“Smart, poignant, often slyly funny, these are stories that will both take your breath away and take you places you’ve never been before. A true and honest salute to much more than those who serve in the Navy, rich with history real and imagined.”
Testimonials & Reviews
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
Fred Leebron, author of Welcome to Christiania and Out West
“A thriller with a well-developed protagonist and flashes of virtuosity.”
– Kirkus
“Hess is one of those rare talents who tells a great story with compelling characters, pacing and action. Always a hell of a read!”
– Terrence McCauley, Author of Sympathy for the Devil and The Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood
“In Tushhog,Jeffery Hess has created a wicked lean follow-up to Beachhead. The remarkable Scotland Ross is back for another go-round, sadder maybe but no wiser, which means that he gets himself into all sorts of entertaining trouble. An excellent sophomore entry in what promises to be a long-running series of bruising, bare-knuckle crime novels.”
– Pinckney Benedict, author of Miracle Boy, The Wrecking Yard and Town Smokes
“TUSHHOG is Jeffery Hess’ follow-up to BEACHHEAD and the return of Scotland Ross. The action starts on page one and does not let up, offering the reader a one-two punch of quick, rapid-fire wit punctuated by grisly, can’t-look-away action. Hess’ prose is all Florida, all the time. Lookout, Carl Hiassen…Jeffery Hess is coming for your crown. You’ll trust no one in this story, but that won’t keep you from turning each and every page because Hess gives this story his all.”
– Eryk Pruitt, author of Dirtbags, Hashtag, and What We Reckon
“Jeffery Hess’s Beachhead hearkens back to the work of brilliant twentieth century crime writers like John D.McDonald, and his Scotland Ross is a Travis McGee for this millennium:gratifyingly unvarnished, physically tough, and just naive enough to involve himself in the troubles of other people. An admirable debut.”
– Pinckney Benedict, author of Dogs of God, Miracle Boy, and The Wrecking Yard
In Cold War Canoe Club, Jeffery Hess combines a flair for gripping storytelling with a powerful lyrical sensibility to produce that rarest of birds: a book full of page-turners that read like literary fiction. Like Tim O’Brien and Kevin Powers, Hess writes with absolute authority about the military men whose lives he sees with utter clarity and intimacy.
– Pinckney Benedict, author of Town Smokes, The Wrecking Yard, and Miracle Boy
“TUSHHOG is spellbinding, driven, reckless and authentic. Constantly cinematic, this novel catches you in its violent, slyly funny, hair-raising grip and never lets you go. Jeffery Hess has written a terrific novel that captures crime and all its gruesome and subtle consequences.”
– Fred Leebron, author of Out West,Six Figures, and Welcome to Christiania
“From backrooms to backyards in America, to exotic locales across the globe and all the waters in between, the stories in Jeffery Hess’s collection take the reader on a striking journey following both the steps and the mind of Navy seamen.”
– Steph Post, author of Lightwood and A Tree Born Crooked
“Satisfying,smart, startlingly funny, and always entertaining, Jeffery Hess’s wonderful debut novel is squarely in the tradition of the best of Robert Stone and Elmore Leonard. You will love the hero in this, but the villains are also tantalizingly human and engagingly complex. And the prose is, first to last,riveting and artful.”
– Fred Leebron, author of Welcome to Christiania and Out West
“Jeffrey Hess’s BEACHHEAD sets a relentless pace with a brutal story of Scotland Ross, dealt a bad hand and determined to go all in. Whether the crimes are of passion, politics, or violence, every minute of this Florida thriller gleams with conflict and character.”
– Steve Weddle, author of Country Hardball