In the American West of the 1800’s – in the heart of America’s untamed new frontier – lurks an evil force, the Faceless, awaiting its return to power.
Only two men, warriors from two different cultures, can stand together to defeat the evil.
After saving the town of Stonetree from abduction by the sinister rail baron Robur Drache, servant of the Faceless, gunslinger Tyler and Indian shaman Fivehawk have tracked the villain to the Burnt Hills mine.
Both are searching for family members kidnapped by Drache’s minions, and Tyler knows that his paternal Uncle Bill is being held in the prison camp set up around the mine.
Fivehawk searches for allies in a legendary tribe of Indian warriors and Tyler bluffs his way into the heart of the enemy camp.
But the chief of the tribe refuses to help Fivehawk and Tyler, so Tyler sets out alone to rescue his uncle…
BOOK TWO IN THE SUNDOWNERS SERIES.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
Underworld is the second of the Sundowners series, marking a change of pace as Tyler and Fivehawk head out into the desert to confront the plans of the villain Robur Drache.
As with all the books, I took locations and props that are familiar from stories of the Wild West – in this case, an abandoned mine – and added a dose of the extraordinary to give it a different spin. In many ways, Underworld is Tyler’s story more than Fivehawk’s, as it gives the young cowboy a few tough choices to make about his future and their friendship.
Spoiler Warning! The notes and annotations below give away key story points from Underworld.
* The character of Tulsa, aka Muriel, is actually based on a real woman, Muriel ‘Mogs’ Moore. Muriel won the chance to be written into Underworld as a walk-on role by placing the highest bid at a charity auction; her kind donation helped the Neutral Zone convention raise a huge sum of money for the good folks at Hearing Dogs for the Deaf.
* My editor asked if Trebuchet should have said “Open sesame!” in French when opening the hidden chamber in the mine; but I wondered how many readers would have actually understood “Sesame ouvre-toi!”…
* The opening scene of the mine in chapter one was inspired by the Tanis dig sequences in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
* Flying Saucer officionadoes can ponder on the similarity between some of the elements of the underground chamber and objects allegedly recovered from the 1947 UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico…
