What's Beneath the Surface?

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HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Mary Anna Evan’s first published work, her master’s thesis, was entitled A Modeling Study of the NH3-NO-O2 Reaction Under the Operating Conditions of a Fluid Bed Combustor. Like her future mysteries, I’m told it was a page turner, but unlike her beloved novels, its not available on line. She turned from engineering to fiction after the birth of her third child, shifting her focus from managing hazardous wastes to preparing balanced meals.

So, you know how much I love it when Jungle Red weeks evolve into a theme. Earlier this week, we went, via a book, to Prague. Today, we go, via Mary Anna Evans, to Oklahoma.

What Secrets Lie Deep Beneath the Surface?

Behind the Writing of Catacombs

by Mary Anna Evans

When I sit down to write about my archaeologist protagonist, Dr. Faye Longchamp-Mantooth, I always begin by choosing an interesting place with a little-known history. I think that spending the time to create an immersive setting for my stories pays off when I ask my readers to believe that likable, relatable Faye has found herself embroiled in a life-or-death adventure yet again.

I already knew that Oklahoma City was an interesting place when I began my historical research. Its casual cowboy culture contrasts with a modern, cosmopolitan vibe that might surprise people who have never been there, but my research uncovered something fascinating. 
In the early twentieth century, a community numbering perhaps into the hundreds lived underneath the city. This community consisted of Chinese immigrants who came to the United States to build the railroads, as well as their descendants, and they moved underground because of bigotry that relegated them to low-paying jobs and undesirable basement apartments. It is thought that they began by digging into the earth around their apartments, enlarging them, but that those burrows eventually connected to form a network of underground chambers where the community lived for decades.

If you are thinking that these catacombs must be an urban legend, please know that records exist from a 1921 health department inspection that pronounced the underground community to be “sanitary as all get out.” As further empirical proof of the underground community’s existence, photographs exist from a 1969 excavation that accidentally uncovered a staircase leading down to the old catacombs.

Oral history tells of community features that are hard to fathom in such a setting—a Buddhist temple, electric lights, mushroom growing operations that supplied topside restaurants, even a cemetery—but how can we ever know whether these things existed or not? The entrance uncovered in 1969 was promptly sealed again, allowing us to imagine anything down there that our hearts desire.

When I saw those photographs taken just days before the entrance was sealed, I knew that Faye would be fascinated by the people who once lived under Oklahoma City. It was only a matter of time before Catacombs began to take shape.

THE OKC  mayor looking at a stove in one of the tunnels

Since moving to Oklahoma, which encompasses the area once called Indian Territory, I’ve had the chance to enjoy arts indigenous to this area, including the Indian flutes that figure so largely into the storyline of Catacombs. 
Setting the book at a conference celebrating indigenous arts gave me the opportunity to show off the flintknapping skills of Faye’s partner in crime, Joe Wolf Mantooth, giving my readers the chance to vicariously enjoy traditional arts including food, music, and basketry. When a bomb puts all of these artists and art-lovers in danger, the blast uncovers the old underground structures left behind by the Chinese community and the pressure on Faye kicks into overdrive.

a photo from Atlas Obscura of the OKC tunnels

The FBI taps into her knowledge of archaeology and history as it tries to understand who detonated the bomb and why. They are navigating an emotional minefield left behind by the trauma of the 1995 terrorist bombing of Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh. The people traumatized by that day need desperately to know who has mounted this second attack and they need for that person to be caught. They need to know that this will never happen again.

Faye feels this pressure acutely. To solve this crime, she is willing to explore a century-old network of storm drains that just might lead her to the answers she needs. She is willing to descend into a warren of abandoned rooms where anything might wait for her. And she is willing to put her life on the line to catch the bomber. 

HANK: In the small world department, I was the anchor on duty at my TV station when a producer ran into my office and said—there’s been a bomb explosion in Oklahoma City. Get on the air and talk about it. I said—what happened? And she said—we don’t know!  Just get on the air and stall until we find out.

But—back to the topic at hand—doesn’t this book sound terrific?

And whoa. What might be down there? And how could hey engineer that? What do you think should be done?

And a copy of CATACOMBS  to one lucky commenter!

From MARY ANNA EVANS: I'm the author of the award-winning Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries: ARTIFACTS, RELICS, EFFIGIES, FINDINGS, FLOODGATES, STRANGERS, PLUNDER, RITUALS, and ISOLATION. My other fiction includes several short stories, available separately as ebooks, and as a collection in both ebook and print form, called JEWEL BOX: SHORT WORKS BY MARY ANNA EVANS. My most recent publications are nonfiction, a departure for me. YOUR NOVEL, DAY BY DAY: A FICTION WRITER'S COMPANION is available for novelists in both ebook and print form. I am also the co-author, with Dr. Faith Wallace, of MATHEMATICAL LITERACY IN THE MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL GRADES: A MODERN APPROACH TO SPARKING STUDENT INTEREST, available in print from Pearson.

I'm a university professor of writing, and I'm also a chemical engineer by training and license, with a degree in engineering physics thrown in for spice, but I love reading about history and writing about an archaeologist. Truth be told, I'm a little jealous of Faye and her archaeological adventures.

I enjoy reading, writing, gardening, spending time with my family, cooking, and playing my 7-and-a-half-foot-long monster of a grand piano. My cat helps me write, so I should probably put his name on my books.

Catacombs: A Faye Longchamp Mystery willbe published in August 2019 by Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks.