Currently Reading

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With the approach of the holidays and all the busyness surrounding them, I managed to read only one book this week

The Eleventh Grave by Rachel Amphlett is a police procedural. It came up on either Amazon or BookBub, I don’t remember which, and I was interested. Unfortunately, as is my usual pattern, this is number seven in a series. Now I have to go back and read the ones that came before.

On a kayaking trip down the river, two people see a man they assume is fishing by the water’s edge. Seconds later, he falls in and has to be rescued. He is taken to the hospital and appears to be doing well but dies the next day. His clothing disappears from the hospital.

The victim is the developer working on developing and old airstrip, untouched since WWII.This proposed development of an old airstrip causes a lot of argument in the local community. As Turpin and his team turn their attention to the airstrip, one of the buildings is discovered with the door torn off the hinges FROM THE INSIDE. Now more attention is directed at the airstrip and while the police are looking around, a body without his kidneys is found in a shallow grave. This sends Turpin and his team in an entirely new direction.

I really enjoyed the mystery. Recommended.

Lydia Rees and the Role of Women

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Lydia Rees is one of the primary, some would say the primary, protagonist in my Will Rees/Shaker mysteries. I thought I would return to this work and talk about the women in the later eighteenth century.

Lydia Rees, wife of my detective Will Rees, is an opinionated and outspoken woman and an equal partner with her husband as they investigate murders and other crimes. This is not so surprising for modern times but during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a woman had no legal status. She owned nothing and in fact she herself was chattel, belonging first to her father and then to her husband. The portion she brought to her marriage belonged to her husband and literally everything she had, including her children and the clothes on her back, belonged to him. In one of the primary sources I read a woman divorced one man for another and had to marry in her shift. The clothing she wore belonged to husband number one. Fortunately, husband number two had clothing waiting for her and as soon as they were married, she dressed.

A woman could not inherit the family home unless her husband specifically named her in the will. If he did not, she became the burden of her eldest son. If they had a bad relationship he could, and did, at least according to some of the histories I’ve seen, put her out to make her own way on the road. 

This did not mean that women did nothing. Oh no. This was an agrarian world and a man could not run his farm without his wife’s labor. Farm wives kept a garden, made butter and cheese, cooked, sewed clothing, cleaned – and all of this at the same time they dealt with pregnancy and minded their children. Wives of printers and other professional men frequently helped in the shop. It is no wonder that many men from this time are buried with two, three or sometimes more wives.

Lydia is a former Shaker (or The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming to give them their proper name. Shakers was at first a derogatory nickname based on their physical services – it is a combination of ‘Shaking Quakers’.) The Shakers were a faith begun by a woman, Mother Ann Lee, and the Shaker Sisters have equal authority with their male counterparts. There are two Elders and two Eldresses, two Deacons and two Deaconesses for every Family. Although the work was assigned along traditional gender roles, women and their labor were considered of equal importance. And in a time when illiteracy among woman was high (even among men it was almost 50%), the Shakers educated the girls equally with the boys. (Girls went to school during the summer, boys during the winter.) So Lydia expects to have a say.

The reasons a woman joined the Shakers were many and varied. In A Simple Murder and Cradle to Grave, Sister Hannah (Mouse) joins the Shakers be cause she has a cleft palate and knows she will never marry. In Simply Dead, one of my women characters flees to the Shakers to escape a life of servitude to her family. Another woman, who is an ongoing character throughout, is a fugitive who has escaped servitude in the south.

The Shakers were abolitionists and accepted escaped slaves as members in their community.

Obedience to the rules and celibacy, however, both come with membership in this faith. When Lydia secretly marries her first husband, Charles Ellis, and bears a baby she is immediately expelled from the Shakers. Ellis’s unexpected death causes further legal complications. 

When a person joined the Shakers, he or she signed a document called the Covenant. In it, they agreed to surrender all their worldly goods to the community. Charles Ellis is almost a member of Zion; he has not yet signed the Covenant but everyone is expecting him to. Then he dies. Because Ellis leaves his farm to Lydia in his will, the farm the Shakers were expecting to own, she inherits.  When she marries Will Rees, the farm immediately becomes his because of the laws governing a woman’s lack of rights to own property.

Although Lydia wishes to abide by Ellis’s wishes and surrender the farm to the Shakers, Rees hesitates. Fortunately for the family. When they are forced to flee their home in Dugard, they take refuge in the farm near Zion. (The Devil’s Cold Dish).

Lydia is a very determined individual. When Rees would leave her behind in Death in the Great Dismal, when he goes south to rescue a woman from the Great Dismal Swamp, Lydia insists on accompanying him. Fortunately. Ruth will not agree to go north without Lydia’s persuasion.

Lydia is instrumental (always!) in assisting her husband solve the mystery and, in many cases, connecting with the other women characters.

Currently Reading

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Wishing everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving.

Upcoming event: Pane Discussion at the Poughkeepsie Public Library

This past week I read one book, Shutter, by Ramona Emerson.

This was very good, but also rather creepy.

Rita Todacheene is a Navaho but also a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque Police Force. She is unusual in that the Navaho are forbidden to interact with the dead in case they invite in witches.

But Rita sees ghosts. In some cases, the ghosts lead her to the person who murdered them. Rita does not dare tell people she sees ghosts; the usual response is that she is hallucinating. And for many years, she is able to ignore the ghosts.

But at a particularly grisly accident scene, the ghost of a young woman, Erma, will not allow Rita to turn away. Instead, the ghost pursues Rita, pestering her to investigate the so-called suicide when Erma knows she was murdered.

Creepy but unputdownable. For mystery readers who enjoy a touch of the supernatural.

Currently Reading

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This week I read two really good books.

The first is by Victoria Thompson. She previously wrote the Gaslight mysteries. City of Lies is roughly the same period but very different.

Elizabeth is a grifter, a con woman, now going by the name Betty Perkins. When the current con. goes badly, she has to run for her life. Chased by two heavies, she takes refuge in a protest by a band of suffragists. They are quickly arrested and Elizabeth finds herself in a workhouse in Virginia. All of the woman embark on a hunger strike, including Elizabeth. She is greatly changed by her experience and her growing connection to Mrs. Bates and another young woman.

But the mark is still waiting for her to appear so that he can wreak his vengeance.

Highly Recommended.

The second book is a collection of short stories by Elly Griffiths.

The stories include some with Ruth Galloway and Max Mephisto, but others are cozies and a few are barely mysteries at all. But they are all captivating and show Griffiths is a master of the short story as well as the novel. Highly recommended.

Medusa

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One of the Greek myths that has captured even modern imaginations is that of Medusa.

In the Greek myth, Medusa was a priestess for Athena. Poseidon violated her inside Athena’s temple and Athena was so enraged by the sacrilege she changed Medusa from a beautiful girl into a monster with venomous snakes for hair and a gaze that turned people into stone.

Medusa and her two sisters were banished to a small, faraway island where they lived until Perseus slew Medusa. (He used her head as a weapon but that is another story.)

Here are my takeaways. Athena was supposed to be the goddess of wisdom but she chose to punish Medusa instead of Poseidon. Athena was a powerful goddess but instead of confronting another God she attacked a mortal woman.

Clearly, the attitudes toward rape haven’t changed much. Many of the rape victims in the Greek myths, like Medusa, are the ones punished, not the rapists.

According to some of the sourcesI read, this is an example of the unfairness of divine retribution in the Greek myths. The Gods were frequently unfair.

Currently Reading

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The book I read this week is a little unusual; it is a Western. I’ve read them, of course. I’ve read many Louis L’Amour. I met Terrance McCauley at the Rensselaer Library. He writes both mysteries and westerns.

I really enjoyed this tale of Sheriff Mackey. Forced to shoot a group of saloon rats and planting them in “Mackey’s garden”, the Sheriff raises the ire of both the local banker who is planning a deal with a railroad baron and also a psychopathic killer. He is determined to punish Mackey for killing his buddies. The bullets fly. Definitely escapist literature.

Lots of fun.

What color was the Minoans Hair?

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I’m sure the overwhelming response is black. After all, dark hair and eyes are consistent with Mediterranean coloring. What then, does one make of Apollo, whose hair was a golden blond? When I asked my Greek guide several years ago why Apollo was supposed to have blond hair, she replied that his hair fit in with his role as the sun god.

Fast forward a few years and a lot more research. It turns out that, although blond hair was uncommon, it was not that unusual. Some of the ancient pottery depicts warriors with blond hair and Achilles in fact was supposed to be fair. Another famous blond – Helen of Troy. She literally was fair. They were not the only ones.

DNA evidence confirms that although the prevailing hair colors were black and dark brown, blond and red hair were not unknown. Partly that was due to contact with people from the steppes.

My takeaway: people have always traveled from place to place, intermarrying with local populations. We are all mutts.

I hope to see everyone at the Cohoes Public Library this Saturday, 11 – 4.

Currently Reading

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Although I read a mystery this week, I also read a tween novel by Gordon Korman. It was recommended by two eleven year olds.

Jett Baranov is the spoiled son of a tech billionaire and Doctors Without Borders mother who is always traveling. His last display of acting out gets him sent to Oasis, a vegetarian, unplugged camp, along with his long suffering minder Matt.

Jeff is immediately determined to get kicked out, as he has several other camps. He breaks into the office and steals his phone back, using it to order a hovercraft and some other items. But he is not thrown out and his father refuses to intervene.

The discovery of a small lizard named Needles brings Jett into a small group who hide and feed the creature and bond with one another.

But something is not right at Oasis. Who lives in the mansion outside of town and what is he hiding?

Funny and with one plot twist after another. Highly recommended.

Now for a change of pace; Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie.

Syd Walker shakes the dust of Oklahoma off her feet as soon as she can, although she becomes an archeologist working for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). As a child, she was traumatized when two men broke into a trailer and threatened Syd, her sister and best friend Luna. Syd shoots one of the men dead. The other, Luna and her parents are thought to have burned up in the trailer. Syd experiences recurring bad dreams and her sister, although rescued, gets into drugs.

But now Syd has been drawn back to search for her sister who has gone missing. A skull with Syd’s badge has been placed in a tree. Although not Emma Lou, it is the skull of a missing girl.

Unputdownable. Highly recommended.

Currently Reading – Now for Something Completely Different

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On the advice of a friend, I read The End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson.

This is quite different from the novels I usually read.

Hanson takes four societies – Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople and Tenochtitlan – to discuss war and obliteration. His central thesis is that, through naïveté and foolish confidence, some societies are utterly annihilated. Thebes, for example, was destroyed by Alexander the Great, Carthage by the Romans, Constantinople by the Ottomans and Tenochtitlan by Cortez.

Both Thebes and Constantinople believed (foolishly according to Hanson) their walls and fortifications would protect them. Carthage did not realize Rome still held a grudge for a previous war. And in Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs were more interested in capturing their enemies for sacrifice to their Gods than killing them. The Spanish, trained soldiers all, mowed the Aztecs down with their superior armor and weaponry despite their much smaller numbers. The winners then felt they had a right to totally destroy the society, apparently because the loser didn’t just give up.

Although he doesn’t pull this out of his central argument, my takeaway is that each of these societies were destroyed by an invader/conquorer. Although the Aztecs were vastly outmatched by the steel armor and the guns of the Spanish, in the other three cases the military technology was roughly even.

Then my question would be: Should the early American colonists have given up in the face of Great Britain’s might? True, there were factors that gave the early Americans an edge (the distance across the Atlantic, British military tactics that remained unchanged against the guerrilla warfare practiced by the Americans, and the entry of the French on the American side) but we were vastly outmatched. We withdrew from Vietnam, despite our superior military power. And should Ukraine fold and allow Putin and Russia to sweep over them?

Thought provoking.

Hecate: was she a witch?

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Don’t forget! I’ll be at the Rensselaer Public Library this Saturday from 1 to 3. Six authors will discuss their works, answer questions and sign books.

Since it is Halloween, I thought I’d discuss Hecate. By Shakespeare’s time – in fact, long before, Hecate was a witch, a powerful dark force. The three Weird Sister answer to her calling on her for help and suffering from her wrath.

But in Ancient Greece, Hecate was not a witch. She was a Goddess, not a child of Zeus, but, like Dionysus, a divinity far older than even the Mycenaeans. She could slip easily between the world of the living and the world of the dead. When Hades took Persephone, Demeter asked Hecate to find her daughter, which Hecate did, locating Persephone in the Underworld.

Hecate, triple bodied, was the goddess of the crossroads, and, by extension, of boundaries. Her eyes could see into the souls of me and her torch was brighter than the moon. Since she was not a witch, she did not rely on magic or spells. (She evolved into a witch throughout the centuries.)

Hecate is usually represented holding torches, a key or snakes. That suggests to me that her roots go all the way back to Minoan times and the Priestess for whom snakes were divine. Her frequent companion was a large black dog. Together they were so fearsome that when she went to Hades, even the spirits of the dead stepped aside.

Happy Halloween everyone!