An interview with Mark Reps, author of ZEB HANKS: Small Town Sheriff Big Time Trouble Native American mystery series.
Interview conducted by Lisa Vehrenkamp.
Lisa: What was the source of your inspiration for writing Native Bones?
Mark: Mostly, in Bones we are looking some very interesting history of Graham County. We are also witnessing Zeb and his team working together after the trauma of Book 4, Native Justice.
Lisa: Can you tell us a bit of that history?
Mark: Graham County if ripe with the history of the Apache Nation. Most people have heard of the great Apaches Geronimo and Cochise. Very few have ever heard of the greatest of the Apache chiefs, Mangas Coloradas.
Lisa: Who is Mangas Coloradas?
Mark: Mangas Coloradas lived from 1793 – 1863. He was an Apache tribal chief and a member of the Mimbreño Apaches. He was the father-in-law of Chief Cochise. He is considered by many to be the most important Chief to ever lead the Apache Nations. He was a giant of a man. Some say he was almost 7 feet tall. His Apache nickname was Red Shirt and he was also known as 'Standing in front of the enemy' because of his great bravery.
Lisa: Why did you choose to write about him?
Mark: There is a legend that he was brutally murdered by rogue members of the United States Cavalry. In the process, he was beheaded.
Lisa: That sounds gruesome.
Mark: It was. It was also totally unnecessary and done against the orders of the commander in charge, as he was a prisoner when this happened.
Lisa: Tell me more.
Mark: At the time of writing this I was spending a lot of time roaming Graham County and reading numerous books on the history of the area and its people. Two things happened that triggered this story. First, I came across an old graveyard that had the tomb of Little Robe.
Lisa: Who was Little Robe?
Mark: Little Robe was Geronimo's son who died as a child, possibly of disease and possibly murdered as retribution against Geronimo. The truth is quite difficult to find. I found his grave in a remote military graveyard near the foothills of the Chiricuaha Mountains. I was struck by the fact that it was a child's grave and that it was Geronimo's son. On the same trip I coincidentally happened to be reading a book about Prescott Bush, father of President George Bush and grandfather of the second President George Bush.
Lisa: I take it the grave of Little Robe and the story of Prescott Bush crisscrossed somewhere?
Mark: Exactly. Prescott Bush was a member at Yale University of a group known as the Skull and Bones Secret Society. That is factual. There is a rumor that the Skull and Bones Secret Society under the leadership of Prescott Bush dug up the bones of Geronimo in 1918, which had been buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Lisa: What made you put Little Robe and the bones of Geronimo together, into a story?
Mark: I stood at Little Robes grave on a beautiful, sunny day as the desert grass gently swayed and it was like I heard Little Robes voice asking me to tell his story. I'm certain it was my mind wanting something rather than his voice actually being heard.
Lisa: What did you do then?
Mark: I hung around the graveyard for hours. I was thinking and wondering what it was like back in Geronimo, Little Robe and Mangas Coloradas' day. I was thinking about grave desecration of the graves of Native Americans. I had also recently watched a TV show where Native American artifacts were being auctioned off. I figured some of the objects had been dug up illegally as it was not unusual for an Apache to be buried with their most precious belongings. I began to wonder what Skull and Bones was all about, what Mangas Coloradas was thinking during his final moments of life on this earth and a whole lot of other things.
Lisa: There was no shortage of information, was there?
Mark: No, definitely not. Oddly, simultaneously, a crime was being solved near where I live in Minnesota. Just across the Saint Croix River in Hudson, Wisconsin, two murders were committed at a funeral home. It was a local story for a couple of years while they figured out who did it. All the while I had been gathering information on that murder for a story I was going to call Border Town, which was the working title for Native Bones. I co-mingled parts of the funeral home murder with what I found at the graveyard, along with a lot of other things I found in researching both situations. Combining all of that information, I came up with Native Bones.
Lisa: Let's focus on the characters of the story. Zeb went through a lot in Native Justice. How is he faring in the novel?
Mark: Yes, Native Bones is book 5 in the series. In book 4, Native Justice, Zeb has been dramatically traumatized. For those of you who haven't read it yet, I will not go into detail. But, as we begin book 5 Zeb has been broken and is putting himself back together. His team is also figuring out how to deal with him.
Lisa: I notice that Senator Russell is becoming more developed in Native Bones.
Mark: Yes, yes, of course. Senator Russell and Sheriff Zeb Hanks have a long history dating back to Zeb's days as a border patrol agent. They have been using each other and probing into each other's business ever since. In Bones, Senator Russell plants Devon Dawbyns into Zeb's office as a deputy sheriff. It is Senator Russell's intent to push Dawbyns up the ladder of success and make him the first African-American governor of Arizona. He is also messing with Zeb because he knows what happened in Mexico in Native Justice. Finally, he has his eye on Sun Rey, a shady character in Safford.
Lisa: Since you mention that, what about Sun Rey?
Mark: Sun Rey was an interesting character to write. Because Senator Russell, who was the student director of Skull and Bones during his days at Yale, failed in his duties at Skull and Bones, he needed his son, in this case, illegitimate son, to complete the task he failed to finish. Sun Rey has made quite a name for himself as an R-Rated soft core porn distributor, a coffee bistro owner in Safford, owner of the iCandy gentleman's club in Tucson and a Pentecostal preacher. In many ways he is an unscrupulous chip off the old block and in Bones, he claims his name and Senator Russell accepts him. This of course, all plays into the mystery at hand.
Lisa: Whew.
Mark: It's not as complicated as it sounds and it is handed out to the reader one or two pieces at a time.
Lisa: Any thing else you want to say about the book.
Mark: Yes. In Bones we see the musical tastes of Sheriff Zeb Hanks expand. The reader learns about Randall knives and how Dartmouth gives qualified Native Americans a college education at no cost. There is some interesting information regarding Native American spiritual and traditional beliefs. As the series goes on further, I am trying to expand the awareness of the readers about the ways of the "First People." This is the first book where I opened up the reader to deeper insights into the main characters backgrounds.
Lisa: What do you mean by First People.
Mark: I learned from an old medicine man about a traditional belief by some "Indians" that they, the Apache specifically, but the Native Americans generally, were the first created by the Creator. The creator is known as Usen in Apache.
Lisa: How long do you plan on continuing the series, ZEB HANKS: Small Town Sheriff Big Time Trouble.
Mark: I am writing book 10, NATIVE FATE, right now. After that I want to finish a book I have half written and totally outlined. It is called THE GREATEST BASEBALL GAME EVER PLAYED. It takes place in 1939 on top of Mount Rushmore. After that, who knows. If I have another 10 Zeb Hanks books in me, I'll write them. I feel as though I am just truly beginning to know Zeb as the wonderful and flawed human being he is.
Read NATIVE BONES now - on Amazon