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Thrilling and Unpredictable
Native Arcana follows a Cherokee marshal who has survived multiple traumas throughout her life as she plunges headfirst into the mystery behind a series of occult murders. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Anyone familiar with Eastern Oklahoma knows it has a deep undercurrent of mystery and strange folklore, which made it the perfect backdrop for Native Arcana. The initial idea came to me back in college while brainstorming with a writing partner, but it ended up sitting on the shelf for years. It wasn’t until I met my wife that the story truly came to life. She’s a proud Cherokee woman who grew up in and around Tahlequah, and when I shared the concept with her, she immediately connected with it. She began contributing her own insights, cultural knowledge, and ideas, which really shaped the story’s themes. Many of Nita’s mannerisms and experiences are drawn directly from her life.
As for the occult elements—Oklahoma has a strange history that includes everything from the OKC bombing to isolated incidents of cult-like behavior. With enough research, you start to notice peculiar threads connecting some of these events, often rooted in fear, hate, or darkness. I felt like the only kind of character who could face down that kind of evil was someone like Nita: someone who has endured trauma without losing herself to it, someone who turns pain into purpose and strength. She’s the kind of person who helps others not despite her suffering, but because of it.
What do you find is the most difficult thing about writing a thriller?
For me, the biggest challenge was keeping the story grounded in reality while also exploring some of the mystical elements that naturally arise in a story like Native Arcana. Balancing believable law enforcement procedures with moments of the supernatural was tricky. I wanted the narrative to remain thrilling and unpredictable without veering too far from authenticity. Hopefully, I found that balance—but ultimately, that’s for the readers to decide.
Which of your characters do you feel you relate to most and why?
All the characters carry pieces of me, especially Nita and Blake. But if I had to choose, Nita feels the most personal. She’s a reflection of the strong women who shaped my life—most importantly my wife, my mother, and my sister, but I’d be remiss not to mention my aunts and cousins as well. I often say I was raised by strong women, and that gave me a deep respect for their resilience, complexity, and quiet strength. Writing Nita was my way of honoring them—of capturing their spirit and putting that strength on the page.
Can fans look forward to a follow-up to Native Arcana? What are you currently working on?
While Native Arcana stands strong as a standalone novel with a complete arc for Nita and the supporting characters, I’m definitely exploring where her journey might lead next. As a Cherokee Marshal, there’s no shortage of strange, dark corners of the world she could uncover. I’m currently developing ideas that would push her into new mysteries and challenges—ones that test her resolve and reveal even more layers of who she is.
In addition to that, I’m working on a couple of other projects, most notably The Drums of Secession, Book II in the Cannon Fire Plot series. It’s the sequel to The Wages of Kin and continues the saga of the Battier family as they fight back against a tyrannical regime in a fantasy world inspired by colonial America. The series explores revolution, loyalty, and identity in a richly imagined world filled with complex characters and high-stakes conflict.
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Before that, Nita was an everyday Cherokee Marshal, working Cherokee Nation and policing its laws. However, a desire to live a stable life was always out of reach. She is a survivor of many traumatic events: The Oklahoma City Bombing, a shootout, and most recently, the death of her husband. In the aftermath of the latter, she struggles to mother her autistic stepson as the violent incidents around her begin to mount.
A series of occult murders involving an Amish girl, a ranch hand to a multi-millionaire, and demonic iconography leads to a task force to hunt down the culprit of these heinous acts – including OSBI and Nita’s old friend and Thorpe Ranch owner, Blake Edwards. But, with her persistence and unique capabilities, Nita soon realizes she may be the only person equipped to uncover this mystery.
Native Arcana
Native Arcana doesn’t ease you in—it grabs you by the collar, throws you into a blast, and dares you to look away.
This book has grit. It’s soaked in real talk, tragedy, folklore, and violence. You feel every punch, every loss, every flicker of memory. Nita Ross, the main character, is not just some badge-toting marshal. She’s layered. Tough as old leather but still bleeding inside. Her pain is palpable, and her strength is relentless.
The book opens on the Oklahoma City bombing and never lets go. It leaves a mark on her and on the readers. Nita is a survivor of this tragic event and has faced a multitude of heartaches throughout her life. Caughman has crafted an incredibly relatable character readers will find themselves clinging to and rooting for throughout her story. It’s part crime thriller, part Native myth, and part emotional gut punch. And it all works.
The dialogue is sharp and natural. Just people talking like people do. There’s no highbrow nonsense. Just raw words and even more raw feelings. The writing hits like a slow-burning bonfire. Warm one minute, raging the next. And just when you settle in—bam—a masked killer with owl eyes shows up.
This story mixes the real and the surreal, crime scenes and shapeshifters, meth and mysticism. And the pacing is wild. One minute you’re watching a kid draw maps, the next you’re in a moonlit brawl in the woods, getting slammed into trees and hunting a monster-man in an owl mask.
And the setting, Eastern Oklahoma, breathes on every page. The dusty roads, the fried food diners, the broken towns, the old men who never left. It feels lived-in. Like the place itself has stories it won’t tell you unless you ask real nice.
But make no mistake, this isn’t a whodunit with clean clues and neat endings. It’s messy. Personal. Deep. It’s about ghosts, literal and not. It’s about culture and loss. It’s about being Cherokee in a world that doesn’t always see you. And it’s about fighting anyway.
I highly recommend C.J. Caughman’s Native Arcana to any reader looking for a thrill ride of a tale. This ain’t your average crime novel. It’s weirder. It’s heavier. It’s better. Read it. But buckle up first.
LITERARY TITAN 