Butler, Ala., has found itself as the unlikely setting of a psychological thriller novel after an author from Ireland fell in love with the small town despite never actually having been there.
Welz Bailey, of Coleraine, Northern Ireland, U.K., said she wanted to take a different approach to selecting the setting for her novel “The Pawn,” so rather than choosing a location familiar to her or well-known, she let chance — with a little help from Google Maps — do the work.
“I have always been pulled towards writing a novel within an American state,” said Bailey. “Instead of deciding which state using a logical way, I chose a different route. I opened America on Google maps, closed my eyes and kept zooming in until I thought I would be up close to a location. Opening my eyes, I saw Butler. Not knowing where this was, I zoomed back out to find it sitting in the state of Alabama. Checking the streets, avenues and landscape from above gave me a good feeling that this was the place.”
Bailey said she spent nine months researching the layout and history of Butler, which has around 2,000 residents and is located in the seat of Choctaw County. She quickly realized how ideal the small town, as well as Alabama as a whole, was for her novel’s setting thanks to the diversity of rural and suburban backdrops it offered.
“I fell in love with the combination of small towns, forests and lakes,” said Bailey. “It gave me the best of three different options to base some of the story. I didn’t want it to be all based in a town. I wanted to let the readers feel the different scenes unravelling before their eyes.”
“The Pawn” is Bailey’s first novel and is a psychological thriller that follows FBI Agent Clara Strong as she finds herself at the center of a chilling game of forensic investigations and a race against time to catch a cunning serial killer. While some of the scenes are set in fictional places created by Bailey, others take place on actual streets and buildings in Butler, including the historic Choctaw County Courthouse.
Once “The Pawn” was released, Bailey shared her process of choosing Butler at random as her book’s setting on a Facebook group for fans of thriller novels and was surprised at how much support she received from Alabamians and the Butler community as the post became more and more popular.
“I thought, who would want to know about a Northern Ireland author writing about a town,” said Bailey. “How I was wrong. I soon became aware of the strong community spirit of Butler and beyond. You could never Google that! It’s not just the people of Butler but also the majority of people in Alabama.”
When I placed my novel [on the] Facebook page, I was hoping for a few likes, a few shares and to let readers know that there are new authors out there, but to have nearly 100 likes within minutes blew my mind. I actually thought someone had hacked my phone and was scamming me, but then the comments started coming in, and that’s when I knew that the people of Alabama are proud people and cared.”
Bailey said she reached out to the people of Butler and soon became regularly in contact with many, including City Councilman Ron Mason, who had his daughter, Sophie, take photographs of “The Pawn” being held in the different places around the town that had been featured in the novel.
Butler resident Sophia Mason posing with a copy of “The Pawn,” a psychological thriller novel by Irish author Welz Bailey set in the Alabama town. (Photo courtesy of Ron Mason)Ron Mason
“I was excited to learn that the novel was set in our small town,” Mason said. “Although the plot is quite different than the events that usually occur in our Mayberry type town, it is interesting to read the work of fiction and see the references to the places in our town. We look forward to Welz’s visiting our town. I am anxious to see her reaction to the reality of the place she has written about.
While Bailey has been to America twice, she’s never been to Alabama or the South, but the Irish author plans to change that this spring when she travels with her husband to meet Mason and see Butler with her own eyes, rather than through Google Maps, for the first time.
“I’ve always had a love of the South and my husband and I have already booked our dogs into the kennels here so we can take a trip to Butler and Alabama next year in the spring,” said Bailey. “A lot of people from Alabama have already suggested places for us to visit, which I must write down. I definitely want to visit all the areas mentioned in my novel. I think it will be surreal to actually take a step into my book.”