This week I finished the final two books that my panel authors will be discussion at Malice Domestic. I always enjoy finding new authors.
The first book I read was The Murderess Must Die by Marlie Wasserman.
This is a fictionalized account of a true crime. Martha Place was accused of the murder of her stepdaughter Ida and the attack with an axe on her husband William, She was poorly represented by counsel and became the first woman to be executed via the electric chair. Horrifying and Thought provoking.
The second book is one that I read when it was first released: Death at the Emerald by R.J. Koreto.
This is the third in the Lady Frances Folks Edwardian mysteries. Frances Is asked by Lady Torrance to look for her daughter Louisa, who ran away to become an actress. I really hope the author pens a few more in this series. Beautiful written and charming.
The full program for this year’s conference has been posted on their website – malicedomestic.org. More about this later.
They are also offering day passes. So, if you are in North Bethesda any day from April 21 to 24, the conference is being held at the Marriott.
Readers, and attendees at Malice, vote on the Agatha Awards. This year’s nominees are:
The 2021 Agatha Award Nominees
Best Contemporary Novel Cajun Kiss of Death by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books) Watch Her by Edwin Hill (Kensington) The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (Minotaur) Her Perfect Life by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge) Symphony Road by Gabriel Valjan (Level Best Books)
Best Historical Novel Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge (Kensington) Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime) The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime) Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day (HarperCollins) The Devil’s Music by Gabriel Valjan (Winter Goose Publishing)
Best First Novel The Turncoat’s Widow by Mally Becker (Level Best Books) A Dead Man’s Eyes by Lori Duffy Foster (Level Best Books) Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley) Murder in the Master by Judy L. Murray (Level Best Books) Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane Books)
Best Non-Fiction The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston’s Struggle for Justice by Jan Brogan (Bright Leaf Press) Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter by Chris Chan (Level Best Books) The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England by Julie Kavanaugh (Atlantic Monthly Press) How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America by MWA with editors Lee Child and Laurie R. King (Simon & Schuster)
Best Children’s/YA Mystery Cold-Blooded Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers) The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur (Fiewel and Friends/Macmillan) I Play One on TV by Alan Orloff (Down & Out Books) Leisha’s Song by Lynn Slaughter (Fire and Ice/Melange Books) Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer (Wednesday Books)
I’ve read several of these books and the nominations are well deserved.
This week I read two of the five books we will be discussing at Malice Domestic. I previously read Front Page Murder.
Cry of the Innocent, by Julie Bates, takes place right before the American Revolution begins. Widow Faith Clarke runs a tavern in Williamsburg.
Start writing or type / to choose a block
She is far more worried about her tavern and inn than about the rumblings of revolt among the citizens. Then a wealthy and influential man, widely reputed to engage in the slave trade, is murdered in her spare room. A young slave, Stella, is accused of the crime. Faith is sure the slim young woman is not guilty and embarks on an investigation of her own.
So many of the themes raised in this mystery are relevant to today. The characters are wonderfully drawn. Recommended.
The second book I read is Death on the Homefront, by Frances McNamara. This is another war book, although the war in this book is World War I.
Tensions rise as the threat of the United States involvement in World War I increase. Emotions against Germans rise and those who fight for peace are considered traitors.
Emily Cabot is present when a young woman about to make a brilliant society marriage is murdered. Hazel is Emily’s daughter’s best friend. A waiter with a German surname is arrested; public emotion against the Germans is rising. A civilian run force is trying to find spies and saboteurs, and attacking anyone they feel are treasonous. At the same time, violent worker protests are threatening bombings.
Emily watches with fear and trepidation as her adult children are caught up in the events, making dangerous choices.
I am happy and excited to announce Malice Domestic 2022. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, this will be an in-person conference.
I will be moderating a panel on Historical mysteries, naturally, on Friday, April 22. My panel consists to Frances McNamara (the Emily Cabot mysteries) Death on the Homefront; Julie Bates – The Innocent’s Cry, Marlie Wasserman – The Murderess must Die, and finally R.J. Koreto – Death at the Emerald.
The honored guests are Rhys Bowen and Julia Spencer-Fleming. Lifetime Achievement Awards will be given to Ellen Hart and Walter Mosley.
The first book I read this week was The Bluff by John Dedakis.
Another in the Lark Chadwick series. Lark in invited to anchor a news show at the local television station at the same time one of the students in her journalism class is hired by editor Lionel. They are assigned a land scam story in which a large number of senior have been defrauded of plots of land.
As they investigate, Lark begins to read the diary left by Lionel’s daughter Holly. Both Lionel and his wife Muriel were devastated by Holly’s death in a climbing accident.
But Lark begins to suspect the accident was really murderer.
The characters are well drawn and the mysteries are captivating. Recommended.
The second book I read is Betrayal at Ravenswick.
Fiona Figg works for British Intelligence during World War I. She is sent to Ravenswick in disguise as a man, Dr Vogel, to confirm whether a man staying there is actually a German spy. Shortly after his/her arrival, a murder occurs at the ‘Big House”. Fiona can’t help herself. Despite being told not to involve herself in local matters, she begins to investigate.
Because of her interference, she becomes a suspect and has to be extracted by way of a phony arrest.
Glad to return to her woman’s role, she continues her volunteer work at the hospital. Captain Clifford, on the scene at Ravenswyck and now also assigned to British intelligence, displays an interest in Fiona. She is able to manipulate him into finding evidence and clearing the accused innocent man.
My main problem is that the mystery at Ravenswyck disappears when Fiona returns to London and is only reintroduced towards the end. It felt like another book was sandwiched into the middle.
Next week, I will be discussing the books of my panelists. I will be moderating a panel: Historical; the Rapture of Research, at Malice Domestic on April 22. The conference, the first in=person since 2019, will run from April 21 through April 25. I am looking forward to it. I always love finding new authors and what could be better than talking about books?
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.
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 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?
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?
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.
