E418 - Andrea Heckner - Crime Thriller Books - Secrets in the Heartland Series

EPISODE 418 - Andrea Heckner - Crime Thriller Books - Secrets in the Heartland Series

I’m Andrea Heckner, and I am an author of Crime Thriller Books. I live in Wisconsin with my husband, David. We have three grown sons and three grandchildren.

Here’s my why for writing: I became an avid reader as a teenager and love to lose myself in a great story, but that is not where my story begins. My story begins with a young girl who struggled to learn to read due to having Dyslexia. Thanks to parents, educators and tutors who were dedicated to helping me to become literate, I was able to not only learn to read and write but to find a true passion in literacy.

After starting as a Special Education Teacher, I realized how little I knew about teaching others to read and went back to school. Becoming a Reading Specialist and Literacy Coach allowed me to be able to help other children to become readers and writers. Participating in the National Writing Project helped me to not only become a stronger teacher of writing but also to develop my voice as a writer.

Thanks for visiting; feel free to get in touch if you have questions about my books, and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to be one of the first to get updates.

Secrets in the Heartland Series
This series of Mystery/Thriller fiction books follows Detective Kass Minor and FBI Agent Robert Matthews as they work to solve crimes in and around the Springfield, Missouri, region of the United States.

Book 1-The Farm

Have you ever wondered how an ordinary person could know and interact with a serial killer and not know it until it was too late? The Farm, book one in The Murder in the Heartland series, centers on the disappearance of Kelsey Learner, a seemingly ordinary midwestern single mom.

Parallel to the investigation into Kelsey’s disappearance, a pair of serial killers are murdering in the area for what they perceive to be a higher good. Police have yet to connect their victims and, in some cases, even know they are missing. Is Kelsey their latest victim, or is it a coincidence that a serial killer couple is on the loose and Kelsey has vanished?

Book 2- Dismantling the Farm

FBI Agent Robert Matthews came from a long line of civil servants, but it was his grandfather’s love of a 1930s movie about the FBI that had made being an agent Robert’s dream. He had visions of car chases, gun fights, and media releases that featured his name. Instead, he got assigned to the Springfield, Missouri field office, where he spent his days doing paperwork, going out on investigative interviews, testifying in court, or practicing firearms use and defensive tactics. When he is assigned to look into the disappearance of a young man as a favor to a friend of the Assistant Director of the FBI, no one could have predicted how big the case would be.

Book 3-Remembering the Farm

The third book in the Secrets in the Heartland series brings the reader back to answer some of their lingering questions. When two boys go missing in Springfield, Detective Kass Minor must move fast to try to bring them home safely. Working with a new partner who is no Mitch Leet, she has no idea what this investigation will reveal.

Is Kelsey Learner still alive, or did she perish at the hands of the serial killers? Will learning the truth help Claire to move forward in her life?