BOOK REVIEW: "Cross Country" by Tim Waggoner

Cross County, the new novel by Tim Waggoner, is an enjoyable read. It's partly a who-done-it mystery with a bit of surreal horror thrown in, but is blended quite well as to make it fairly feasible.

The two main focal points are Joanne Talon, the sheriff of Cross County, and the Cross Family itself. There are also colorful local townsfolk that add another dimension to the story. From its opening pages, the book starts out with an air of mystery, which Mr. Waggoner continues to evoke throughout the book. Joanne is the heroine, the youngest sheriff ever to be elected in Cross County. She is also well known in the county for an incident that happened to her as a child, where she was involved in a mysterious disappearance . She was rescued by local reporter Dale Ramsey, who over the years has become her assistant and confidant.

Also at the center of this tale is the mysterious Cross family, who oversee everything that happens in their county. No one seems to know or remember how they accumulated their vast wealth, and it's rumored that all the Crosses have varying degrees of psychic power. Other locals play a significant part as well. When one local woman, Debbie Coulter, is terrorized at her place of business and a seemingly unrelated murder takes place the same night, it turns into a strong battles of wills as Joanne attempts to do her job but has many obstacles to overcome in the collective body of the Cross family. Marshall Cross, the male head of the dynasty is closely monitoring the investigation and appears to know far more about whats going on than he should. As more murders take place it becomes a race against time to save the community and once and for all find out what lies at the bottom of this frenzied attack on the entire town.

Lately, I've read many books that, by the conclusion, are wrapped up too rapidly and leave a lot of questions pertaining to the story unanswered. Happily, this is not the case in Cross County. All things are explained --- perhaps a little too well, which makes the reader tend to think towards the book's climax that the author is targeting a decidedly more juvenile audience. For the most part, however I found Cross County an entertaining read, with multifaceted characters, an interesting setting, and a unique, if not a little confusing, ending.


---Jere Reyes
imagineatrium.com


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