Author Archives: Eleanor Kuhns

About Eleanor Kuhns

Librarian and Writer Published A Simple Murder, May 2012

Bouchercon 2023

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I will not be blogging on Monday, September 4. I’ll be in San Diego, for Bouchercon. Bouchercon is on of my favorite conferences and I try to make as many as I can. I also try to sign up for a panel. I’ve met other authors, some bestsellers, and many mystery readers that way.

This year, Ann Cleeves, one of my favorite authors, is a featured speaker. I can hardly wait.

I’m already planning to attend next year’s conference, in Nashville.

I’ve been to quite a few – all over the country. My first was in Cleveland and one of the events was held in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Very special. One was in New Orleans, not too long after Katrina. People were so grateful we were there. And New Orleans is such a wonderful city. Very exotic. One of the things I’ve learned is that every city has something special to offer.

This year’s conference is in San Diego with probably one of the best zoos, if not the best, in the country. My only fear is that the flooding from Hilary will cause problems!

Currently Reading

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First, a note. I will probably not post on Monday. I will be attending Bouchercon in San Diego. I hope I see some of you there.

The first book I read this week was Exiles by Jane Harper.

Aaron Fulk travels to southern Australia for the christening of an old friend’s baby. One year ago, Kim Gillespie tucked her sleeping baby into the carriage and disappeared. Several people claimed to have seen her walking around the festival grounds or riding the Ferris wheel. But no one has seen her since. No one saw her leaving by the front entrance or the back. The local cop is stumped.

As Aaron finds his way into the tight knit group, he discovers that all of them have secrets. The group is more fractured than it appears from the outside.

And Raco, Fulk’s good friend, is sure something is off about Kim’s disappearance. He keeps looking into it.

But it is Fulk, who comes to it with fresh eyes, who realizes the truth, not only for that case, for another cold case involving a hit and run. These cases also bring about a life changing decision for Aaron Fulk.

Although I found the beginning a little slow moving, by the time I was halfway I couldn’t put this book down. A great read!

The second book I read was Lies: Secrets can kill by Linda Lovely.

When the body of Dirk Black was fished out of the Mississippi River, The corrupt small town sheriff, Chief Dexter vows that Black’s wife Catherine will hang for the murder. She swears she’s innocent, and Dexter’s associate says he’ll help her. But Cat has plenty of secrets of her own, even if she didn’t murder her husband.

Some of the common tropes of detective fiction are present here: the corrupt small town sheriff, the beautiful blonde with secrets and the small Southern town. But the thirties setting and the appealing style shine. Recommended.

Currently Reading

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I finished Fatal Legacy, the new Flavia de Luce, and it was amazing. To recap: she’s hired to prove a so-called freedman is just that, not a slave. The determination of this is tied up with the question of who owns an orchard. No one can find the will from the original purchaser.

Well, the case grows more and more complicated with many characters and several plot threads. The elopement of Costa Sabatina with the young heir of the opposing family, gives Flavia the break in the case she needs to finally understand what happened and what the dispute is truly over.

A long ago murder, adultery, and the original question of who among the cast of characters is free are all parts of this intriguing story. Highly Recommended.

The second book I read is Death of a Fox by Linda Norlander.

This is the fourth in the cabin in the woods mysteries. In this one, Jamie is hired to write the memoirs of an elderly woman living alone in the ruins of an old TB hospital. Jamie quickly realizes that the job is bigger than she thought because of the number of secrets Nella is hiding. As Jamie reads through them, though, many of the secrets are revealed. This is a really interesting part of the book.

Two of Nella’s cousins have arrived, supposedly to care for Nella, but Jamie soon discovers they are looking for money. Judd, Bella’s half-brother, spent his later years grousing about how much Dr. Fox owed him, No surprise when one of the cousins is found dead in the old hospital.

To make the matter more complicated, Jamie’s husband Andrew turns up with plans to take half her cottage or otherwise squeeze money from her.

Originally, Linda Norlander saw this as a series of four. I have really enjoyed all of them and I hope she finds a way to continue. They are very enjoyable cozies with a appealing protagonist and an unusual setting.

Challenges of writing Historical Fiction

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Writing Historical Fiction has some unique issues. (So does writing mysteries but those usually revolves around plot.) Conveying a compelling setting is one difficulty. The writer wants to make the reader feel the culture and the time period – without using the dreaded data dump. Descriptions must be seeded throughout the story like pepper grains, not lumped in a pile. And the descriptions of the clothing, the food, the buildings – they can’t stop the flow of the action. Believe me, this is hard. At best, the writer uses the setting in an organic manner. I wrapped my cloak around me against the cold rain – for example.

Second is the issue of characters. For example, in my latest book, In the Shadow of the Bull, Martis is fifteen. But that is just a child, right? As I discussed last week, age is relative. Even in this country, and not so long ago, girls were allowed to marry at fifteen – or even younger. Because girls married young, Martis knows she will be expected to marry in a few years. Her only escape is to follow the Virgin Goddess Artemis, and never marry.

Another challenge is culture. What language does the writer use? Language that was common not long ago is offensive now. While we may deplore that, it still asks a question: should a writer use language that was accurate to the time but offensive now? Any writer who sets a story in the past of the United States wrestles with this one.

Language ties in to the culture. In the past, and not a very distant past, a number of groups were marginalized. Writing a story in the 1950s South doesn’t mean that LBGTQ+ people didn’t exist, just that they were hiding. In Bronze Age Crete, current scholarship suggests a complicated structure of slavery. A child’s status might rest on where he or she was born rather than the status of the mother.

Finally, one of the most difficult issues to address is what the reader brings to the book. I have had disputes with readers about certain facts, despite verifying a fact with documentary proof. Some readers just know they are correct and will flame you for not agreeing with them. This is by far the most frustrating, especially since the writer does not know where these beliefs come from.

Outside of the usual difficulties of writing a book, (grammar, character development, plot, setting) the historical writer faces a raft of unique problems,

Currently Reading

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I am currently in the middle of Fatal Legacy by Lindsay Davis.

This is the eleventh book in the Flavia Alba series and I have enjoyed all of the previous ones.

Flavia Alba is the adopted daughter of Didio Falco (a very good series of its own.)

Both father and daughter work as informers and are hired in the same manner as private detectives.

In this one, Flavia is hired to confirm the father of the bride is a freedman and not a slave. It seems simple at first but as she investigates, it rapidly grows more complicated. The owner who freed the man in question is dead and no one can find a will. As Flavia delves deeper, questions multiply, turning on the ownership of an apricot orchard and a rabbit farm.

I have not been able to read this at my usual breakneck speed because Flavia’s investigation is so complicated. Adultery, a possible rape, a possible murder, all are stirred into Flavia’s original investigation.

Stay tuned. I will share my opinion next week.

Blog Tour

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Take a look at the blog tour for In the Shadow of the Bull.

You’ll find reviews, showcases, and more as well as an Amazon gift card giveaway.

List of tour stops: 

07/17 Review @ Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books!

07/18 Review @ 5 Minutes for Books

07/18 Showcase @ 411 ON BOOKS, AUTHORS, AND PUBLISHING NEWS

07/19 Review @ Review Thick & Thin

07/20 Review @ Its All About the Book

07/21 Showcase @ Books, Ramblings, and Tea

07/25 Interview @ Hott Books

07/26 Guest post @ The Book Divas Reads

07/27 Review @ Celticladys Reviews

07/31 Review @ Scrapping and playing

08/03 Showcase @ fuonlyknew

08/05 Review @ Guatemala Paula Loves to Read

08/08 Interview @ Cozy Up With Kathy

08/08 Review @ sunny island breezes

08/10 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader

08/10 Review @ Coffee and Ink

08/11 Review @ Cozy Up With Kathy

09/05 Podcast Interview @ Blog Talk Radio

09/05 Review @ Just Reviews

Currently Reading

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I read two Terry Shames books back to back. Both are Samuel Craddock mysteries.

The first was The Last Death of Jack Harbin. Jack is a severely disabled vet; blind and confined to a wheelchair. Who would would want to murder someone so disabled? The mystery is compounded by the death of Jack’s father, just a week or so before Jack. The funeral pulls together several people from the High School and Craddock slowly unravels the threads. As usual, the mystery is excellent and Craddock is a great character.

The second in this series is Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek. The town is in a terrible financial situation. They are broke, so broke they cannot afford a police force. When banker Gary Dellmore is murdered, Craddock is pulled into becoming a temporary police chief so he can investigate.

Dellmore was not a good banker; he is a little too free about spreading details of people’s finances around. As Craddock investigates, he finds that Dellmore cheated on his wife and engaged in dodgy business deals. Craddock begins to wonder what else Dellmore was engaged in. Whatever if was, it cost him his life.

The mysteries by Shames are delightful.Last Death of

Finally, I read The River by James e’toile. And independently published book, it is not available on Amazon.

On a vacation to Jamaica, two young girls disappear. The father of one and the mother of the other fly to Jamaica to find them. They barely arrive before being menaced by a thug known as the Haitian. The two parents forge on with their investigation anyway. The Haitian cannot allow that to happen.

The story is captivating and fast moving. The style needs some help, however.

Why is Martis so young?

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One of the questions I’ve been asked consistently is why Martis is so young. Martis is a fifteen year old-aspiring bull leaper, When her sister dies at the altar on her wedding day, and Martis is told by her sister’s spirit that she was murdered, Martis takes on the responsibility of investigating.

Isn’t a fifteen year old too young? We would certainly think so. But the average lifespan then, and through most of human history, was only about forty.

This is a somewhat misleading statistic since the average lifespan was brought down by maternal death during childbirth. Illness and accidents, and of course war injuries, account for significant mortality. Still, a few of the bodies disinterred from graves, even from this time, indicate some people survived to their sixties or even their seventies. But that was not common.

All of life’s milestones were earlier. Women married in their teens and were grandmothers in their thirties. Many of the seasoned warriors described in the Iliad were barely in their twenties.

The other factor is that any bull leaper would have to be young: fast, agile and strong. Even now, with all the benefits modern health has to offer, sports figures in their forties are a rarity. I make a point of emphasizing that most of the bull leapers age out of the sport by their late teens. At fifteen, Martis is already facing the end of her career as a bull-dancer.

Currently Reading

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I met Tessa Wegert at the Severn dinner during Thrillerfest. I usually try to read the books of fellow writers I meet.

I read Death in the Family. And it was creepy.

Shana Merchant is a cop who recently relocated to upstate New York. Shas only recently returned to work after a traumatic experience in New York. With her partner Tim, she is called to a private island to investigate the disappearance/murder of a young man.

This was truly creepy. I plan to read the next in the series.

After that dark and creepy book, I wanted to read something lighter. I chose one of my favorite authors: Marcia Talley,

The crime is always late in the book but the reader remains captivated nonetheless.

Hannah and her sister plan to take a sister cruise. Georgina’s 14 year old daughter Julie is added. Everyone is having a good time when Hannah learns of the disappearance of a counselor on a previous cruise. As she looks into it, Julie is abducted. Although they find her unharmed, Hannah is now sure a predator sails these cruises in search of young victims. Although these seem like cozies, Talley is skilled at revealing the dark underbelly without getting too noir.

I read a true cozy last: Cookin’ the Books, by Amy Patricia Meade,

Tish Tarragon is setting up a cafe (with all things literary themed) in a small town. She is asked to cater a library event for 300 people. At this event. the Director Binnie Broderick dies – poisoned. Worried about the success of her business, Tish sets about donating home baked goodies to all and sundry, picking up clues as she goes along. Tish unmasks the murderer, natch.

This is very well written and cute, but a little too light for my taste.

Food in Ancient Crete

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What did they eat in Ancient Crete? Archaeologists struggle with determining the food eaten by ancient peoples. The remains of bones – meat or fish – provides a clue. But what else do they eat?

We know the Minoan civilization already had the olive tree and were pressing oil. Grapes were harvested and fermented into wine long before the beginnings of the so-called Minoan society. What else? Since they had flocks of sheep and goats, and bones with cut marks have been discovered we are pretty sure they ate goat, lamb and mutton. What about beef? Well, they had bulls (for the bull leaping) so maybe they ate beef.

What about cheese? They would have had milk, goat and sheep milk at least. Although there are theories, I haven’t found a definitive answer on cheese.

Vegetables and grains are tougher. We know they grew herbs, at least for medical and religious uses. Maybe they used them to season their food. The remains of grains have been found in bowls excavated at digs. But did these ancient peoples eat bread? Ancient Egypt had bread from about the fourth century B.C.E. Did they eat it earlier? Maybe. Since the ties between Crete and Egypt were strong, I assume that the Minoan culture also had some form of bread, maybe a flat bread. They certainly had beer and beer and bread were usually companions. Even in the Middle Ages, the bread makers and the brewers were part of the same guild. I took a calculated guess and had my characters in In the Shadow of the Bull eat flatbread.

No potatoes, no squash and no corn – these are from the New World and wouldn’t make it to Europe for another thousand years.