CrossKill
In this third novel in the Ben Hunnicutt series, a murder is committed during the big game hunting season in the Talkeetna Mountains of Alaska. Retired Major Ben Hunnicutt and his hunting partner are drawn into the subsequent investigation. In an attempt to lure the murderer into the open, officials publicly hint that Ben and his partner may be able to identify the killer. Due to bureaucratic bumbling, Ben's partner and an FBI agent are murdered.
Infuriated, Ben becomes the hunter, using himself for bait and planning his own style of justice. He lures the killer, identity still unknown, to the Eureka Roadhouse during a winter caribou hunt. The plan backfires and Ben is nearly killed but escapes during a blizzard. Now that he has seen and identified the pair of killers, Ben doggedly goes on the hunt again, determined to settle the matter personally. His search takes him to the small bush community of Talkeetna, then northward, each party knowing that the other will grant no quarter.
About Don Neal (Anchorage, Alaska Author)
Don Neal, author of the Ben Hunnicutt novels, is a retired soldier. Reared in Suffolk and in Surry County, in southern Virginia, he dropped out of the College of William & Mary and enlisted in the Army after the Chinese entered the Korean War in 1950.
His 28 years of service encompassed nearly the entire Cold War, taking him to Japan, Germany, Korea, and Alaska. He has served in the Infantry, Field Artillery, Armor, and Air Defense branches. From 1968 through 1978, he worked with the Nike Missile units shielding Anchorage and Fairbanks from Soviet bomber attack.
He and his family have lived in Alaska for nearly fifty years. His hobbies include military history and the study of antique and historical firearms, with an occasional foray into drag racing. His novels first reflect Alaska as a Territory, then as a new state, before the discovery of oil and the building of the trans-Alaska pipeline.
