Who’s your hero?

Your mom or dad? A grandparent, teacher or cop? How about fictional folk like Wonder Woman or Batman?

Scholar Joseph Campbell says that anyone who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of a group, a city,  tribe or a family can be called a hero.

Campbell spent a lot of time mapping the Hero’s Journey, laying out the stages, events and characters who typically accompany the hero on what is often a long and twisty trip.

In “Patriotic Gestures,” author Kristine Kathryn Rusch takes us on a kind of hero’s journey.

Only in this one we travel through the heart and mind of one woman.

Chosen as one of the best mystery stories of 2009, “Patriotic Gestures” explores the fine lines that run through American culture, and sometimes through Americans themselves. The story is from the collection, Five Female Sleuths.