Scott Graham’s work on race support crew revealed murder setting
Scott Graham is the National Outdoor Book Award-winning author of the National Park Mystery Series. Graham is an avid outdoorsman and public lands advocate who lives in southwest Colorado. In addition to his mysteries, he is the author of five nonfiction books. He has worked as a reporter, editor, disk jockey, city councilor, and coal-shoveling fireman on the steam-powered Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Learn more at scottfranklingraham.com.
SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory – what’s it about and what inspired you to write it?
Scott Graham: “Death Valley Duel” features a deadly ultra-trail running race across the Mojave Desert between the top ultra runners in the world, including teenage phenom Carmelita Ortega. Carm is the stepdaughter of archaeologist Chuck Bender, protagonist of my National Park Mystery Series, who is serving on Carm’s support crew for the race with the rest of the Bender-Ortega clan.
Mixed in with the fictional story of the 150-mile ultra race is the true historical tale of the California Water Wars, which led to the death of Owens Lake a century ago and the resultant toxic dust storms that rise off the dry lakebed to this day—a harbinger of what may soon be to come for the disappearing Great Salt Lake and the citizens of Salt Lake City.
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Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author. Explore the SunLit archives at coloradosun.com/sunlit.
SunLit: Place the excerpt you selected in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole and why did you select it?
Graham: In the excerpt, competitors in the Whitney to Death 150 leave the initial aid station of the race and set off across the dry bed of former Owens Lake. The collapse of one of the racers on the lakebed is the second potentially nefarious incident of the competition, pointing toward the likelihood of more villainy to come.
SunLit: What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Graham: When I served on the support crew for my son during the Run Rabbit Run 100-mile ultra trail race in Steamboat Springs, I watched racers stumble into an aid station at three in the morning, having been pummeled by snow, sleet, and hail throughout the night. They were dazed and exhausted—perfect prey, I realized, for a murderer. With that, the idea for “Death Valley Duel” was born.
SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?
Graham: My research for “Death Valley Duel” included climbing Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 feet the highest point in the Lower 48, and hiking across Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, at 282 feet below sea level the lowest point in North America.
“Death Valley Duel”
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My hope is that, in experiencing those highs and lows, I am able to share with readers a true-life feel for the extremes of the Mojave Desert and surrounding mountains, and the brutally harsh conditions that make Death Valley National Park such a great setting for a murder mystery.
SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?
Graham: My National Park Mysteries feature archaeologist Chuck Bender and his family as they encounter murderous intrigue in America’s iconic national parks, illuminating environmental and social justice issues in the parks along the way. Therefore, my particular challenge in “Death Valley Duel” was mixing the deadly fun of an ultra-running race gone murderously wrong with serious discussion—not too much, I promise!—of the political shenanigans surrounding the use and abuse of water in the increasingly arid Intermountain West today.
SunLit: What do you want readers to take from this book?
Graham: First and foremost, in “Death Valley Duel” I want to take readers along on a fun and entertaining trail-running race across the desert—yes, killer rattlesnakes will be involved—giving them an up-close-and-personal look at the booming sport of ultra-trail racing and the crazed runners who pursue it. I also want to give readers a real taste of the harsh beauty that is Death Valley National Park.
SunLit: What’s it feel like to have just had your publisher, Torrey House Press, release a special 10th Anniversary Edition, with an all new foreword by Anne Hillerman, of “Grand Canyon Sacrifice,” the first book in your National Park Mystery Series?
Graham: I’m incredibly proud of the honor Torrey House has paid me in re-releasing “Grand Canyon Sacrifice,” first published in 2014, and the tribute Anne gave me in writing the foreword for the special edition.
I’m grateful to work with the vaunted, nonprofit, environmental and social justice publisher Torrey House Press (torreyhouse.org), and I appreciate being part of the hard-working Torrey House team, which is dedicated to protecting and preserving America’s incomparable public lands, and to giving voice to young Native American authors.
SunLit: Tell us about your next project.
Graham: I’m coming home to Colorado with “Great Sand Dunes Massacre,” the tenth book in my National Park Mystery Series with Torrey House Press, set for release in August 2026.
In it, a macabre murder at the exact moment Chuck makes a baffling discovery in Great Sand Dunes National Park sends him racing to solve the vexing riddle behind the discovery, before his stepdaughter Rosie Ortega—Carmelita’s little sister—and others fall victim to the killer’s vengeful wrath.
A few more quick items
Currently on your nightstand for recreational reading: “Gathering Mist” by Margaret Mizushima. The K-9 wisdom and veterinary knowledge Margaret imparts through relentless sheriff’s deputy Mattie Wray in this and all her Timber Creek, Colorado, K-9 Mysteries is spot on.
“No Lie Lasts Forever” by Mark Stevens. In his just-released thriller, Mark takes readers deep into the disturbed mind of a darkly competitive serial killer prowling the mean streets of Denver. Soon to be a classic.
First book you remember really making an impression on you as a kid: “Brighty of the Grand Canyon,” by Marguerite Henry, instilled in me as a youngster a love for the desert Southwest that endures to this day.
Best writing advice you’ve ever received: “Write, don’t think.” Which is to say: don’t let your brain get in the way of writing that all-important first draft.
Favorite fictional literary character: I love how Anne Hillerman has brought Officer Bernadette Manuelito to the forefront in her ten-books-and-counting continuation of her father Tony’s beloved Navajo mystery series. Anne’s latest, the just-released “Shadow of the Solstice,” is her best yet, in my opinion.
Literary guilty pleasure (title or genre): Thrillers, the more outrageous the better, all the day long.
Digital, print or audio – favorite medium to consume literature: I’m an old-school print reader. But I will say the terrific narrator of the audio versions of my books really brings my mysteries to life.
One book you’ve read multiple times: “The Sheltering Sky,” by Paul Bowles, for its hauntingly spare descriptions of the Sahara Desert, and of love gone bad.
Other than writing utensils, one thing you must have within reach when you write: My tattered copy of Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style,” which includes the best, and shortest, description ever written for the correct usage of lay and lie.
Best antidote for writer’s block: When fear of failure strikes, I remind myself how lucky I am to have the opportunity to write. It’s a gift I simply can’t allow myself to squander by letting doubt gum up the works.
Most valuable beta reader: My wife, Sue, offers vital input on all my first drafts. My books would not be books without her.
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