From Montag Press, The Big Cinch, is a supernatural noir adventure by Kathy L. Brown. Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions. . . 

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The Big Cinch embeds readers in a magic-laced St. Louis, also known as Mound City. Once the home of the indigenous peoples’ Mississippian ancestors, little evidence of their civilization survives in 1924. Just the popular Piasa monster image remains, invoked to sell everything from plows to the civic elite’s pageantry. 

Sean Joye, a recent Irish immigrant, tried to avoid fae attention and ignore his magical abilities since childhood. A young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, he aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean life in St. Louis.  Sean helps a powerful magic-dabbling family—founders of the most exclusive club in town, the Piasa Lodge—with a discreet inquiry or two. Sexually involved with a secretive, high-society flapper, he falls hard for her fiancé, a Great War flying ace with a few secrets of his own. 

But Sean asks the wrong questions about a kidnapped toddler and missing Native American artifacts and becomes a suspect in his lover’s bludgeoning and a tycoon’s murder. Can he master the paranormal abilities he’s rejected for so long in time to protect the innocent and save his own skin?

Welcome to St. Louis sign bridge. Home of The Big Cinch. Sean Joye Investigations.
Welcome to The Big Cinch.

The Big Cinch makes up stuff about lots of real places and events. If you’d like to learn more about what went into this story, the following are a few of the many references I used to create this fantasy world.

The “Piasa”

The 1920s St. Louisans refer to a legendary entity called the Piasa (sometimes, Pisa Bird). White explorers and colonists got this imagery wrong, pretty much from the beginning. 

Many Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley region indigenous tribes reference a powerful spiritual being called, variously, Utenka, Underwater Panther, Underwater Spirit, Beneath World Spirit, or Mishebeshu. In addition, prehistoric cultures’ archeological evidence documents reverence of a similar entity. Underwater Panther or Puma in the Water are the current preferred terms.[1]

  • The Puzzling Genesis of the Piasa Bird by Tristan Zimmerman. https://www.moltensulfur.com/post/the-puzzling-genesis-of-the-piasa-bird. This blog post is a concise summary of the confusing evolution of the Piasa myth (which is distinctly different than the cosmology of Underwater Panther).
  • Picture Cave: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Mississippian Cosmos, edited by Carol Diaz-Grandados, James R. Duncan, and F. Kent Reilly III. Picture Cave documents Mississippi-Valley prehistoric cave art as well as shares the story of the cosmos held sacred by the indigenous peoples of North America. 
  • Transforming the Landscape: Rock Art and the Mississippian Cosmos, edited by Carol Diaz-Grandados, Jan Simek, George Sabo III, and Mark Wagner. Provides further information on the Mississippian cosmos.
  • “Water, Serpents, and the Underworld” by T. Emerson; “Some Speculation on Mississippian Monsters” by V. Knight; “The Cultural Background of Mississippian Symbolism” by R. Hall in The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex: Artifacts and Analysis. The Cottonlandia Conference, 1989. Edited by P. Galloway. Academic articles link symbolism with sociology.

Irish War for Independence and Irish Civil War

  • The Irish Civil War by T. P. Coogan and G. Morrison (Robert Rinehart Publishers). Tells history through hundreds of photos. Oversized book for detail.
  • Michael Collins by T.P. Coogan (Hutchinson). Biography of iconic figure in Irish history.
  • The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition, 1920-1922 by R. Lynch (Irish Academic Press). A look at some little-known events in Irish history.
  • Revolutionary Ireland: 1912-1925 by R. Lynch (Bloomsbury Academic). An academic history of an eventful period. 
  • Northern Divisions: The Old IRA and the Belfast Pogroms, 1920-1922 by J. McDermott (Beyond the Pale Press) Detailed history of explosive period in this amateur historian’s hometown and his grandparent’s role in the Irish War for Independence and the Irish Civil War. 
  • The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins by T.R. Dwyer (Mercier Press). An account of Michael Collins’ private covert ops team.

Magic

  • Cunning Folk: Popular Magic in English History by O. Davies (Hambledon and London). History of folk magical beliefs and practices in Great Britain.
  • Old Style Conjure by S. Casas (Weiser Books). Appalachian magical practices.
  • Cunning folks and Familiar Spirits by E. Wilby (Sussex Academic Press). Folk magic focused on the belief in fae spirits to assist the practitioner. 

Osage History and Culture

  • The Osage and the Invisible World by F. La Flesche in Bailey, editor (U of Oklahoma Press). Francis La Flesche, of the Omaha tribe, was the first professional Native American ethnologist and specialized in research on the Omaha and Osage tribes. He was active in the early 20th century.
  • Osage Indian Customs and Myths by L. Burns (University of Alabama Press). Louis Burns, of the Osage Mottled Eagle clan, was a leading expert on the history, mythology, and culture of the Osage Nation.
  • Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by D. Grann (Doubleday). While several previous books described the series of murders that beset the Osage tribe in Oklahoma in the 1920s, this version became a bestseller. 

St. Louis Area and its Landmarks 

  • Egan’s Rats: The Untold Story of the Prohibition Era Gang that Ruled St. Louis by D. Waugh (Cumberland House).
  • East St. Louis Riots of 1917. Historical document reprint, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 2017.
  • The Mourning Sexton by M. A. Kahn, writing as M. Baron (Doubleday).
  • St. Louis Bridges, Highways, and Roads by J. Sonderman (Arcadia Press). Full of photos of early transportation methods and means.
  • Alton Remembered by C. Stetson, D. Huber, and R. St. Peters (G. Bradley Publishing). 

“We respectfully acknowledge that we are on the traditional, ancestral lands of the Osage Nation. The process of knowing and acknowledging the land we stand on is a way of honoring and expressing gratitude for the ancestral Osage people who were on this land before us.” (Osage Lands Acknowledgement, The Osage Nation website, osageculture.com)

[1] Dr. Andrea Hunter, Director/THPO, Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office. Personal Communication, 9/24/2018.  

This page last updated on January 3, 2022.