Author Archives: Eleanor Kuhns

About Eleanor Kuhns

Librarian and Writer Published A Simple Murder, May 2012

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I was on vacation the last two weeks, coming back to summer. Although we were at Disney World, with all the busyness that suggests, I did read a lot.

The Unsettling Crime . . . by Terry Shames was the first of her books I read. And it was very very good. So good I have already ordered the first one in the series.

In this one, Craddock, a very young lawman in Texas, gets pulled into the execution style murders of a black family squatting nearby. No one will talk to him, When a friend from ‘Darktown’ is arrested by another agency, Craddock jumps in with both feet to free the innocent man and see justice done. A+

Another excellent mystery is Deborah Crombie’s A Killing of Innocents.

A young woman, a doctor in training, hurries across London. A man bumps into her, and a few steps later Sasha collapses and dies on the sidewalk. Who could possibly want to kill her? The roots of the crime are hidden in the past. Another stellar mystery.

Julia Kydd leaves London for New York City and her half-brother. Phillip controls her inheritance but she is due to receive it in a few weeks when she turns twenty-five. But Phillip has begun a legal case designed to show their father did not intend to leave half his estate to her. The murder of a suffragette offers Julia the chance to prove the death was murder and thus win a wager, and her inheritance, with her brother. Only the case proves much more involved than Julia could have guessed. Another great mystery.

Saffron Everleigh wants to be a botanist like her father but in the 1920s it is a struggle. But when her mentor, Dr. Maxwell, is accused of poisoning the wife of another academic, Saffron jumps in to prove his innocence, She almost dies trying. Light, frothy and with a dash of romance.

In 1920s Bangalore, the British are still a formidable presence. Kaveri’s husband Ramu is a doctor; they are invited to the Century Club for a mixed gathering. A man is found stabbed to death outside. That sends Kaveri on a hunt for the murderer.

Charming, joyful, exotic. I loved this book.

Finally, I read number fourteen of the Hannah Ives series and it is another winner. Hannah and her husband Paul buy a small cottage on the shore, While the renovations are going on, the mummified corpse of a baby is found hidden in the chimney. Hannah begins investigating, trying to determine the identity of the baby and understand exactly what happened. One of Talley’s strengths is weaving in serious subjects (in this case, racism) and still keeping the book fun and not too dark.

On to fifteen.

Theseus

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Bull leaping is probably one of the most well-known -if not the most well-known – image of the Minoan civilization. Most people believe the account written in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. It is important to remember the Greeks (the Mycenae and forward) borrowed a lot from other cultures. The civilization on Crete was very important. With that said, the Minoan civilization was Goddess centered while the Mycenae were patriarchal and that made a huge difference in how the invaders viewed the rites and rituals they saw.

In the Theseus myth, Minos exacts a tribute from Athens of 7 young men and 7 maidens to face the bull and perform bull-leaping. Minos’s daughter Ariadne falls in love with Theseus and gives him a ball of string to find his way through the labyrinth under the city and kill the Minotaur, (The creation of this beast is another story). Theseus does so, thereby freeing himself and the other tributes from Crete. He takes Ariadne with him but abandons her on another island. Great guy. She lands on her feet, though. Dionysus finds her there and marries her.

While tributes may have been pressed into service as bull-leapers, the bull-leaping was an integral part of the religious ceremonies. The bull was a sacred animal and the Cretan youth performed. Secondly, although there are caves, there are no labyrinths underneath Knossos and it is thought the pattern of building residences – all interlinked and connecting rooms – gave rise to the myth of a labyrinth.

And although labyrinth now means maze, the labys (the root of the word) was the iconic Cretan double axe. It had nothing to do with mazes.

Since the Classical Greeks seem to have been a dour lot, the ending of Theseus’ journey home has a sad ending. He’d told his father if he succeeded, and still lived, he would change the ship’s sails to white. But Theseus forgot so his father, seeing the black sails, thought his son had died. King Aegeus committed suicide

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The first book I read was a novella by Gigi Pandien: The Lost Gargoyle of Paris. This is a spin off of the Accidental Alchemist, and I liked it so much I am now going to read the Accidental Alchemist series right from the beginning.

A sketch of a gargoyle, supposedly by Victor Hugo, and a journal by one of the stonemasons has been found at Notre Dame after the fire. Zoe Faust and her gargoyle sidekick journey to Paris to investigate the drawing. Then the sketch is stolen. How could that happen with such tight security?

Fun and charming.

I reread Styx and Stone by James Siskin, remembering how much I enjoyed this series.

Ellie Stone’s father is attacked. Ellie races to New York City and discovers a nest of secrets among the renowned scholars of Columbia University. The police at first think it is a random mugging but Ellie soon proves it was attempted murder.

Finally, I read A Mansion for Murder by Frances Brody. I’ve read quite a few of this author’s books and enjoyed them all. Lo

Ronnie Cresswell’s letter draws Kate Shackleton to Milner Field and the great house said to be cursed. But when Kate arrives, it is to hear the devastating news that Ronnie has been found drowned. Ronnie’s father is convinced it was murder and the postmortem proves him right. Then his younger sister Nancy goes missing.

Ancient Crete and the Minotaur

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While researching Bronze Age Crete and Greece for my mystery series: First book – In the Shadow of the Bull – I spent a lot of time reading the Greek myths.

Most of us have at least a passing knowledge of the Greek myths. These are from the Classical period, a millennia at least from the heyday of Bonze Age Crete. That does not mean, however, that Crete was not hugely influential in these myths.

Take the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, for example. Here’s the backstory. The Greeks revered Zeus. Poseidon wanted to be honored too so he sent a white bull to Minos, the King of Crete. Minos’s wife Parsiphae fell in love with the bull. She tasked Daedalus (yes, the inventor with the wax wings whose son was Icarus) to build a special wooden box in the shape of a cow. Once inside the box, she had intercourse with the bull. Nine months later she bore a half-man, half-bull. The Minotaur.

The myth reeks of patriarchy and a desire to, in modern parlance, throw shade on Cretan beliefs.

First, in Crete Zeus was not the primary God. He was an upstart, more akin to a harvest God, who died and was reborn.

We also don’t know if Crete had a King. Certainly it was a goddess centered, matrilineal culture. Many archeologists have assumed Crete had kings, but for decades these archeologists were men. Men, moreover, who lived with a strongly patriarchal structure. It is possible the Priestess’s consort acted as a wanax, or governor. Kingships came with the Mycenaeans, i.e. the mainland Greeks who finally occupied Crete.

Several ancient cultures revered the bull or, in Indo-Europe (the steppes) the horse. One of the rites was mock intercourse with this symbol of fertility by the Queen/Priestess. This act was supposed to guarantee good crops, lots of livestock and of course healthy children for the coming year.

But what about the Minotaur?

Well, many many ancient and not so ancient cultures employ masks in religious rites. Animals are a frequently the subject.  Is it so far a stretch to believe that the Minotaur is a masked man involved in a religious rite? I theorize that a rite performed in ancient Crete involved intercourse between the High Priestess’s consort who wore a bull mask.

Besides painting Theseus as a hero (which I dispute but more about that later), this myth spins Crete as decadent and deserving of conquest. By the Myceneans, naturally.

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Last week I read Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings.

When Violet Manville’s Aunt Adelia leaves, she bequeaths her role as advice columnist Miss Hermione to Violet. One of the letters leads Violet into the death of one of the correspondents, Ivy Armstrong. At the same time, her sister Sephora is engaged in a very unsuitable relationship with Franklin.

Similar to some of the mysteries by Georgette Heyer.

Although I guessed the solution about halfway through, I didn’t mind. I thoroughly enjoyed this charming cozy mystery,

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This week I read Tomorrow’s Vengeance by Marcia Talley.

In the thirteenth Hannah Ives mysteries, Hannah volunteers at an assisted living home. (It is more like a resort than a residence, but I digress.) As she reads to the memory care residents and eats lunch in the dining room, she is embedded in the lives of the staff and people who live there, from the two lovebirds Nancy and Jerry to Christie with her thirty year old boyfriend, and Izzy, survivor of Nazi Italy.

Then one of the townhouse residents, Masud, is found dead in the Tranquility Garden. Hannah is well positioned to delve into the mystery. The murder, the theft of Jewish artworks , and the restrictions of the residents are stirred into a captivating whole.

Marcia Talley rarely disappoints, Even though the murder frequently does not occur until the halfway point or beyond, I almost don’t care. The characters and their situations are so interesting I am always fascinated. Her easy relaxed style also makes for a fast read. Another winner.

Knossos, major city of Bronze Age Crete

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Arthur Evans, who excavated Knossos, estimated the original Neolithic settlements on Crete stretch back to 8000 B.C.E. By 2000, the civilization had transitioned from wattle and daub huts to an affluent society marked by mis-named palaces. Misnamed because it is thought they were not simply the abode of the rulers but also governmental, religious and craftsmen centers. The remains of storage rooms were also discovered on this site.

Below are the large storage vessels known as pithy.

Knossos was destroyed several times. Crete is prone to earthquakes and there is a nearby volcano. Until about 1400 B.C.E. Knossos was always rebuilt.

Since the ruins were excavated Knossos has become a major tourist attraction. Some of it has been repainted in what is thought to be the original colors.

Here is one example: the so-called throne room. The lustral basin in the foreground and the griffins (a symbol of the Goddess) indicated that this chamber was probably used for religious purposes.

The above is one of the many frescoes in Knossos (with me goofing around in front of it.). It is called the cup Bearer and is, I think, an example of male Minoan fashions. Both men and women wore their hair with the three tresses over the shoulders and the remainder loose down the back. Headdresses and jewelry was also common to both sexes. and the wasp waist was high fashion.

I based my character Tinos on this piece of art.

Knossos was not the only city found. The ruins of others such as Gournia, to the east, were also excavated. Akrotiri, a Minoan colony, on another island, is currently being dug out from many feet of hardened volcanic ash.

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Since I’ve begun working on the next in my Bronze Age Crete Mystery series (beginning with In the Shadow of the Bull)

I’ve been doing research. The first book is Arcadian Days, a retelling of several of the Greek myths.

I’ve read in the Edith Hamilton collection of myths – in eighth grade. The retelling by Spurling lays out those myths he chooses in a much clearer way. My goodness, the Greeks were a bloodthirsty lot. I don’t know how they slept at night. The story of Medea is the stuff of nightmares.

Jason, of Jason and the Argonauts, meets Medea when he goes for the Golden Fleece. She agrees to help him if he will marry her and he agrees. Big mistake! As they are fleeing with the fleece, she arrives on board with a bundle, which turns out to be her step-brother. As her father pursues them, she slits the toddler’s throat and dismembers him, throwing limbs in the water so her father will stop and pick them up.

It doesn’t get any more cheerful from here. Medea, it is apparent, is a psychopath.

Other myths are no so violent but all of the families, no matter how favored by the Gods they seem, have terrible lives.Greek Myths

Sacred Snakes

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The Bronze Age Crete civilization worshipped snakes.

Snakes are pictured on seals and in frescoes, and statuary of either priestess or goddesses, twine snakes around their waists and hold them aloft in what is theorized are religious ceremonies. (There were no venomous snakes in Crete.)

In my book, In the Shadow of the Bull, I suggest that one of the headdresses worn by a Priestess might have contained live snakes, thereby providing the germ to the Medusa myth. The reverence for these serpents is also interesting considering the Judeo-Christian version of the Snake in the Garden of Eden and humanity’s fall. But I digress.

Marija Gimbutas in The Living Goddesses discusses the frequency of snake goddesses in various cultures: the Baltic, for example and the Celtic, as a symbol of rebirth and/or fertility. Gimbutas writes that the Minoan divine snake symbolizes regeneration. (The shedding of the snakeskin).

In any event, the figurines certainly lend credence to the importance of snakes in the early Bronze Age rituals.

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This week I read Bombay Monsoon by James W. Siskin.

I have read several of his Ellie Stone mysteries and enjoyed them greatly. I found this book puzzling. I kept expecting a murder but the mysterious death happens well into the novel. I finally decided this stand-a-lone is not a mystery per se.

Danny Jacobs is a journalist in India in 1975. He meets his enigmatic neighbor Willie Smets and promptly falls for Sushmita, Willie’s lover. His feelings are reciprocated.

Danny begins working on a story involving a bomber but is stopped cold by the Emergency, a coup by Indira Gandhi and the arrival of a censor in the newsroom who cuts all the stories to ribbons before publication. Since I knew very little about this time period, particularly in India, the setting is fascinating.

Not a mystery but really good historical fiction.