We are delighted to welcome author Karen E. Hall to Omnimystery News today.
Karen has two mysteries published featuring amateur sleuth Hannah Morrison — Unreasonable Risk (May 2011 trade paperback and ebook formats) and Through Dark Spaces (January 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats) — and we recently had the opportunity to spend some time with her talking about the series.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to Hannah Morrison. What is it about her that appeals to you as a writer?
Photo provided courtesy of
Karen E. Hall
Karen E. Hall: Hannah Morrison is a young, fit, attractive environmental engineer. I know, I know: you're asking yourself, "What the heck does 'environmental engineer' mean?" Well, an environmental engineer can do one of basically three things: work for an industrial facility to make sure that her company follows the law (which is what Hannah does); work for the regulatory agencies who police industry to make sure they follow the law (and you'll meet some of these in my books); or work as a consultant, designing systems to minimize pollution or testing effluent from industrial facilities to help them stay within the parameters of the law. It's more complicated than that, but you get the idea. It's all about affecting the environment as little as possible. Hannah is currently unattached, and lives with her black cat Max, though she'd love to meet somebody interesting. Her job, however, always seems to get in the way.
At the beginning of the first book in the series, Unreasonable Risk, Hannah works for a large oil refinery, owned by the fictional North American Oil Company (NAmCo). Although I made Hannah a little too perfect in that first book, she appeals to me because she's a problem-solver. She can connect dots that others barely see, and she's intuitive about people. She's not brave, gets into a lot of messes primarily because of her drive to figure out what's going on, but when things get bad, even though she's frightened she doesn't quit. She's smart.
And she loves cats.
OMN: Into which genre would you place this series?
KEH: I categorize my books as environmental thrillers. They explore the issues that industrial facilities face in trying to minimize their effects on the world around them, and none of it is easy. Let's talk sabotage, first of all. What would happen if somebody wanted to blow up a major oil refinery (Unreasonable Risk)? Nothing good, let me tell you. Or how would you feel if the water you drink and cook with turns out to be poisoned (Through Dark Spaces)?
The advantage in writing about these issues is that pretty much everybody cares about the environment. How can we not? If we pollute the world we live in past its ability to heal itself, we'll be in a world of hurt. Literally. And the opportunities to put my heroine in jeopardy are many — industry is rarely what I'd call "safe."
OMN: How did you go about researching the plot points of these stories?
KEH: I didn't have to do a lot of research for Unreasonable Risk, because I was working in an oil refinery when I wrote it, doing the same job Hannah does. It's a fascinating world, and I hope my portrayal gives readers a look behind those gates where they make a gazillion products from crude oil. But don't worry: you won't be overwhelmed with scientific detail. It's mostly a story about staving off disaster.
I wrote Through Dark Spaces about underground mining because of an experience I had in 1980 — I know, a long time ago. My husband was employed by the Homestake Mining Company, at the time the largest gold mine in the western hemisphere, and I had the opportunity to go underground to tour the mine. It was the most interesting and the most terrifying thing I've ever done. We dropped into the earth in a small cage, seemingly falling like a stone down a well, for nearly a mile. And got on a train there and traveled more miles underground. We climbed up into a "stope," which is a chamber that's being actively mined, and our tour guide asked us to turn off our headlamps. Until you've done that, you have no idea what real darkness is. (I think I actually whimpered.) But because of that tour, I had to write about hard rock mining.
The book I'm working on now, which is still untitled (though I'd welcome any suggestions), is about the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the new technology that allows extraction of oil and gas that used to be unreachable. This book also includes a secondary plot about sex trafficking, which is a tremendous issue in boom towns like Williston, North Dakota, where this book is set. I've done a lot of research on line and in interviews to get at the issues with fracking, but the sex trafficking part is much tougher. When I found out that you could, at one time, order a woman or a little girl from a Williston-based website, I was horrified. But since the people who deal in human flesh operate in the shadows, the research is difficult. I've traveled to Williston to see how things happen there, and it's both crazy and scary.
I'm hoping this book, assuming I can find a decent title, will be available later this year.
OMN: Suppose Hannah were to interview you. What would she ask you?
KEH: She would undoubtedly ask, "Why write about industry? Why make me work in places most people have never heard of?"
And I'd answer, "Because these industries — oil refining, hard rock mining, oil and gas extraction — are the industries on which our economy was built. They're important, and not many people know much about them.
"I don't know about you," I'd continue, "but when I read thrillers, I read for a whopping good page turner, a heroine trying to save the world, but I love it when I learn a little something as well. So I write books I'd like to read."
"Well," she'd say, "I hope someday you'll put me in a place where I can actually wear a dress."
I'd snicker. "Not likely, Ms. Engineer."
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a thriller writer and thus I am also …".
KEH: An adrenaline junkie. No apologies. If you're a thriller reader, you are too.
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Karen E. Hall, an environmental engineer and writer, earned a B.A. in English Literature at the University of Minnesota and went back to school years later for degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering. She spent many years working in Minnesota's oil industry as an environmental engineer. She left to start her own environmental consulting business — and to devote more time to writing. Karen is also chair of the Pennington County Planning Commission where she works on issues of water protection. She and her husband Jeff Nelsen live outside Rapid City, in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at KarenEHall.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook.
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Unreasonable Risk by Karen E. Hall
A Hannah Morrison Mystery
Publisher: Karen E. Hall
Hannah Morrison's place of business might as well be a bomb. Nearly everything inside the refinery's fence is either flammable or explosive — and somebody is trying to blow it up. Hannah's friend and mentor has already died, and though she knows it was sabotage, she can't prove it. With the help of photojournalist Noel Keller, Hannah uncovers suspect after suspect as the stakes mount for the oil refinery, its neighborhood and the entire city. Determined to avenge her friend's death, Hannah works to identify the saboteur before he makes the critical choice:
Who will be the next to die?
— Unreasonable Risk by Karen E. Hall. Click here to take a Look Inside the book.
