That's Not My Name

That’s Not My Name takes place primarily in two small Oregon towns: Washington City and Alton. Washington City is where Drew lives, and Alton is the even smaller town a few hours north where Wayne Boone’s cabin is located. These two fictional towns are connected by the Willamette River, a real river that flows for just under two hundred miles through northwest Oregon, between the Cascade Range and the Oregon Coastal Range. A majority of Oregon’s population lives along this river or nearby, in the Willamette Valley. Although the Willamette Valley is home to the large city of Portland, other cities and towns in the area are more sparsely populated. The Willamette Valley is known for its dense forests, rivers, and large tracts of agricultural land. Because of the region’s geography, the small towns that dot the valley and the foothills of the two bordering mountain ranges tend to be quite isolated from one another.

Isolated locations such as these are often used in thrillers to create a tense, foreboding atmosphere: There is a sense that characters are trapped and cut off from outside sources of assistance. In That’s Not My Name, the small towns of Washington City and Alton establish such an