History has always appealed to Tucson resident Vali Benson.

So, writing a historical novel came naturally to her.

When her children were young, she took them to Tombstone — because, she said, what little boys don’t like gunfights and horses? But she learned the stories were deeper than that.

At the center of her novel, “Blood and Silver,” is a 12-year-old girl, Clarissa Beaumont, who lives in a brothel and is trying to save her drug-addicted mother. She wins an ally in China Mary, the actual woman who ran Tombstone with an iron fist.

China Mary helps her get a job at a hotel where she meets and befriends China Mary’s 12-year-old niece.

Benson described Clarissa as a spunky young woman who perseveres despite challenges.

“She’s had a rough life since her dad died and her brother died,” Benson said. “Then she and her mom had to head to Tombstone alone and then her mom got hooked on drugs. She knew something was wrong. She just thought her mom was sick until she got to Tombstone and had a doctor tell her what it was, but she didn’t give up.”

As a reader who loves history, Benson did plenty of research to make sure her novel was accurate.

The book was published at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which immediately ended all publicity. However, it enjoyed critical success, winning many awards including:

  • Winner, History and Winner, Young Adult, 2021 San Francisco Book Festival
  • Winner, Young Adult, 2021 New York Book Festival
  • Finalist, Historical Fiction and Winner, Novella, 2021 American Fiction Awards
  • Winner, Novella, 2022 International Book Awards
  • First Book — Arizona, New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
  • First Place, Fiction, Arizona Authors Association Literary Contest Winners, 2021
  • Winner, 2021 Top Shelf Fiction Awards
  • Best First Book, Chapter Book, 2021 Moonbeam Awards
  • First Place, Westerns; Honorable Mention, Historical Fiction; Honorable Mention, New Author: Fiction; Royal Dragonfly Book Awards
  • Winner, Young Adult Fiction, 2021 Paris Book Festival

Tombstone wasn’t an obvious first choice for a location. The more she learned about it, the more interested she became.

“The town is such a dinky little place and had nothing to offer but some guys dressed up in cowboy suits,” Benson said. “The more I read about it, I find out it was home to over 15,000 people in 1880. I just thought, ‘What would that have been like to be a teenager growing up here?’ It was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco at the time. The more I learned, the more intrigued I was.”

It was a city that had its own red-light districts and a lot of brothels. Children, she said, had to live in the brothels because of the lack of options for women. Their major roles were wives, mothers, teachers or prostitutes.

Tombstone also maintained a lot of the original buildings, including one that figures prominently in “Blood and Silver,” a little room under the stairs where a man lived who was stealing silver from the mines. Benson looked into this room, and it sparked her imagination of what it might have been like if two young girls were to discover this.

While the book focuses on two 12-year-old girls, the novel was written for slightly older teenagers, in part, because of the frank discussion of drug addiction and brothels. Benson even ran into one reviewer who refused to read her book, writing her back and telling her that he doesn’t review filth.

“He was serious,” Benson said. “He thought it was filthy because it mentioned the word brothel. It was a huge part of life in Tombstone. There were saloons and brothels and then there were stores. Every day a new brothel opened because some new lady came to town.”

While researching the novel, Benson quickly learned of the Chinese population in Tombstone. In 1879, there were only 11 Chinese there. Within 18 months, there were 250.

“They really were a big part of Tombstone’s society and their history,” Benson said. “China Mary was a real person, and she was really revered. When I go down there, they still talk about her. One guy at the Birdcage told me that her descendants came in one day.”

China Mary was a force in town, but it was hard to find information about her. In her next book, she will include a section about how China Mary ended up in the United States via San Francisco and then Tombstone.

“They sent her here with a couple of settlers to build a town and they staked out an acre on the far end of town,” Benson said. “They started building buildings there and pretty soon it was known as Hop Town because they thought it seemed like the Chinese hopped in and out.”

China Mary owned a general store with a gambling hall in back. She controlled the Chinese labor, guaranteeing their quality and honesty and collecting their pay. She had a money-lending business, police force and the town’s laundry services. She also dealt in vice. She sold opium and laudanum and provided Chinese prostitutes.

Drugs were also important to the story because Benson knows many young adults today have parents who are addicted to drugs and deal with the fall-out from that. Clarissa attempts to save her mother from the brothel’s madam, who is drugging her. Benson said today’s kids can relate to it.

While Benson didn’t plan to write a sequel, she’s had many people asking for one, people who want to know what happened to Clarissa and China Mary. She said she was surprised that so many adults liked the novel — it wasn’t something that just her original target audience was reading.

She was also surprised at how many awards her book won.

“I was just dumbfounded,” Benson said. “I couldn’t believe it. People really liked this itty-bitty book. I mean, San Francisco, New York and Paris? Like, what the heck?”

While she has some books available in stores in Tombstone and elsewhere around the state, “Blood and Silver” can be purchased online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. More information about the author and future announcements about her book can be found at her website, valibenson.com."