Mystery International

Having successfully written four mysteries, Christine Andreae has been a finalist and nominee for several literary awards; such as the Edgar and the Willa Award. In-fact, the release of Smoke Eaters would earn Andreae acclaim with the Washington Post; the newspaper declared her book a Thriller of the Year. Now Andreae is a botanical artist and is achieving great success in her new pursuit. In honor of her literary genius, we’ve pulled an interview with her from our archives.Interviewer: Anna Ashwood Collins7-24-2000Ever wonder what’s really going on at those chaotic wildfires you see on television? Pick up a copy of SMOKE EATERS by Virginia mystery writer, Christine Andreae who portrays the reality and the drama of fighting forest fires combined with a gut-wrenching murder mystery.In a recent conversation I asked Christine if her character of Mattie McCulloch, Incident Commandeer, was based on a real person.Christine said, “Candace Gregory, Unit Chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit, Sierra South Region, Mariposa, California, was an inspiration and served as a muse for Mattie.”Commenting that the book had originally been another Lee Squires mystery, Christine said after voluminous taped interviews with cooks, firefighters, smoke jumpers, forensic people and others involved in firefighting she decided she needed to go to a real fire.“The Command Center in Boise, Idaho, hooked me up with a big wildfire in the San Bernardino Mountains and as the fire was winding down, Candace talked to me and showed me around, I became intrigued about how she rose to such a high position in firefighting. We became friends and she was always available at the end of the phone to answer any and all my questions.”Christine laughs in reflection at her first big fire experience. “Upon learning the fire was in the mountains and it was August, I thought it could be pretty cold so I packed all my woolies and hauled this big backpack through airports. When I stepped out of the Palm Springs Airport, I realized it was over a hundred degrees!“One of the activities I had arranged was to work in the kitchen since Lee was a cook. Big mistake! There I am standing in line with convicts dishing out green chili to the firefighters when the heat, steam and fatigue combine to make me woozy and I had to leave the line. I realized that if Lee was in this kind of kitchen she wouldn’t have any time to do any sleuthing; she’d be too busy cooking and dishing out food.”After deciding the world of fire was interesting and complex Christine decided she needed a character who was at or near the top of the firefighting hierarchy.Christine said, “At first I had a technical problem with the creation of Mattie. I wanted her to be someone who had very little affect from the outside. Women who are in a male macho world such as firefighting develop this ability to be expressionless. Women working in the male world develop facades for self-protection. I wanted to show reserve and coolness, but if she’s too cold , nobody can identify with her. I solved it in the end, but it was a struggle to get there. Candace is a very reserved person but she answered all my questions.”Asked if Mattie would return in another book, Christine said, “No., It was very draining to do this book. However have had nice compliments from readers who say they now understand what the firefighters on the nightly news are talking about. The world of fire is a fascinating microcosm, a closed society like the military and outsiders don’t really understand and appreciate.”Christine is very proud of her psychotic killer. She said, “Some people said he was off-putting, said they had read the first chapter and weren’t sure they wanted to read any further.”Explaining that she read lots of FBI profiles of firesetters and serial killers, Christine said, “That stuff turned my stomach and I started writing in first person as the killer and the first chapter came out pretty much as is and I was kind of disconcerted.”Anyone who knows Christine, knows she is kind and humane so how did she inhabit the mind of this animal? “I think I was able to get inside his mind because he’s a case of arrested development in that he had no empathy anyone outside himself and that’s an infantile state. That’s where we all come from but most of us become civilized as we mature. I tried to make myself the center of the universe as I envisioned him. Scary to have someone so totally self-centered.”Will Lee Squires return? “Only if my publisher is interested. Right now I’m finishing up a non-fiction account of a hospice volunteer called WHEN EVENING COMES which will be published by St. Martin’s in October.”