Author Archives: Eleanor Kuhns

About Eleanor Kuhns

Librarian and Writer Published A Simple Murder, May 2012

The Clotilda, last known slave ship

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Even though the U.S. banned the importation of the enslaved from Africa in 1808, slavery itself was not banned and the enslaved were not freed. Slavery continued to be critical to the economy, particularly in the south but in the north as well. The high demand for slave labor from the cotton trade (the cotton woven into cloth at New England textile factories) encouraged some plantation owners, such as Alabama plantation owner Timothy Meaher, to risk illegal slave runs to Africa. In 1860, his schooner Clotilda sailed from Mobile to what was then the Kingdom of Dahomey He bought Africans captured by warring tribes back to Alabama, creeping into Mobile Bay under the cover of night. Some of the enslaved were divided between Foster and the Meahers, and others were sold. Foster then ordered the Clotilda taken upstream, burned and sunk to conceal the evidence.

After the Civil War, the freed slaves wished to return to Africa but did not have the money to do so. They set up a town in Alabama, near Mobile, called Africatown. It is set up under the same system as the African villages with a chief, a system of laws, a church and a school.

Based on stories told by modern day descendants living in Africatown, a search for the ship Clotilde was begun. Ben Baines, a reporter, found a shipwreck but it was too large to be the schooner. A company that specializes in maritime shipwreck recovery took on the job. Although the wreckage of the Clotilda was not very deep in the water, maybe eight to ten feet, the visibility was so poor that it was hard to find. It was finally recovered in 2019.

The Clotilda is proof that the slave trade went on for far longer than it should have, by law, and far longer than most of us believe.

Currently Reading

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Week of March 12. This week I read two books. Oddly enough, both were historical fiction that take place during World War II.

The first, Front Page Murder, involves a young woman serving as the editor of the local paper. Her father had signed up and left her in charge. Needless to say, this causes friction with some of the men who resent a woman being in charge.

Other changes abound. Women flood into town to work in the local factory. Irene’s mother takes in one of those women, Katherine.

But all is not rosy. One of Irene’s best reporters is found dead in his house. Although the police chief thinks it was an accident, Irene is convinced it was murder.

Swaztikas and other anti-Semitic slogans appear on the doors of the Jewish shop owners in town. Then the janitor at the factory is seriously hurt. What is going on?

The light touches, Irene’s younger sister’s crush on Frank Sinatra, are interspersed with some of the dark.

Highly recommended.

The second book I read, Return to Afton Square, has a wonderful premise. Two strangers meet in Cradock, Virginia, both investigating past family who lived in the town. An initial dislike gradually warms into something else

The B&B where they are staying is reputed to be haunted and sure enough they begin experiencing supernatural events of their own. Some old keepsakes found in an attic and a visit to a ninety year old woman in a nursing home bring Heidi and Marcus into the story of Addie and Tobias, a young German sailor. He is stationed on a German ship being held in Cradock. (The United States had not entered the war yet.)

The characters of Addie and Tobias, the friends and family shine brightly. I found them more engaging than the modern day characters.

There are at least three stories going on at the same time. (This novel is connected to the author’s other series.) It is not a mystery but more of a supernatural love story.

Inequality in 1800 US

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Inequality is not a new phenomenon. Through most of human history, recorded history for sure, most of the resources have been coopted by the few. One of the few times in history when there was a big shake up was during the Black Death. Entire villages were wiped out. Crops rotted in the fields. With such a diminished labor pool, surviving serfs were able to negotiate better wages and working conditions for themselves.

However, change usually comes about through some cataclysm or continuous revolts.

In the United States, most of the founding fathers were wealthy and quite a few were plantation owners with slaves. (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, e.g.) Although Will Rees, of the Will Rees mysteries is not poor, he and his family do struggle a bit to make ends meet. Besides farming, Rees takes his loom and weaves for farmwives for a bit of ‘cash money’. Lydia sells her eggs and cheese at market.

Rees comes face to face with the difference in wealth in Murder, Sweet Murder. Lydia receives a frantic letter from her sister begging her to come to Boston. Their father, Marcus Farrell, has been accused of murder. Although Lydia is reluctant, she has been estranged from her father for years, he is still her father. She and Rees, along with the baby and daughter Jerusha, head off to Boston.

Although Rees knew Lydia came from money, he is shocked by the wealth of the Farrell family. The large house is stocked with servants, they own several vehicles including a carriage with a matched foursome, and apparently money is no object.

The Farrells also look down upon Rees for his more humble life. He grew up on a poor farm and certainly does not make enough for servants.

But Marcus Farrell is enmeshed in the Triangle Trade. He owns sugar plantations in the Caribbean as well as a distillery in Boston and a fleet of ships to transport slaves from Africa.

Marcus Farrell, it seems, is morally bankrupt. The question is, is he also a murderer?

Currently Reading

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Week of March 6.

Murder at the Mena House, by Erica Ruth Neubauer, is a charming mystery set in 1920’s Egypt. Besides the mystery, there is romance and a wonderful setting.

Jane Wunderly, widowed in ‘The Great War’, is on holiday with her Aunt Millie. (She is a real eccentric.) But the vacation has hardly begun when the body of a beautiful young girl is found shot to death in her room.

Since Jane is the one who finds the body, and everyone knows there was friction between her and the victim, she is instantly suspect. Deciding she needs to investigate, Jane teams up with Redvers, a handsome fellow who claims to be a banker, to solve the mystery.

Another murder occurs, and Jane begins to suspect someone is smuggling Egyptian artifacts from the country.

As in every good mystery, everyone has secrets and there are plenty of suspects. My only caveat is that, as is common with romantic suspense, Jane rushes heedlessly into danger at the drop of a hat. Still, lots of fun.

The second book for this week is Murder in the Lincoln White House by C.M. Gleason.

Another historical mystery, but quite different from the former.

At Lincoln’s inaugural ball, attended by both Union supporters and secessionists, a body is discovered in the hall outside the ballroom. Adam Quinn, a Kansas frontiersman hired to be a general assistant to the new President, is tasked with discovering the murderer.

At first Quinn wonders if Lincoln was the target but, since the victim was a passionate abolitionist, that doesn’t make sense. Emotions between the abolitionists and the secessionists run high. Seven states had already seceded from the union before Lincoln’s inauguration.

Quinn begins to wonder if the target was Mr, Lemagne, a secessionist with a beautiful daughter, who Quinn has met at the ball. The animus between the victim and Mr Lemagne was known.

Then another murder occurs; this time of one of the witnesses. Had he seen more than he at first admitted to? Have these deaths anything to do with the Baltimore plot to assassinate Lincoln, foiled at the last minute by his decision to take another route? And is the new president, reviled by most of the slave states as ‘that rail-splitter’, at the center of the murders?

Fascinating.

Slavery in Murder, Sweet Murder

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In Murder, Sweet Murder, I continued looking at slavery in the United States, following Death in the Great Dismal and Murder on Principle. Since the importation of slaves was not forbidden until1808 (but there was plenty of smuggling through Spanish Florida as well as other slave ships that ignored the law. The Clotilda brought 110 children from Africa in 1859.), Rees’s father-in-law was still bringing in enslaved people during the Rees family’s visit to Boston.

Lydia had already fled the family home, joining the Shakers in Maine as a young woman. This is where she met Will Rees. Now her brother James, a sea captain, is estranged from their father. James refuses to engage in ‘that filthy trade’, his words. Conditions on the ships were horrific.

It is commonly assumed that slavery was wholly a Southern institution. Nothing could be further than the truth. During the Colonial period and through the Revolution, slavery was widespread. However, after the War for Independence, states such as New York and New Jersey began passing laws to abolish slavery gradually. By 1804, all the Northern states had passed laws outlawing slavery, either immediately or incrementally.

No Southern states abolished slavery although individual owners freed their slaves.

The demand for slaves increased dramatically with the invention of the cotton gin and cotton became ‘King Cotton’. The rising demand for sugar also increased the amount of land on the plantations in Jamaica and the other islands devoted to sugar. Plantations that once grew indigo and cacao switched to sugar, as I describe in the mystery. 

Both sugar and cotton exhaust the soil, so plantation owners looked west for fresh land. That, of course, amplified the conflict between the free states and the slave states and set the stage for the Missouri Compromise where Missouri entered the union as a slave state and Maine, formerly part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as a free state. 

Currently Reading

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Week of February 27

I read three very different books this week. I began with The Shadow of the Empire. No, not a Star Wars book but a new series by Qiu Xialong, the first of a series using the Golden Age’s Judge Dee as the protagonist.

Because of a political conflict, over succession, Judge Dee has been posted out of the city. On his travels he receives two mysterious message, one pinned to a post in his room with a dagger, and a message from an opponent asking him to investigate a murder, A famous poetess has been accused.

Naturally, the mystery, and the subsequent deaths, are more complicated than they first appear.

For me, the primary charm is the light it shines on this very exotic culture, so different from out own.

To another culture, although one a little closer to home, I turned to Stargazer by Anne Hillerman. She had taken over for her father, the world famous Tony Hillerman. Although she uses Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, she had expanded the role of a female character, Bernie Manuelito.

Bernie’s best friend from high school has confessed to the murder of her estranged husband. But, by all accounts, the split was amicable. Did something happen the night Maya and her husband met so Maya could obtain her husbands signature on the divorce papers?

As usual, there are plenty of details about the Navaho culture. A captivating read.

Finally, I read The Corpse at the Crystal Palace by Carola Dunn. This is the 23rd Daisy Dalrymple and the series hasn’t lost any steam.

Daisy, now married to Alec Fletcher, takes her daughter Belinda and some adopted cousins to the Crystal Palace. The children notice some strange behavior by their nanny and follow her – fortunately. They come upon her floating unconscious in a pond but manage to save her.

Once the children have told their story, Daisy embarks on her own investigation and discovers a dead body in the women’s loo (that’s the rest room.) The victim looks familiar but at first Daisy can’t place her. Once that small mystery is cleared up, Daisy begins her investigation into the murder. Charming as always.

Currently Reading

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Week of February 21 – I was slowed down this week since I was preparing for both the Suffolk Mystery Festival and the Murderous March Mystery Conference, both Saturday, March 5.

But I managed to get through two books, both of which I enjoyed immensely.

First was Judgment at Santa Monica, by E.J. Copperman.

Our hero is a lawyer, and when we meet her she is defending, and losing, a case of a suburban mon accused of prostitution. To her surprise, famous actor and previous client, Patrick McNabb turns up and wants her to take another murder case. Cynthia Sutton, another actor, is involved in a messy divorce that she blames on her mothering-law. Our reluctant defender has barely gotten started when Cynthia is accused of her mother-in-law’s accused of her mother-in-law’s murder. And lawyer Sandy is shot at and a co-worker is seriously injured. What is going on?

A good mystery and a wonderful wise-cracking protagonist.

The second book, Stargazer, is by Anne Hillerman. She is continuing her father’s mystery series, with the addition of female character Bernie Manuelito.

It looks like an ordinary day: serving a bench warrant, taking care of a herd of escaped cattle and so on. Then the husband of Bernie’s old college friend Maya requests her held. What has happened to Maya? Once closer than sisters, Bernie had lost touch with her old friend when Maya began drinking heavily. Now Maya has been accused of the murder of her estranged husband but something doesn’t seem right. With Chee, Bernie’s love interest, and Joe Leaphorn to help, another murder is solved.

As usual, one of the most captivating parts of these books is the study of the Navaho culture.

Currently Reading

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The following books, plus a Summoning of Spirits by Hieber, will be discussed by a panel at Murderous March, March 5, 4:45. The topic: Villains: the Characters we love to hate.

The Ninja Daughter, by Tori Eldrige, introduces Lily Wong, a self-styled female ninja. She has made it her mission to protect women and children, primarily by working with a battered woman’s shelter.

We first meet her as she is being beaten by a thug working for the Ukranian mob. Lily is trying to save the wife and child of one of the mobsters – although Katerina takes her son Ilya home despite Lily’s best efforts.

Several deaths that seem to have no relation to one another, a young woman involved with a married man, and a Korean mob all combine together in an action packed and exciting mystery. The characters are wonderfully drawn, especially Lily. I will definitely read more of these.

It is 1975 and Carmen Valdez, working as a secretary at Triumph Comics as a secretary, is desperate to break into the world of comics. A semi-friend from the office, Harvey, suggests they write a comic together. But then he is found dead, and all the scripts are turned in without her name. Carmen is desperate to discover the murderer, and what happened to her name as co-writer on a comic that becomes a runaway hit?

Another exciting and action packed mystery with an added bonus: the inclusion of the comics in the novel,

Recently widowed, Rebecca Parcell is busy struggling to maintain her farm to care about the War for Independence. But rumors are spreading in the winter of 1780 that she’s a Loyalist sympathizer who betrayed her husband to the British. Her husband was a Patriot, everyone knows. But General Washington knows differently. Rebecca’s husband was a British spy. If she can find out what her husband was doing, Washington will protect her farm.

To figure out what Parcell was doing, Becca must speak to an escaped British prisoner of war: Daniel Alloway. He was the last person to see her husband alive. They join forces – now Becca must fight her growing attraction to this drifter.

A wonderful historical novel about the early days of the Revolutionary War. I hope there is a sequel to this one.

March 5 Two conferences

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I will be involved in two conferences on Saturday March 5, These conferences are open to writers and readers both.

Suffolk Mystery Festival

I will be on a panel from 2 – 3 : Mining the Past for Great Historical Fiction

This conference is FREE but you do have to Register.

I will also be attending Murderous March (remotely). The cost for the Saturday panels, pitching, and more. My panel: Villains, the characters we love to hate, will run from 4:45 – 5:00. Taking the Master Classes with Hank Phillipi Ryan or Caterina McPherson costs 40.00 each.

Currently Reading

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Week of January 31

Fast Track by John Dedakis – Lark Chadwick, the so called Miracle Baby who survived an automobile crash that killed both parents, returns to her home town to investigate.

After the suicide of her aunt, the person who raised her after her parent’s death, Lark is devastated by grief. To cope, she begins to investigate her past and the accident that killed her parents. Once she is in town, she very quickly runs afoul of someone who wants the truth buried.

Although the author is a man, he writes from a woman’s perspective very very well. I will definitely read more in this series.

Dead Man’s Leap by Tina DeBellegarde – I was given a chance to read this mystery pre-publication. This is the sequel to Winter Witness by Agatha Award nominee de Bellegarde.

A ferocious rain storm and the resulting flooding drives the residents of Batavia on the Hudson to the local community center. A death, and the discovery of old bones, give the Sheriff two murders to investigate. It also causes the people of Batavia to rethink their lives, previous choices, changes in relationships and more. A character driven mystery.

Summoning of Souls by Leanna Renee Hieber – the third in the Spectral City Trilogy.

Albert Prenze, a villain who craves the total destruction of all ghosts, has been presumed dead. But Eve, her friends, the ghosts who serve as part of her posse, and NYPD Detective Horowitz discover Prenze is alive and has developed powerful psychic powers. He is endangering Eve and her family, the ghosts who assist her, and the Sanctuary, a safe place for ghosts who have not crossed over.

I had read the first of the trilogy and still was a bit at sea so reading these in order is necessary. For fans of the supernatural.