:
This mystery novel is a real page turner. It will keep you guessing up to the end. Heitz has developed an interesting plot and an interesting collection of characters.

Interesting:
There's a new sheriff in town, and dug-in locals are resisting change big-time when a serial killer strikes! With much at stake, the new sheriff can't win for trying, or can he? Crosshairs is an interesting read.

Crosshairs is a winner:
Tears and Tales: Stories of Human and Animal RescueThe Horse with the Golden Mane: Stories of Adventure, Mystery and RomanceUnsung Patriot: Guy T. Viskniskki How the Stars and Stripes Began CROSSHAIRS is exciting, vibrant, mesmerizing as Russ Heitz draws the reader into a vortex of mystery and human values laced with suspense and realism. The main character was so real I found myself arguing with his deepest beliefs and had to remind myself that he was a fictional person created by a master writer. Only once before have I read an author with such a scintallating and adept talent for building characters we are about and that was the great Daphne Du Maurier. CROSSHAIRS isn't just another mystery book. Heitz plunges the reader into a maelstom of channels and eddies that defy resolution. His characters speak; they are real; they are different. We like them. We hate them. We are dazzled by them. We root for them. We disagree with them. But mostly, we care about some and want others brought to justice. The challenge of wondering why anyone would so heedlessly take lives with a souped-up target rifle carries the reader into a feeding frenzy of intrigue. He wants to know not just who the killer is, but what else is going to happen to this newly elected Sheriff. And we cheer for him because he is totally inexperienced at what he does and yet he does it well. In CROSSHAIRS, Russ Heitz has envisioned the lives of fascinating people and a series of murders that rivet the reader into reading "just one more page" until the entire book is consumed. If you are an early-to-bed reader, be prepared to travel along with CROSSHAIRS until the small hours of the morning. The book is just that good!