Tucson Geologist Pens Fourth “Hoo-dunit” in Award-Winning Mystery Series
25-Feb-2008News release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: February 25, 2008
CONTACT: Barbara Brannon, barbara.brannon@ttu.edu
(806) 742-2982
Tucson Geologist Pens Fourth “Hoo-dunit” in Award-Winning Mystery Series
The fictional sleuth Francisca (Frankie) MacFarlane can tell the difference between sandstone and soapstone at forty paces. She can read the landscape like a book, interpreting the faults, folds, and formations of the earth’s surface with a scientist’s precision. And she has a way of finding out where the bodies are buried.
It’s no surprise that Frankie, is the brainchild of field geologist Susan Cummins Miller of Tucson, Arizona, who has mined a nine-year career with the U.S. Geological Survey, the Minerals Management Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, as well as extensive teaching experience, for the materials of award-winning fiction. “Quarry,” third in the series, garnered the 2007 New Mexico Book Award in its category. “Hoodoo,” the latest installment, is due out next month from Texas Tech University Press.
“I chose to create a series protagonist who was a geologist, not only because I have the background and interest, but because geologists are innately curious people—born observers and naturalists—and because geology itself is detective work,” said Miller of her books’ origins.
In Miller’s murder mysteries—each of which embodies a geological multiple meaning in its title—landscape is a character, while history, anthropology, and geology contribute plot elements and enhance the settings. The action in “Death Assemblage” (2002) takes place in and around the fictional town of Pair-a-Dice, Nevada. “Detachment Fault” (2004) is set in southeastern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. In “Quarry” (2006) Frankie encounters murder and mayhem among the volcanic terrain and prehistoric sites of the Mojave Desert, California. “Hoodoo” finds Frankie—and some old friends—among the volcanic rock formations of the Chiricahua Mountains that span southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
● Sat., Feb. 23. Borders-Cottonwood, 10420 Coors Bypass NW, Albuquerque, N.M., 3-4 p.m.
● Sat., Mar. 1. Expanding Your Horizons Conference, University of Arizona, Tucson. Panel discussion, 1-3 p.m.
● Sun., Mar. 2. Signing at Singing Wind Books, Benson, Ariz., 11:30-4 p.m.
● Sun., Mar. 9. Signing with Elizabeth Gunn, Donis Casey, and Jane Candia Coleman at Borders-Oracle & Wetmore, Tucson, 2 p.m.
● Sat., Mar. 15. Signing at Clues Unlimited Mystery Bookstore, 123 South Eastbourne, Tucson, 2 p.m.
● Fri., Apr. 4. Signing stock at Poisoned Pen Bookstore, Scottsdale, Ariz., 6:30 p.m.
● Fri., Apr. 11. Keynote Address and signing, Association for Women Geoscientists awards banquet, Golden, Colo.
● Apr. 25-27. Malice Domestic XX, Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel, Arlington, Va. (panels/signings).
● Fri., May 2. Literary Lubbock: A Signature Evening with Texas Authors. Texas Tech's Merket Alumni Center, Lubbock, Tex., 5:30-9:30 p.m.
● Fri., June 27. Signing with Elizabeth Gunn at Antigone Books, 411 North 4th Avenue, Tucson, 7 p.m.
● Thurs., July 10. Rio Rancho Public Library, Rio Rancho, N.M. 2007 New Mexico Book Award Winners group signing, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
● Oct. 5-9. Geological Society of America Joint Annual Meetings, Houston, Tex.
Susan Cummins Miller worked as a field geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and taught geology and oceanography before turning to writing. She is a research affiliate and SIROW Scholar with the University of Arizona’s Southwest Institute for Research on Women, and the editor of A Sweet, Separate Intimacy: Women Writers of the American Frontier, 1800–1922 (TTUP).
To contact the author, e-mail scmiller46@mac.com or visit http://hometown.aol.com/stmiller46/myhomepage/
For more information or a review copy of the book, contact Barbara Brannon, marketing manager, Texas Tech University Press, (806) 742-2982 or via e-mail at barbara.brannon@ttu.edu.
