ISBN: 978-0-86534-936-0
Hardcover, $32.95
Paperback, $24.95
eBook, $9.99
344 pages
September 2, 2013
Sunstone Press
In August 1863, during Kit Carson’s roundup of the Navajo, Santa Fe’s Marshal is found dead in an arroyo near what is now the Hubbel Trading Post. The murder, and the roughly millions of today’s dollars in cash and belongings in his saddlebags, is historically factual. Carson’s actual explanation is implausible.
Who did kill Carson’s “brave and lamented” Major? The answer is revealed in this tale of a group of con artists operating in 1861-1863 in the New Mexico and Arizona Territories. As a matter of historical fact, millions of today’s dollars were embezzled from the Army, the Church, and the New Mexico Territory during this time. In this fictionalized version, the group includes a Santa Fe poker dealer with a checkered past claiming to fall in love with one of her coconspirators, and the historically accurate duo of the Marshal of Santa Fe and the aide de camp of the Territories’ Commanding General. It is an epic tale of murder and mystery, of staggering thefts, of love and deceit.
In August 1863, during Kit Carson’s roundup of the Navajo, Santa Fe’s Marshal is found dead in an arroyo near what is now the Hubbel Trading Post. The murder, and the roughly millions of today’s dollars in cash and belongings in his saddlebags, is historically factual. Carson’s actual explanation is implausible.
Who did kill Carson’s “brave and lamented” Major? The answer is revealed in this tale of a group of con artists operating in 1861-1863 in the New Mexico and Arizona Territories. As a matter of historical fact, millions of today’s dollars were embezzled from the Army, the Church, and the New Mexico Territory during this time. In this fictionalized version, the group includes a Santa Fe poker dealer with a checkered past claiming to fall in love with one of her coconspirators, and the historically accurate duo of the Marshal of Santa Fe and the aide de camp of the Territories’ Commanding General. It is an epic tale of murder and mystery, of staggering thefts, of love and deceit.
Both a Western and a Civil
War novel, this murder mystery occurs in and among Cochise’s Chiricahua Apache Wars,
the Navajo depredations and wars, Indian Agent Kit Carson’s return from
retirement, and the Civil War. The story follows the con artists, some
historical, some fictional, during their poker games, scams, love affairs, and
bank robberies, right into that arroyo deep in Navajo country.
Grab a copy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Marissa Curnutte
347-574-3136
FROM WALL STREET TO THE WEST
Financial guru Steven W. Kohlhagen turns to his roots in the American
West high desert for his first historical fiction novel
‘Where They Bury You’
SANTA
FE, NEW MEXICO – Steve Kohlhagen wasn’t
convinced after reading Hampton Sides’ nonfiction account, “Blood and Thunder,”
that American frontiersman and Indian fighter Kit Carson’s official report of
the events in August 1863 was entirely true. And in the 150th anniversary
year, Kohlhagen
begs the question, “Did the Navajos really shoot Carson’s Marshal?”
His
new book “Where They Bury You” puts a different spin on what’s found in the
history books. Based on actual facts and a very real murder, this Western
murder mystery takes place during the Civil War battles in the New Mexico and
Arizona Territories. A former Wall Street investment banker who currently sits
on several Board of Directors, most recently joining Freddie Mac’s, Kohlhagen’s
retired life in the San Juan Mountains gives him a unique perspective on the
region about which he writes.
After
researching a group of con artists who did, indeed, embezzle millions of
today’s dollars, Kohlhagen sheds fictional light on who committed the actual August
18, 1863 murder of Santa Fe’s Provost Marshal deep in Navajo Territory. The
novel vividly depicts battles among Cochise’s Chiricahua Apaches, the Navajo
and other Southwestern Indian tribes, Kit Carson, the Union Army, volunteers
from the western Territories, and the attacking Confederate Rebels from Texas.
“Steve
Kohlhagen knows the West, knows his history, and combines them here into a
fastpaced,
irresistible
story!” raves Bernard Cornwell,
award-winning author of over 50 historical fiction
novels who USA Today calls “the reigning king of historical fiction.”
“Where
They Bury You” is a thrill ride into the old and mysterious ways of the West,
to a place and
time in history that provides surprises along the way.
GUEST POST
with Steve Kohlhagen
Why I chose this particular story, and why it compelled me to write a novel
I was innocently reading Hampton
Sides’ wonderful history of the West, Blood
and Thunder, when I came across Kit Carson’s implausible explanation for
the 1863 murder of a U.S. Marshal under his command during his war against the
Navajo (August 18, 1863---150 years ago, practically to the day). Intrigued, I
started researching Army Archives and biographies of the people who were there,
and discovered there had been a massive embezzlement of the Territorial government,
the Church, and the Army by a group of con artists that, interestingly, actually
happened in the months just previous to the murder. And the murdered Marshal
had $750,000 of today’s dollars in his saddlebags. All this took place against
the backdrop of the Texans and the Civil War inserting themselves into the
Territories’ Apache and Navajo wars.
Interesting times. Interesting
unsolved murder. The more I read and the more I thought about it, the more I
realized there was a potentially fascinating story during a complex and
fascinating period of history. I was compelled to write a novel that included a
more plausible (fictional) explanation for the murder. Once I placed the
fictional characters onto the historically accurate canvas, the story took off.
And the Marshall was killed again.
This time more interestingly, and, more to the point, more plausibly.
My favorite part of putting the
book together was watching the characters carry the book on their shoulders.
When I created Lily Smoot, she was supposed to be a minor character, a former
prostitute headed off to deal poker in Santa Fe. When she was finished with me
(and all the real and fictional characters in the book) she was the heroine.
Out of nothing, something fun.
I also very much enjoyed writing
the battle scenes in a fictionalized way, with the characters controlled by
historical accuracy and at the same time driving the flow of the fight.
To answer your question, I chose
NOT to change history. All the characters are controlled by the actual events
of history (with a debt to Stoppard’s Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern are Dead). The only liberties I took with historical
accuracy were to: a) compress certain events (especially lengthy battles); and b)
increase the role of some characters to reduce the number of characters to keep
track of, both so as to not bore or burden the reader.
Since no witness to the Marshal’s murder
ever came forth in historical records, even the ending of Where They Bury You cannot be proven to NOT be historically
accurate. Just different from Kit Carson’s convenient and implausible
explanation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Kohlhagen is a
former, now retired, Economics professor at the University of California,
Berkeley, are tired Wall Street investment banker, and is on several corporate
boards, most recently elected to the board of Freddie Mac. While at Berkeley he
authored many economics publications, and he and his wife Gale jointly
published the murder mystery “Tiger Found” under their pen name Steven Gale in
2008.
Kohlhagen was inspired to
write his latest book “Where They Bury You” after reading Hampton Sides’ “Blood
and Thunder,” a non-fiction history of Kit Carson and the West. Sides’
reporting of the factual murder of Marshal Joseph Cummings on August 18, 1863
led Kohlhagen to conduct further research on Carson and Cummings, including at
the National Archives. He also pulled from his own knowledge of the West, as
the writer divides his time between the New Mexico-Colorado border high in the
San Juan Mountains and Charleston, South Carolina.
Connect with Steve
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