The Church Hill Train Disaster and VIRGINIA IS FOR MYSTERIES 3

My story, “Derailed,” appears in the third edition of Virginia is for Mysteries. In it, sassy, private investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald, gets more than she bargains for when sleezy strip club owner and her best, cash-paying client, Chaz Smith, hires her to find out who’s blackmailing him and his buddies. She and her partner, Duncan Reynolds, have to find out what happened one summer evening twenty years ago and what it has to do with the Church Hill Tunnel cave-in. While trying to figure out the connection to the spooky, abandoned site where the train and several victims lie buried beneath a busy Richmond neighborhood, Delanie discovers the origin of Chaz’s mysterious teardrop face tattoo.

I have been fascinated with the Church Hill Disaster for years. The train and several of the crew were walled inside the tunnel when it became too dangerous to continue recovery efforts. It lies beneath the Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond. Both ends of the tunnel have been sealed, and you could drive by them and not ever realize what lies within. Today, one end is in the courtyard of an upscale condominium community, and the other, several miles away, is in an overgrown, forgotten area covered in weeds, debris, and standing water.

The events of 1925 have spawned all kinds of ghost stories, legends, and theories. People who live atop the hill talk about the characteristic “Church Hill Lean” that some of the structures have because of shifts in the tunnel below, and there have been cases of building collapses through the years.

In my story, I added another body to the tragic memorial. In my fictious account, readers learn how sleezy strip club owner, Chaz Wellington Smith, III acquired his infamous, teardrop tattoo.

Virginia is for Mysteries III launches February 16, 2022. It is available for preorder in paperback, hardback, or ebook.