Patricia Bradley Interview

Q: Crosshairs is the third installment in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers series. Can you please provide a brief summary of this book?
A: Investigative Services Branch (ISB) ranger Ainsley Beaumont arrives in her hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, to investigate the murder of a pregnant teenager. While she wishes the visit was under better circumstances, she never imagined that she would become the killer’s next target—nor that she’d have to work alongside an old flame.
After he almost killed a child, former FBI sniper Lincoln Steele couldn’t bring himself to fire a gun, which had deadly and unforeseen consequences for his best friend. Crushed beneath a load of guilt, Linc is working at Melrose Estate as an interpretive ranger. But as danger closes in on Ainsley during her murder investigation, Linc will have to find the courage to protect her. The only question is, will it be too little, too late?
Q: Each of the books in this series focuses on a different professional involved with the Natchez Trace. Crosshairs features Investigative Services Branch ranger Ainsley Beaumont. Can you please tell us a little more about her character and her profession?
A: Ainsley Beaumont is one of thirty-three elite investigators in the ISB (Investigative Services Branch). The ISB is the FBI of the National Park Service, and she’s worked hard for this position, driven in part to show her dad she could do it.
Q: Lincoln Steele made a big career change after a mistake on the job cost his best friend. What kind of emotional baggage is he dealing with and how does that impact his role in this story?
A: Lincoln Steele was an FBI sniper, and after he almost shot a ten-year-old boy he had a flashback on a mission and hesitated in a gun battle. That hesitation eventually cost his best friend his life. Now Linc struggles with even holding a gun, much less shooting one. He left the FBI to return to Natchez to become an interpretive ranger and sleeps much better . . . until a killer has Ainsley in the crosshairs of his gun.
Q: What was the hardest part about writing this story?
A: Trying to write it during a pandemic.
Q: Without giving away spoilers, did anything about the finished plot surprise you?
A: Who the killer was. I don’t always know whodunit and this was one of those cases.
Q: Why did you choose the Natchez Trace as the setting for your books?
A: I love the Natchez Trace and have traveled it from one end to the other. It is so rich with history and has so many places to hide bodies . . .
Q: What do you hope readers have learned or experienced from this series?
A: I think learning to forgive runs through this series, and that it’s often easier to forgive others than it is to forgive ourselves.
Q: What are you working on next?
A:I ’m working on the fourth book in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers series. It will involve Ranger Clayton Bradshaw, who has made appearances in two of the books. He gets caught up in the attempted murder of an FBI agent on the Natchez Trace, and this case is tied to the murder of a federal judge.
Q: How can readers connect with you?
A:Website https://ptbradley.com/
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