Carol Thayne is a popular LDS suspense author with two published novels. She has agreed to grant us an exclusive interview today.
Carole, can you tell us the names of your books and what they are about?
My novels are “A Question of Trust” and “False Pretenses.” “A Question of Trust” is about twenty-five year old Stacey Willis from Salt Lake City. She works for a local magazine as a photo-journalist and heads out to the remote town of Grouse Creek to do a story of the vanishing Wild West, and also to get away from her boyfriend Dave so she could clear her head. On her way there, she gets two flat tires and has to wait for help. An old rancher by the name of Herman is the first on the scene. He is partially blind and deaf, but willing to help. Stacey climbs into the vehicle with him, only to find out later that he was charged and acquitted of a murder that happened fifty years earlier, but the rumors still persist.
Stacey moves into a small cabin behind Herman’s. There she becomes intertwined in the lives of the small town of less than one hundred people. She meets Sam at the closest real town in Burley, Idaho. Sam confuses her feelings about Dave. Then a scary event happens to Stacey which shakes her faith, and her dreams.
If I tell anymore of the story it will give too much away. It’s fast-paced, but full of small town flavor.
My book “False Pretenses” is somewhat of a sequel, but more of a spin-off of the first book, although “A Question of Trust” is not required reading for the second. I took a very minor character from AQOT, Kelli, Sam’s little sister, and created a story for her. Kelli is racked with guilt because she believes she is directly responsible for the death of parents in a car accident. Not able to cope, she joins a fanatical religious cult that believes in polygamy.
Sam finds out his sister left her job suddenly and can’t find her. He and Stacey join forces to search. Meanwhile, Kelli quickly discovers her mistake and sets out to escape. In Montana, a wonderful character, Sunny Day, takes the frightened young woman in.
The story covers a lot of ground and a lot of characters and lives are often at stake. Sam is a loving devoted big brother would do anything to help his sister.
Is Grouse Creek a real place?
Grouse Creek is a real place in the North west corner of Utah. It’s about thirty miles from Idaho and thirty from Nevada. There are less than one hundred people living there and most are ranchers. The closest real grocery store is sixty-five miles away in Burley, Idaho. Forty-five of those miles are gravel, windy, roads. Getting one flat tire is very common for a trip into “town,” and getting two flat tires is not far-fetched at all.
The school where both my husband and I taught together in Grouse Creek is a K-10th grade school. During the six years we lived there we taught an average of 24 students. It’s a true two-room schoolhouse. When students reach tenth grade they have to move to a larger town to complete their education. Students often choose where to go based on where they have
relatives to live with. Some move into Idaho and others to Tremonton, or Brigham City, Utah.
My husband and I lived right behind the school in a stone house built in the early 1900’s. His family lived in the home when he was a little boy. It was his dream to return to live in Grouse Creek. We enjoyed our years there a lot, but when it came time for our son to enter middle school we moved together as a family into Cache Valley.
We’ll continue our conversation with Carole Thayne tomorrow. In the meantime, be sure to check out her site.
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