After creating the characters of Rachel Chance and Will Keller, one of my next decisions was the setting. I knew I wanted it to be a relatively small town in Indiana but not too small. So what about Richmond? I live here and grew up here. Hmmm.
I decided that I wanted to create a town a lot like Richmond, but not Richmond. So the mystery is set in Glen Falls, Indiana, a town on the eastern side of Indiana split by a gorge, where once tribes of Shawnee, Delaware and others counted on it for hunting. I purposely changed some significant details, but also created some scenes that are very similar to Richmond.
Spoiler alert. There may also be a connection to my book Hoosier Beginnings as it’s just possible that one of the characters lives on property that was once owned by early Whitewater Valley Settler, Richard Rue.
Back to Glen Falls. One of Rachel’s neighbors is Charley, a retired high school history teacher who is an expert on local history. He works at a historical museum located in a large building that was once a Quaker Meetinghouse. If you live in Richmond, this might sound familiar. Very familiar.
However, Charley also volunteers at a Jazz Museum. A very generous donation apparently allowed a museum to be built to honor many of the jazz greats who once traveled to Richmond to record at the Gennett Recording Studio. It’s one of those things I wish had happened – that someone had donated money to restore the old Starr piano factory and Gennett recording studio in the Gorge. So in my book? Voila. It happened! And maybe, just maybe, in a future book, there is a gala on the site of the recording studio in the gorge, but a murder interrupts the festivities and Rachel and Will once again are involved in the hunt for a killer.
I haven’t decided what other ways to rewrite history as I create the town of Glen Falls, Indiana, but it will be fun thinking about it. Perhaps some of my readers who live or lived in Richmond have some ideas?
Randall Wisehart 
Oooh, this sounds very fun, Randy! I like the sound of Glen Falls. Richmond has such an interesting history and seems like an excellent choice for a setting. You asked about other possible sources of inspiration: I’m curious to learn more about where musicians of color like Louis Armstrong might have stayed when passing through Richmond to make their recordings in the 1920s. Were there hotels or private homes open for non-whites? What was the hospitality like? I also wonder if there might be other kinds of “unfinished business” from Glen Falls’ musical past that could be driving the murderer and how people respond to the crime(s). Looking forward to reading more!
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Excellent ideas. Yes, there were specific places where musicians of color stayed, but I need to do more research about that. Definitely the possibility of a secret from the past. I was wondering about a possible connection to Chicago in the 1920’s given that trains ran regularly there. This may end up being book three, though, as I am currently working on an outline of a second mystery that would be connected to Underground Railroad sites in the area.
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