Dig This!
“In a book, you can include so much history and texture that you can’t always capture in a film,” says Andrew Davis. (Image courtesy of Andrew Davis) In Disturbing the Bones (Melville House, 2024), Andrew Davis, ’68 MEDIA, and Jeff Biggers weave a geopolitical conspiracy thriller that’s set almost entirely within the state of Illinois—filled with war games; class and racial divides; and a legion of other weighty themes. It doesn’t sound like light reading: But once you start it, you’ll stay up turning the pages all night long.
The book centers on an archaeological dig. Why did you choose to write about that? My mentor at the U. of I., John Weir, later went to work for the State of Illinois on the Koster dig [a prehistoric archaeological site in Greene County, Ill.]. They found 25 layers going back 9,000 years; it’s one of the most important finds in North American history. I thought, “That would be an interesting setting for a story.” And I thought the metaphor would be, “What are we going to be remembered for?” Ever since the Cold War, I think it’s going to be arms control, and our missile silos and underground bunkers.
Chicago and Cairo are the geographical and cultural bookends of Illinois. Why did you set it there? I became aware of Cairo’s political and racial divides back in the ’60s, when I was involved with the civil rights movement. And when I decided to write this story, I had an idea for how to tie it together, through the disappearance of an African American woman—a Chicago Defender reporter investigating civil rights issues in Cairo.
What challenges did you experience as a storyteller, working in a different medium? Challenges? It was fun! And easy: There was nobody from the studio telling me what to do!
