Tom Wangler is the Bend-based author of the 2019 novel “Nigeria: An Ancient Secret Becomes the Adventure of a Lifetime,” a novel inspired by his time in the Peace Corps. Now, Wangler is back with his second thriller, “Backskatter,” set in Central Oregon in 1999, and inspired by a former military installation here. Oregon-based Dancing Moon Press will publish the book in early June.

GO!: What’s “Backskatter” about?

TW: “Backskatter” is basically an action/mystery/historical novel with a technical twist. It revolves around the classified military installations we had in Central Oregon back in the ‘90s, and how two of them were “re-commissioned” to develop a secret weapon. When the experimentation goes sideways, all kinds of bad things happen — spurring the involvement of a group of doctors, a game warden and two helicopter pilots. As the mystery unfolds, the Air Force sends in two investigators to determine what went wrong and soon find themselves in the middle of a grand conspiracy — as well as an attempt on their lives.

GO!: What inspired the story?

TW: “Backskatter” was actually inspired by a series of personal experiences: the work I did for Pacific Power back in the early ‘90s (which included a highly restricted visit to the Redmond COUEF facility), my time with the Civil Air Patrol as a search and rescue pilot, owning and operating a small helicopter business at the Bend Airport, and my teaching experience at the Oregon Youth Challenge Program (which was the original COTEF site and one of the main locations for the story). I’d often fantasized about getting a contract to shuttle people back and forth from Bend to the Backscatter site when we had our helicopter business, and started building on that notion for a story when I went to work for OYCP. Then I read a story about an experimental laser capable of shooting down bombers and missiles at extreme distances. The military was trying to find a way to identify, track and make the shots count from several hundred miles out. Then I thought of the over-the-horizon radar system at Christmas Valley and my imagination started to run wild. After 18 months of writing a story that basically wrote itself, “Backskatter” became a reality.

GO!: Why do you think people were in such a tizzy around Y2K? What lessons should we have learned from it?

TW: I’m not sure why there was so much ado about Y2K. There sure were a ton of claims that the world would stop working, and we’d all have to go into a self-preservation, survival mode. The so-called “Y2K doomsday scenario” never panned out, and a great number of people were left with an awful lot of egg on their faces as a result. Were there lessons to be learned from this experience? I believe there were. I would like to think that all of mankind learned to be a little more skeptical of what the so-called “experts” have to say and do more fact-checking for ourselves before being consumed by a tidewater of events. We now know that everything that had a microchip did not stop working at midnight on 12/31/1999. It was only a theory — and one that made a ton of money for people selling portable generators.

GO!: What kind of reader would like this book?

TW: I would hope all kinds of readers — anyone who loves a good action/mystery story where truth, honesty and ethics will win the day.

GO! What books are on your reading list for the summer?

TW: I’m still looking for a story that will totally engage me the way Michael Crichton (“Jurassic Park”), Frederick Forsyth (“The Kill List”), and Dan Brown (“The DaVinci Code”) did. I am also looking for another Mary Roach (“Spook,” “Stiff,” “Bonk”) book to read. Her books are not only entertaining, but highly informative as well. People have told me they see elements from all four of these authors in my work. I consider that to be very complimentary.