About Eleanor Kuhns

Librarian and Writer Published A Simple Murder, May 2012

Writing during the pandemic

When I think of writing during the recent COVID pandemic, I think of the Charles Dickens quote from A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I read several articles on authors who were struggling because of the stress. Not me. For the first time in my life, probably the only time, I was able to write most of the day. Without interruption. I had complete control of my schedule. The library where I worked, in fact all of the libraries, shut down so no work. Everyone was in quarantine so no picking up the grandkids. The gym was closed. I could really focus on the novel I was writing then – Murder on Principle. It is still one of my favorite Rees and Lydia’s. When I needed a break, I working in the garden or my dog and I went for a walk.

That was the best of times.

The worst came a few months later. The kids went into remote schooling, which I ended up doing with them. Childcare for 40 or more hours a week with three boys who all needed a computer and one on one help. Although my library went to curbside delivery, I did not go back. I couldn’t. I cannot imagine what it was like for mothers, and it was mostly mothers, trying to work from home at the same time they did remote schooling with their kids. I was exhausted by the end of the day and I was doing only that one thing.

Now that the world has opened up, the kids are back in school so no more remote schooling. But everything else has as well and there are so many demands on one’s time. No writers that I know ever has enough time to write. Life keeps interrupting so the struggle to find the time is ongoing.

Currently Reading

I usually blog on Thursdays but, although I began my blog, life took over and I did not finish it. I did, however, continue reading.

I finally finished reading Shadowlands by Matthew Green. Besides Skara Brae, there were several cities destroyed by climate change. I thought the description of Dunwich where the towns are literally washing into the sea particularly engrossing. We have had that happen in New York and California.

Green usually give a fairly lengthy history of the particular towns. Winchelsea, for example, had vineyards and exported wine during the Medieval Warm Period. The little Ice Age put an end to that. The end of their viniculture and the silting up of the harbor finished off a thriving city.

Not all the villages were lost to the changing climate. Some lost their industry and their population soon followed (Trellich). Some, like Caper Celyn, were taken by the government and flooded to make reservoir. (Since Caper Ceylon is in Wales and the reservoir was for Liverpool, particularly egregious.) In the 1930s, the residents of St. Kilda’s were evacuation from their island home, never to return. Villages near Norfolk were commandeered by the Army during WWII, and never returned to the original inhabitants. And, of course, the Black Death finished off quite a few.

Fascinating.

I also read Easy Pickings, a fan novel based on Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock fantasies.

Jane and a character from another series, the Walker Chronicles, are transported to an alternate New Orleans. Leo Pellisser is not the vamp master of the city in this reality. With Lazarus, a demigod/magic user named Lazarus, Jane and Joanna must discover why they were brought here and solve the problem.

Lots of fun. It is quite short so it goes quickly.

Finally, I read Shadowlands by Marcia Talley.

Hannah and Paul agree to take ballroom dancing lessons with Ruth and her husband to be. Jay and Kay, who run the studio, are professionals. They are training one team for an upcoming competition and they ask Ruth and Hutch to also compete. Before they have a chance to even begin training, Ruth is attacked in the parking lot and left with a broken leg.

This was a disappointment. The setting, the world of competitive dancing, was fascinating. But the murder does not occur until more than halfway through the book and the ending seems rushed.

Currently Reading

The first book I read this week was Book Four of the Jane Yellowrock series, Raven Cursed.

Jane is working security in Asheville, N.C. for a vamp parley. The vamps in Asheville want to set up their own territory. Evangeline Overheat, Molly’s older sister, has agreed to facilitate the parley. But a group of campers are attacked by something supernatural, and Jane realizes the two werewolves she didn’t kill have followed her to North Carolina and are on the hunt.

Then Lincoln Shaddock does not turn up at the parley and Evangeline begins changing, growing younger and prettier. What is going on?

Action packed and fun.

The second book I read was A Truth to Lie For by Anne Perry, the fourth Elena Stands mystery.

Elena is called into service again, tasked with pulling a scientist working on German warfare out of Germany. Elena calls upon her old friend for Jacob and they successfully find the scientist. But when they try to take him out of Berlin, traffic jams and roadblocks send them south to Munich. Just in time for the Night of the Long Knives; Hitler’s strike against Rohm’s brownshirts.

At the same, a young Gestapo officer, Hans Beckendorff is trying to navigate the politics of working for the Reich, and for an increasingly unhinged Hitler. In the end, he is forced to make a life-changing decision.

I had a few criticisms. The ending seems rushed. Perry relies on a few phrases over and over (I really got tired of ‘surprisingly good coffee’.) It is not really a mystery, more a thriller.

But here’s the thing. Despite the absence of blood and gore (a constant feature of the Yellowrock novels), A Truth to Lie For is absolutely terrifying. Maybe because the reader knows what is coming in the next few years, but I felt a sense of dread throughout. I was truly scared at several points in the book.

Murder, Sweet Murder Review

So pleased to receive this wonderful review from Missi Stockwell Martin.

Murder, Sweet Murder (Will Rees Mysteries #11) by Eleanor Kuhns

Will Rees accompanies his wife to Boston to help clear her estranged father’s name in this gripping mystery set in the early nineteenth century.

January, 1801. When Lydia’s estranged father is accused of murder, Will Rees escorts her to Boston to uncover the truth. Marcus Farrell is believed to have murdered one of his workers, a boy from Jamaica where he owns a plantation. Marcus swears he’s innocent. However, a scandal has been aroused by his refusal to answer questions and accusations he bribed officials.

As Will and Lydia investigate, Marcus’s brother, Julian, is shot and killed. This time, all fingers point towards James Morris, Lydia’s brother. Is someone targeting the family? Were the family quarreling over the family businesses and someone lashed out? What’s Marcus hiding and why won’t he accept help?

With the Farrell family falling apart and their reputation in tatters, Will and Lydia must solve the murders soon. But will they succeed before the murderer strikes again?  (Summary via Goodreads)

Readers of the Will Rees Mystery series by Eleanor Kuhns are going to go crazy, in a good way, when they start reading the eleventh book, Murder, Sweet Murder……Rees and his wife Lydia along with two of their children are heading to Boston to visit Lydia’s family.

In Murder, Sweet Murder Lydia, who left home many years ago when her father had tried to marry her off to a gentlemen that she did not love, is returning after receiving a letter from her younger sister asking for help.  It seems that their father Marcus was accused of murder and Cordelia, Cordy, knows that Will and Lydia have helped solve crimes in their hometown in Maine so they are the obvious choice to clear Marcus’s name.  Unfortunately when they arrive at Lydia’s old home, they are not as welcomed as they had hoped.  First no one other than Cordy wants an investigation, it seems the case has somehow been swept under the rug, and second the family is not so warm to accepting Will into the family.  When Lydia left she didn’t keep in touch with anyone other than Cordy so they are not aware of Will as her husband and of her children.

Will and Lydia are not deterred and begin their investigation into the young man’s death.  It is known that he is from Jamaica, a plantation that Marcus owns, but not much more is known. He was killed in the middle of the night outside a tavern that was closed, no witnesses that they are aware of and not much to go on…so Will decides to start at the place of death and go from there……

Every time that they think they have a clue or a fact to the murder, something happens that changes their minds.  Once they start investigating they learn of more people that could possibly have committed the murder and when they find out that the person killed isn’t who everyone thinks, they are lead down another disturbing road.  And when someone else is murdered in exactly the same way as the first person, Will and Lydia are more determined to find the killer !!

Readers will be drawn into the story immediately !!  Readers will love that Will and Lydia are traveling to Boston allowing us to get to know Lydia’s family and the secrets that have kept her away for all those years.  There will be members of the family you will fall in love with instantly and there will be some you will hate as soon as you meet them….but you will enjoy the time that you spend in Boston and will be just as glad as Will is when they leave.

Review by Missi M.

Currently Reading

I went back to two of my favorite series this week: the Hannah Ives series and the Jane Yellowrock series.

Through the Darkness by Marcia Talley starts out with a scary premise: Hannah’s ten month grandson is kidnapped. No ransom demand arrives and the family is left to imagine the worst.

It comes at a particularly terrible time: Hannah’s daughter Emily and her husband Dante are in the process of opening their own luxury spa. As their marriage begins to fall apart, Hannah begins to investigate on her own, despite the resistance from the cops and her own brother-in-law.

This part of the mystery was great. Very captivating. BUT, the death towards the end seems tacked on, as though Marcia was told to add 50 pages. Although this was less than perfect, I enjoy this series and will continue.

The story continues almost immediately after the previous book. Campers in North Carolina have been found slaughtered. Although it appears the murders were done by the vampires, Jane scents the werewolves. The fact that only the males have been killed, while the women have been taken convinces Jane that the weres are still trying to turn females for mates.

At the same time the grindylow is tracking the wires, Turning humans is forbidden so the grindy is tasked with killing the malefactors.

Riveting as usual. I can only wonder that Faith Hunter is able to continue this series with every book exciting and fascinating.

Diseases

I am fascinated by the diseases that have stalked humans since they began walking on two legs and have blogged about some of these pathogens. TB: scarring on the fossilized bones of ancient bovines, diabetes: described in Egyptian and Greek writings, polio: pictured on ancient Egyptian stele. My point is that many of these diseases have been with us for a long time until better sanitation and vaccines pushed them back.

Cancer, a disease that seems to be a scourge during modern times, and a disease that still resists easy treatment, has probably also been with us for millennia. Well, many cancers probably escaped detection since they were inside the body and not visible unless an autopsy was performed. (The history of autopsies is a whole other fascinating topic since they have been permitted, or not, depending on the culture.) Breast cancer is the exception since it is visible. Evidence of breast cancer dates back 4200 years to ancient Egypt. Remains from that period display classic symptoms of the disease. For thousands of years, there was no treatment but cauterization and/or mastectomy. If the discovery of the remains is any indication, these treatments were not successful ones.

What about the so-called lifestyle diseases? Type II diabetes is one and, I suspect, present even in ancient times. Present perhaps, but not prevalent, as most people struggled to find enough to eat.

We know that apoplexy was present, and probably high blood pressure. But what about cholesterol? Although mitigated by exercise, it is not a cure. The effects of cholesterol is a fairly recent discovery.

Why do so many people now seem to develop these ‘lifestyle’ diseases? We all live longer. In Rees’s time, the average life span was in the forties. (This is skewed by maternal deaths during childbirth.) There were always people who lived longer, to the sixties and seventies. And sometimes much longer. The risk factors for developing choldesterol, hypertension, heart disease and so on increase with age.

With increased lifespans comes increased risk for disease. It doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?

Currently Reading

The first book I read last week was The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves.

Vera Stanhope and her team are back. In this mystery, five friends bonded since high school, meet for their five year reunion. One of them is found dead, an apparent suicide although Vera quickly determines it was murder staged as a suicide,

Since Vera is convinced that the answer to this murder lies in the past, she questions the friends and all those who were connected, no matter how tangentially. As expected, Vera solves the mystery , resulting a shocking twist at the end.

Beginning writers are told to place the murder within the first chapter. Ann Cleeves, however, spends several chapters exploring the characters. And still, her mysteries are captivating.

The second book I read was the third Jane Yellowrock book, Mercy Blade.

Werewolves are coming to New Orleans and threatening to wrest control from Leo Pellisser. The seeds of this enmity lies in the past, 1916 to be exact. Jane’s boyfriend, Jake LaFleur is missing. When Jane searches for him, she quickly discovers he is in serious trouble.

And who or what is the Mercy Blade. Jane can see he is a magic creature but exactly what is he?

I really enjoy this series as I do the Marcia Talley Hannah Ives. The two series could not be more different but both are so fun.

Currently Reading

Since last Thursday, I have read only one book: Blood Cross, the second Jane Yellowrock.

Jane is still in New Orleans, searching for the vampire who is creating new young rogues. (In this world, the newly risen have be controlled i.e. chained in a basement, for ten years until they regain their sanity. The young and newly created are attacking humans and vamps indiscriminately.

After Jane’s friend Molly is attacked and her children kidnapped, Jane realizes she is dealing with something new: witch vampires.

Another exciting read.

Currently Reading

Because I blogged about the Albany Book Fair (tremendous fun) on my usual day, I will do my review of my most recent books now.

The first book I read was John Dedakis’ Bullet in your Chamber.

I unfortunately read this series out of order so I already knew something terrible had happened. I had to go back and fill in. Really excellent, but pretty dark.

Lark Chadwick, finally happy in a relationship, comes across a plot to blackmail one of the president’s advisors into pressing the president into approving a drone law. There were so many possible murderers, it was hard to identify the guilty party. Several deaths later, and problems in Lark’s relationship, make for a captivating read.

Lighter but still fascinating was This Enemy Town by Marcia Talley.

I am gradually reading my way through all the Hannah Ives mysteries. In book 5, another cancer survivor asks Hannah to help with the naval academy’s production of Sweeny Todd. Feeling she cannot refuse, Hannah agrees. While there, she sees Jennifer Goodall, the woman who’d accused Hannah’s husband of sexual harassment and almost destroyed both his career and their marriage. Hannah confronts her and when Jennifer’s body is discovered, Hannah is arrested as the prime suspect.

I did not see the final twist coming and I am now on to number six.

I took a break from mysteries and read Skinwalker by Faith Hunter.

It came up on my Amazon feed as something I might enjoy. And I really did. Jane Yellowrock is a vampire hunter in a world when the ‘vamps’ have been outed and are now part of the human world. A rogue vampire is terrorizing New Orleans, draining humans and vampires alike.

Well-written and full of action. It reminded me of the Thomas Perry Jane Whitehead mysteries with a badass woman, except with an added paranormal aspect. Another series I will continue reading.

Finally, I began reading a nonfiction book by Matthew Green: Shadowlands; Britain’s Lost Cities and Vanished Villages.

Although I haven’t finished this, I read the first chapter and was immediately hooked. Skara Brae is an old old village, estimated as about 5000 years old, so older than the Egyptian pyramids and older than Stonehenge, in northern Scotland. A severe storm in 1850 washed away the sand from a beach and revealed this neolithic village on the shore.

I have seen this village on a pre-pandemic trip to Iceland. On the way home, we stopped in Kirkwald, a very northern town. From there, we took a bus to Skara Brae.

It is a village of little stone huts. Repeated storms have continued to wash away the sand and also, unfortunately, one of the houses.

Although it was the beginning of July, it was COLD.

Albany Book Festival

I had a great time at the Albany Book Festival this past Saturday. It was so wonderful seeing all the other writers (especially my table mate Jode Millman) and the crowds of attendees.

This is a free event and plenty of people took advantage of it. All ages, both men and women, and a wonderful diversity. I will definitely sign up again next year.

All of the authors around me sold books too so we did well with publicity aspect of it. As usual, I picked up a few books to read but at least this time I didn’t spend more than I took in. LOL