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"Interesting look at a rural Midwest town"

If anyone canvassed the townsfolk of Glens Crossing, Indiana as to whom was the most predictable person in town, Sheriff Leigh Mitchell would win unanimously. She never does anything outside her daily routines. However, approaching thirty, Leigh feels she is choking and needs to break out of her shell.

Will Scott is just passing through when he notices the Ferris Wheel lights in the distance. Teenager Brittany Wilson gives him a ride to the carnival where he meets Leigh. They enjoy the events and soon go dancing together. Not long afterward Will obtains a temporary job as a mechanic. Though Leigh wants to believe otherwise as she is falling in love with the mysterious stranger, she wonders if he could be dangerous as the main suspect in a potential tragedy. He finds himself falling for the local law enforcement official, but knows his past makes him the worst candidate for anything but passing through.

BACK ROADS is an interesting look at a rural Midwest town where everyone intimately knows each other so the slightest change in routine leads to concerns about the person. Leigh is an intriguing individual struggling with the feeling that there is more to life than the rut she feels she lives in. Will is enigmatic, telling little about himself until the reader gets deep into the plot. The story line initially moves like a Ferris Wheel as Susan Crandall sets the background for an exciting police procedural romantic suspense in which the heroine speculates whether her beloved is a dangerous felon capable of atrocities.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted May 16, 2003

A story of unchanging small towns and conflicted hearts. Sensible, capable and always in control, Leigh Mitchell is the sheriff of a sleepy southern Indiana county, a position which sets her apart in ways she hadn't imagined. She's facing her thirtieth birthday and feeling restless. On a moonlit night, driven by a desperate need for change, she indulges in an innocent flirtation with an intriguing stranger.

Against all of her well-laid plans, she falls for Will Scott, a man plagued by dangerous secrets. By turns passionate and tender, Will reveals little about his past and less about his future. Yet Leigh takes a leap of faith and lets him into her heart.

When a teenage girl goes missing form this tight-knit community, suspicion immediately falls on Will Scott. Although his very life depends upon remaining unknown and unseen, he lingers among the accusations and the whispers, even as the wolves are closing in.

Seemingly overnight, everything Leigh holds dear -- her loyalty to family, devotion to duty, her trust in love -- are tested to their limits. For the first time in her life, steadfast Leigh must let go of the clear cut rules that have always guided her and travel the uncertain back roads of the heart.