About the Book

Book: The Silver Lode

Author: Suzanne J. Bratcher

Genre: Mystery

Release Date: 2020

JEROME, ARIZONA:

Billion-dollar copper camp alive with rags-to-riches tales

Beneath the ghost town that clings to the side of Cleopatra Hill, a maze of abandoned mine tunnels conceals a vein of silver ore mixed with pure gold. Seventy years ago, the discovery of that silver lode caused a murder. Are more coming?

Historian Paul Russell is about to lose his job and the woman he loves. He doesn’t have time to search for the legendary silver lode. But when a student drops a seventy-year-old unsolved cold case on his desk, a murder connected to the silver lode, the mystery offers Paul the perfect opportunity to work with Marty Greenlaw and win her back.

As Paul and Marty search for the silver lode, suspicious deaths begin to happen. When Paul’s son disappears, the stakes become personal.

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About the Author

Suzanne J. Bratcher, Ph.D., delights in writing contemporary mysteries sprinkled with history. Her award-winning novels are set in the very real ghost town of Jerome, Arizona as well as the Four Corners states: New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. Bratcher lives in Phoenix, Arizona. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading with her granddaughter, laughing at her rescue cat, and piecing colorful quilt scraps.

More from Suzanne

When readers ask me where I get my ideas, I sometimes wonder if they expect me to reveal a secret process for starting a book. I only wish I could. But far from proceeding along the steps of a process, each of my books begins with nothing more than a spark that catches my imagination like a match catches a piece of kindling. I pile ideas on the spark and when I have enough for a blaze, I start to write. The spark for The Silver Lode was a 3-D display of the myriad abandoned mining tunnels that crisscross the hill beneath the ghost town of Jerome, Arizona.

The idea for The Silver Lode came to me while I was still an English teacher. So, what was I doing studying a model of a long defunct copper mine when I should have been reading William Faulkner or e.e. cummings? The reality was-at the time, I had no idea I was studying a copper mine. I thought I was visiting an old house.

The first time I turned off Arizona Highway 89A to visit Jerome State Historic Park, I wanted to tour to the Douglas mansion, the park headquarters. I love old houses. I’ve visited Thomas Jefferson’s home, George Washington’s, numerous antebellum mansions scattered throughout the South, and the family homes of many famous American writers. The Douglas Mansion, then, was a natural stop. But besides old houses, I also love research-learning simply for the sake of learning. I don’t have to have a specific goal in mind to enjoy adding bits of information to my hodgepodge of knowledge.

So…as I strolled through the high-ceilinged rooms in the Douglas mansion, I found myself drawn into the history of copper mining in Jerome. In addition to the three-dimensional display of the mine tunnels, I saw shelves of rocks and minerals bathed in ultraviolet light, a wall of photographs of the Douglas family that included one of Winston Churchill’s sisters, and a video that told the story of the ghosts of Cleopatra Hill. My interest piqued, I plunged more deeply into research. I bought books and read firsthand accounts of life in the billion-dollar copper camp. I visited the Jerome Historical Society and read yellowing newspapers. I ventured into the Mining Museum and wandered through a reconstructed mineshaft. I searched the internet for information about mining in the late 1800s and early 1900s, whether for copper, silver, or gold.

By now I was actively working on a plot that would revolve around mining for silver in Jerome. Because The Silver Lode was the second book in my trilogy of Jerome mysteries, I already had the main characters for the story. In my head I could see Scott, a young teenager, exploring those interlocking tunnels under the town. But I didn’t know what he was looking for. I needed another spark to start that fire.

I ran across it quite accidentally as I was reading about a large deposit of silver mixed with gold discovered in Virginia City, Nevada in 1859. Dubbed a silver lode, it was one of the richest deposits of its kind ever discovered. Of course, the Comstock Lode had nothing to do with mining in Jerome between the two World Wars. Nor did the history of Nevada influence the history of Arizona in the 1920s. Still, as I read about a large deposit of silver mixed with gold called a silver lode, I knew I had found both the treasure and the title for the story I was working on.

The next big story question was “Who else is looking for the silver lode?” In other words, “Who is the villain?” It was clear I needed secondary characters to drive the search for my imaginary silver lode buried deep in Cleopatra Hill. These characters came from my research into the families who built the town of Jerome and spread down the hill to build Clarkdale. I had my ideas.

Now…back to the question my readers sometimes ask: where do I get the ideas for my mysteries? The answer is as simple as it is complicated: I get my ideas from research. As I write, I use these ideas as a springboard so that they appear in camouflage. When you read The Silver Lode, I hope you find these nuggets of fact buried deep in the imaginary story of the long ago murder of a college student’s grandfather, a contemporary search for a legendary silver lode, and a desperate rush to save a child’s life.

Interview with the Author

What does success as an author look like to you?

I feel successful as an author when a reader gets something out of a book I didn’t consciously put in. For example, one reader told me that after he and his wife both finished reading “The Copper Box,” they had a good discussion about adoption. Both adopted children, they had never discussed their individual experiences. The struggle Marty experienced in “The Copper Box” led them to have this difficult conversation. When I was writing that story, I never considered adoption as a theme. It was simply the part of the story that drove Marty to make a trip to Jerome. I was thrilled that my book had more in it for readers than I imagined.

What inspired this book?

A display in the Douglas mansion inspired “The Silver Lode.” I love touring old houses, so the Douglas mansion in Jerome drew me like a magnet. I was interested in it because of the history of the house, but in present day, the Douglas mansion is the home of the Jerome State Historic Park. Because Jerome started as a copper mining camp, the park headquarters is filled with displays on copper mining. At first, I wasn’t interested. Then I ducked behind a curtain to see a variety of minerals lit by ultraviolet light. They glowed with assorted colors, and I began to see the attraction of mining. I watched a film called “The Ghosts of Jerome,” and some of the people of the mining community started to become real. Later, when I strolled into the last room, a large 3-D representation of the labyrinth of mining tunnels that crisscross the hill beneath Jerome caught my attention. I wondered what it would be like to explore those tunnels. Scott Russell, a young teenager from the first Jerome mystery, seemed to be right beside me. I knew I had the main character. Not long before, I had read an account of the 1893 discovery of a rich vein of silver mixed with pure gold in Silver City, Nevada. I thought, “What about the discovery of a silver lode in one of those tunnels that was kept secret? What if Scott discovered the secret?” With that, the plot began to take shape in my mind.

What is your favorite Bible verse or life verse?

My life verse is Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers… nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

When I was growing up, my Sunday school teachers and my pastor placed the emphasis on death not being able to separate us from God’s love. But as I have lived this verse, I have found that life not being able to separate us from God’s love has been equally important. Living through a divorce, losing a job, not having enough money to know where next week’s food will come from, even losing custody of a child… I have learned that none of these experiences could chase God away. God has been with me, surrounding me with love -whether I won a prestigious book award or declared bankruptcy,. After experiencing that love during life, I don’t find it hard to believe that death won’t separate me from God’s love either.

What is your vacation spot?

The Big Island of Hawaii is my favorite vacation spot. When I was in my late fifties, I lived on the island of Guam for four years. During that time, on trips home I was privileged to visit Hawaii four times. Twice I chose the Big Island. I loved it because it has such variety. Not only does it have the beaches Hawaii is famous for, it also has a lot of undeveloped land, including, of course, the famous volcano Kilauea that has been corrupting off and on for the last couple of years. On my first visit, long before the volcano began to erupt, I went to the visitor center by Kilauea and learned about the volcanic origins of Hawaii. I also took a helicopter ride across the interior of the island. We flew over the volcano and were able to see molten lava bubbling in several places. At night the stars were very bright. The big island also hosts Mauna Kea, one of the world’s largest observatories comprising 13 telescopes. If I had enough money, I would gladly live on the Big Island.

What are you reading right now?

“A Shilling for Candles” by Josephine Tey. Born in 1897, Tey died in 1951. One of the writers working during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, she wrote nine mystery novels and seven plays. Alfred Hitchcock adapted “A Shilling for Candles” into a film called “Young and Innocent.” Overshadowed by Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey is a relatively unknown mystery writer. Nevertheless, her book “Brat Farrar” is one of my favorite mysteries. While I don’t think “A Shilling for Candles” will be a book I will go back to, it was a fun read. If you love mysteries but don’t know Tey’s stories, I hope you will track her down in your library.