MYSTERY AUTHOR D.S. LANG BRINGS A "GHOST" TOWN BACK TO LIFE IN HER NEW SERIES

Not Mitchaw, but a reasonable facsimile found on Pixaby

D.S. Lang is a former teacher, tutor, and mentor. She writes historical mysteries set in smalltown America during the Roaring Twenties. Her books feature amateur sleuths dedicated to cracking cases, along with a team of colorful characters—often including a local lawman. Find more about her books and her books on her website. 

The Catalogued Corpse, the first book in my Doro Banyon Historical Mystery series, is set in the semi-fictional town of Michaw, Ohio. I use the term semi-fictional, because the unincorporated village of Mitchaw existed until the mid-Twentieth Century. In fact, it was my dad’s birthplace! Often called Mitchaw Corners, it was set at the intersection of two main roads. The town was tiny and surrounded by farms. These days, the area is part of Sylvania Township, but many more people live there because subdivisions have replaced farms.

I have taken considerable literary license in creating a fictional place. My town is much larger than the “Corners” ever was and even has a college, where my amateur sleuth works as a librarian.

In doing research, I found information about ghost towns (not haunted, just not in existence any longer) and forgotten places (they exist but not as actual jurisdictions.) Almost 4000 of these entities are in the United States. Texas has the most. The majority disappeared in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, often due to inhabitants heading to bigger cities. My dad’s family moved off their farm to a home in Sylvania, not a major city, when he was in high school. Sylvania isn’t a major city, but it still exists as a sprawling suburb.

Around the world, towns and cities have disappeared due to wars, famines, diseases, and disasters—both natural and man-made. During the Battle of Verdun in World War I, nine French villages were decimated. Mitchaw suffered a major tornado in 1920, which may have started its decline. Many surrounding towns have also shrunk or disappeared. One named Ai (and it was named long before artificial intelligence came along) is tiny now, but once had its own high school. I wanted to use it as part of my story. Then, one of my beta readers said people will think you are referring to new technology, so I had to choose another place!

The Catalogued Corpse 

A Doro Banyon Historical Mystery, Book One

 

College librarian Doro Banyon discovers the body of her nemesis, Professor Hemet Corlon, near the card catalogues when she arrives for work. Evidence points to a terrible accident, but the new school security officer disagrees. Because Doro and Corlon have been at odds over the status of women at the formerly all-male school, she falls under suspicion—and she isn’t alone. Most professors and students supported women’s suffrage and welcomed coeducation, so they stand steadfast against the old-fashioned ideas of Corlon and his handful of powerful cronies. More than one person wanted to see an end to the professor and his ilk. But who made his departure permanent? In seeking answers, Doro joins forces with her best friend to solve the mystery of the catalogued corpse.

 

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MYSTERY AUTHOR AMBER FOXX TAKES US ON A TRIP TO A NEW MEXICO GHOST TOWN

Chloride, New Mexico

Amber Foxx, author of the award-winning Mae Martin Psychic Mystery Series, has worked professionally in theater, dance, fitness, yoga, and academia. She has lived in both the Southeast and the Southwest and calls New Mexico home. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

The Perfect Setting for a Mystery

My first trip to the ghost town of Chloride, New Mexico made me think: I have to set a book here. I had nothing in mind yet other than the setting, and what a setting! A late nineteenth century silver mining boom town, with nothing left but a few streets, some well-preserved buildings, and two graveyards. My books are psychic mysteries without murder, so there was a lot of potential in the place.

 

Chloride was founded because of Harry Pye, the first to discover silver in the canyon. The area went from wild open space, Apache land, to a town of three thousand in a few short years, with a bank, an armory, a Chinese laundry, saloons, and brothels—and no church. Pye didn’t live to enjoy it. While out prospecting a few months after staking his silver claim in 1879, he was killed by Apaches who fought against this encroachment on their land. Chloride thrived for only about twenty years, declining as rapidly as the price of silver did by the end of the nineteenth century.

 

The general store still stands, as do many of the old stone and adobe buildings on the main street. There’s an abandoned mine in the canyon at the far end of the town beyond one of the graveyards. The ghost town has a few residents, primarily artists and craftspeople.

How did I get my characters involved in this place? My psychic protagonist is asked to participate in a ghost hunt. I don’t write historical novels, but one of my secondary characters does. Another secondary character, a country singer, is a history buff. He buys an old house in Chloride as a refuge from celebrity and brings my protagonist’s boyfriend, a singer-songwriter, to Chloride for a creative retreat—a much needed fresh start for them both. 

 

An antagonist character I’d had lurking in the back of my mind for years fit well into the setting as another person seeking a creative retreat, and she was the perfect foil for my main characters. Inspired by some astounding art quilts in the gallery housed in a former saloon, I added a mysterious quilter as a Chloride resident. 

 

Places like Chloride in its heyday attracted men and women who wanted to disappear from their old lives and start anew, and that evolved as an important undercurrent in the story. 

 

My second trip to Chloride was a research trip. The gentleman who helped rescue Chloride and turn parts of it into a museum gave me an in-depth tour. Details he told me helped build the plot, including the lack of cell phone service in town and for ten miles outside of town. There’s nothing like getting in trouble in the middle of nowhere when you can’t call for help. 

 

Chloride Canyon

A Mae Martin Psychic Mystery, Book 8

 

Could a faked haunting in a ghost town stir up a real one? 

 

Mae Martin’s college summer session is off to a rough start. A classmate is out to make her life miserable. Her English professor is avoiding her. And the Paranormal Activities Club plans to investigate her psychic abilities. Her boyfriend, Jamie, is on a song-writing retreat in the ghost town of Chloride, New Mexico, population fourteen humans, twenty-three cats, and—supposedly—zero ghosts. He’s working with a famous friend who doesn’t want Mae, or anyone, to visit. But then Jamie’s neighbor claims her house is haunted, and Mae has to learn who’s behind the frightening events—the living, or the dead.

 

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