When most readers and writers think of a crime fiction series, they envision following a single protagonist and his or her sidekicks through several stories. Consider, for example, Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op, Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, and any of hundreds of other amateur and professional sleuths who come immediately to mind.
Not me. I stumbled backward into writing a series in which the setting—a fictional version of West Texas—is the reoccurring element that ties the stories together. This began with “Quarryville, Texas,” a story I wrote for The Private Eye Writers of America Presents: Fifty Shades of Grey Fedora (Riverdale Avenue Books, 2015). In the story, a private eye from Waco travels to Quarryville to solve a decades-old crime.
The quarry at the heart of Quarryville’s economic existence had closed in the early 1950s, leading to the town’s “long, slow slide into oblivion,” and the “dried-out scab of a town” is barely clinging to life at the beginning of that story. I returned to Quarryville for “Smoked,” written for Noir at the Salad Bar (Level Best Books, 2017), a story later included in The Best American Mystery Stories (2018). In “Smoked,” a former biker in the Witness Protection Program opens Quarryville Smokehouse, a barbecue joint that is soon named one of the state’s best. This unexpected publicity leads to all kinds of trouble.
The notoriety of the Quarryville Smokehouse brings visitors to Quarryville, and that sparks a “rebirth on Main Street” in “Mr. Sugarman Visits the Bookmobile,” written for Shhhh…Murder! (Darkhouse Books, 2018). As the story begins, an antiques shop and an art gallery are scheduled to open within the month.
In “Sonny’s Encore” (Black Cat Mystery Magazine #9, 2021), we visit Quarryville’s past when we experience the 1935 robbery of the quarry’s payroll office.
In subsequent stories, the town plays a minor role. Instead of featuring Quarryville, I developed the region, adding towns such as Chicken Junction and Mertz. Even so, characters visit Quarryville, spend the night in the six-room motel, dine at the Quarryville Smokehouse, or travel through on the way to somewhere else. I even set stories outside of West Texas in which characters from Quarryville play prominent or minor roles.
But I didn’t return to modern-day Quarryville as the central setting until “Barbed Wire Bison” (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2024). The smokehouse is still popular, the antiques shop and the art gallery are now open, and the town is no longer a dried-out scab.
In “Barbed Wire Bison,” a woman moving to Quarryville hires two retired barflies to help her unload her rented moving van. There aren’t many secrets in a small town, and before long they wonder what she’s hiding or who she’s hiding from. When violence comes to town, they learn the reason behind her relocation.
This is far from my last West Texas story. There’s one coming up in a future issue of AHMM about a young woman from Quarryville who travels to Hollywood to seek her fame and fortune, and there are others in the pipeline.
While every West Texas story can be read and enjoyed without reading any of the others, seeing how they all tie together provides readers with a richer experience.
And, as I discovered by accident, a series doesn’t need to feature a reoccurring protagonist. Sometimes the right location can tie everything together.
Trace Evidence 