Authors will often go to great lengths to ensure authenticity in their work, but few can claim the dedication of lesbian mystery writer Rose Beecham, who risked her life to infiltrate the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints for her novel Grave Silence.

The FLDS is the largest and most notorious of the Mormon polygamist cults. Although polygamy was banned from mainstream Mormon religion in 1890, cults such as the FLDS continue to thrive on American soil. Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS, was a fugitive wanted by the FBI, and was taken into custody on August 28, 2006.

In Grave Silence, which won a 2006 Golden Crown Literary Society award, Beecham introduces us to Montezuma County Sheriff's detective Jude Devine, a former FBI agent who is investigating the grisly murder of a local teenage girl. The case takes her deep into the secretive world of a polygamist cult. Complicating matters is her burgeoning attraction to the local forensic pathologist, Dr. Mercy Westmoreland.

For the first time in print, Rose Beecham spoke with AfterEllen.com about her experience infiltrating the FLDS and how it influenced the writing of Grave Silence.

AfterEllen.com: What made you originally interested in the subject of Mormon fundamentalism?
Rose Beecham: I blame it on the Fates. In 1999, I was on a road and hiking trip in Utah with a friend. We had taken a couple of wrong turns and were hopelessly lost and we casually said to each other, “Oh well. Let's just go where this road takes us and find a place to stay.”

We ended up in [the] Hilldale-Colorado City [area], and it was like we'd beamed onto the set of Shy People meets The Stepford Wives. The women were all in pioneer clothes and had the same really strange hairdo, and the men obviously wanted to blow our heads off. The moment we hit town we were followed everywhere, and after about 10 minutes our car was stopped and we were politely told to leave.

The description I give in Grave Silence of Jude Devine and Tulley arriving in town was based on the journal notes I wrote of this experience.

AE: Which came first, the idea for Grave Silence or your decision to go undercover?
RB: The idea for Grave Silence came the day I first saw the twin towns of Hilldale [and] Colorado City. I knew I had the makings of a book. It became obvious very early on in my research that I would need to find a way to get inside that community if I wanted to make my novel authentic.

Page 1 / 2 / 3 - Next