Keenan Powell--Hemlock Needle

DEBORAH CROMBIE: There's nothing we love more here at Jungle Red Writers than welcoming one of our regular commenters to the blog.And what is so fascinating is that we bring so many different places and perspectives to this community. I was so pleased to learn more about Keenan Powell, who we see often in these pages, and her books.

Her debut novel, DEADLY SOLUTION, was just nominated for a Lefty (the awards given by the Left Coast Crime conference) for Best Debut Novel. So huge congrats from all of your cheerleaders here!!

And we are also celebrating the release of Keenan's second Maeve Malloy novel, HEMLOCK NEEDLE! Here's Keenan to tell you more about it.

HEMLOCK NEEDLE and a Nagging Inspiration

Thanks so much, Reds, for having me on your blog today. I don’t always comment, but I follow Jungle Reds. You are a bright spot.

I’m super excited about the release of my second Maeve Malloy Mystery, HEMLOCK NEEDLE.  It was born from a nagging inspiration: a newspaper photograph of a little Yup’ik boy sitting on his haunches behind a forest of adult legs during a Starring ceremony. Although they were indoors, he was wearing his winter coat and he looked uncomfortably warm and I thought to myself, I bet someone told him not to take the coat off because he might lose it.

Keenan's grandson, Brady, as Evan

 

The Starring ceremony is a Russian Orthodox Christmas celebration. In the villages, people go from house to house spinning huge tinsel stars and singing Christmas carols in Russian, English, and their Native language. Then there is food and drink and then the party moves on to the next house.

In Anchorage, the party takes place at the Alaska Native Medical Center where a large room is set aside for gatherings. That is where the picture was taken.

What intrigued me about this little Yup’ik boy was how he was caught in the middle of a cultural tsunami:  hundreds of miles away from his ancestral home, celebrating Christmas with friends and relatives but also Alaska Natives who had been traditional enemies, altogether in in an essentially foreign city, and he would grow up during an era when his people were fighting to preserve their culture and way of life.

That image was front and center in my mind and I felt like I was never going to get past it unless I gave it a story.

So here’s the story that evolved: In Anchorage, Alaska, Yup’ik Eskimo chief financial officer and single mother, Esther Fancyboy, walks out of a party and into a blizzard. 

She is never seen again, leaving behind a seven-year-old son, Evan.

The local cops say she’ll come home when she’s done partying, but family friend Maeve Malloy doesn’t think it’s that simple. She goes looking for Esther just as she’s getting bad news of her own, a career-ending accusation. When Esther’s body turns up in a snow berm and a witness is shot to death in front of Maeve, she suspects Evan might be in danger. Maeve must race against time to save the boy – along with her career, and maybe her life.

Since I have practiced law in Alaska for over thirty-five years, I was able to draw on my experience working with Yup’ik people. One time, I watched a white politician give a speech to a roomful of villagers on the topic of subsistence lifestyle (politician against). On another occasion, I visited fish camp near the village of Kwethluk when I was working on a fishing right case and I was struck by how joyous the folks were as they worked by the riverside. In particular I remember one man who walked gracefully across a rocking boat onto the beach, his body reacting instinctively to the gentle movement of the river beneath his feet, having spent his life on that river.

 

And for what I didn’t know, I lucked out. My grandchildren’s other grandmother is Yup’ik from Eek, Alaska. She advised in particular on a birthday gift that my character Esther had been making for her own grandmother when she disappeared. It was her opinion that my Esther was a good Yup’ik girl.

In celebration of my release, I’d like to give away a copy of HEMLOCK NEEDLE to a commenter. Is there an image in your head that refused to go away? Did you do something with it? Paint, draw, music, wrote, made up a little story, told your best friend about it over coffee? Or, tell us about your grandmother or your grandkids.

You can order HEMLOCK NEEDLE here.

DEBS: Don't tempt me on the granddaughter or my grandmother! But I am so curious about Alaska, and the culture you've portrayed so vividly for us here, Keenan. AND I want to know what happened to Esther, and to Evan.

***

Keenan’s first publication was illustrations in Dungeons and Dragons, 1^st edition, drawn the summer before finishing high school.  Art seemed to be an impractical pursuit – she wasn’t an heiress, didn’t have the disposition to marry well, and hated teaching – so she went to law school instead. The day after graduation, she moved to Alaska.

She practiced criminal defense for many years, taking on a wide-range of cases all the way from murder to Alaska Native fishing and hunting rights. She continues to practice law in Anchorage, Alaska.

She was one of the 2015 recipients of William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic grant, currently writes a legal column, Ipso Facto, for the Guppies’ newsletter, First Draft, and blogs with Mysteristas.

Her first Maeve Malloy Mystery, DEADLY SOLUTION, has been nominated by Left Coast Crime for best debut.

Visit her at www.keenanpowellauthor.com where you can learn more about her writing, about Alaska, and sign up for her newsletter.

Keenan Powell

Hemlock Needle (Level Best Books, 2019)

Deadly Solution (Level Best Books, 2018)

“The Velvet Slippers”- Malice Domestic 12 – Mystery Most Historical (Wildside Press, 2017)

“The Cattle Raid of Adams” – Busted! Arresting Stories from the Beat (Level Best Books, 2017)

“The Banshee of Adams, Massachusetts” – Snowbound (Level Best Books, 2017)

“Muskeg Man” – Mystery Most Geographical (Wildside Press, 2018)