Category Archives: Historical mystery

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Tragedy’s Twin is the second Carrie Lisbon mystery by Chris Keeper. (After No Comfort for the Undertaker.)

In this outing, Carrie and her Uncle have left Hope Bridge to visit a relative in Duncan, New York. Carrie has an ulterior motive; Sheriff Del Morgan is also in Duncan. Despite their vow to forget about their impulsive one night stand, Carrie can’t resist her attraction to the Sheriff.

Unexpectedly, Carrie is called to the local poorhouse to tend to one of the women there. She is supposed to have fallen from a window, but Carrie immediately notes the scratches on Abbie’s arms and hands. The fact that the poorhouse windows only open eight inches convince Carrie something about the death is wrong. Enter the Sheriff who agrees and the two are involved in another case, one in which Carrie is almost murdered.

This mystery has everything. Intriguing characters, a fascinating setting, a great story and excellent writing. The Carrie Lisbon series deserves a wide readership.

Partners in Crime Podcast

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I had a wonderful time talking to Gina Hott about both my Bronze Age Crete series and the Will Rees/Shaker series. We discussed, not only the stories, but also my research and some of what I discovered.

One example of a funny story: during President Washington’s first term, John Jay was dispatched to Great Britain to work out a treaty. (Great Britain still did not recognize the new United States as its own country and continued to lay claim to forts and to impress American sailors.) The Jay Treaty was very unpopular. The newspapers of the time pilloried Jay (God damn John Jay and God damn all the people who won’t damn John Jay.) Jay was burned in effigy all through New York and Pennsylvania.

Here is the link if you missed it.  https://youtube.com/live/BAlVQsAe3FM 

Also, keep an eye out for a new Fresh Fiction giveaway. In August I am giving away the first novels in each of my series plus an Amazon gift card.

Funeral Rites in Minoan Crete

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Let me begin by saying that, although there are plenty of theories about burial practices, there are very few facts we know for certain. However, I gleaned what I could and imagined the rest. Since I write murder mysteries, I have to include something about funeral and burial practices.

Excavations have found human remains put in jars and secreted in caves but treatment of human remains began to transition to tombs. When Martis’s sister is interred In the Shadow of the Bull

I describe what I imagined the scene to look like: the giant stone covering the entrance and the remains of many family members in one tomb.

I also include in both the Crete books, the above and also On the Horns of Death

some other descriptions that might or might not be true.

A fresco from Crete show a musician playing a flute in front of what looks like a funeral cortege so I added that to my description. Martis carries gifts to add to the caskets: a small ship for her sister and a small clay figure of a bull for her friend. We know grave goods were included and during the Classical period, small ships were added to carry the departed over the River Styx. I theorized that this was a practice that began in the Bronze Age.

The professional mourners were also a feature in Classical Greece so I thought it was possible they were important before that era. I described them, in groups of a few to many depending on the wealth of the family, in both books.

Finally, I include a meal, a funeral dinner, if you will, connected to the services. I thought this was a reasonable supposition since, even now, food is offered to the mourners after a service. Descriptions of such meals are also part of Homer’s works so a decision to include them seemed safe.

Amazons – Warrior Women

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In Greek legends, the Amazons were formidable women warriors who lived on the edge of the known world. Hercules had to obtain the magic girdle of the Amazonian queen Hippolyte in one of his 12 labours, and Achilles killed another queen, Penthesilea, only to fall in love with her when he saw her face. (Kind of ironic that.)

These horseback-riding, bow-wielding nomads, who fought and hunted just like men, have long been shrouded in myth. (Remember, one of the stories claims these fierce female warriors also cut off one breast so as to be able to shoot a bow more effectively.

Now archaeologists are discovering increasing evidence that they really did exist.

Excavations of graves within a bronze age necropolis in Nakhchivan in Akzbaijan revealed that women had been buried with weapons such as razor-sharp arrowheads, a bronze dagger and a mace, as well as jewellery.

These fearsome women from 4000 years ago were famed for their male-free society and their prowess on the battlefield, particularly with a bow and arrow. (The men were, according to one theory, out fighting themselves. To another, that the men were tending the herds.)

Recent issues of Archaeology Magazine and World Archaeology have discussed the excavations leading up to the conclusion that the women from the Caucasus could have been the legendary Amazons.

In 2019, the remains of four female warriors buried with arrowheads and spears were found in Russia and, in 2017, Armenian archaeologists unearthed the remains of a woman who appeared to have died from battle injuries, as an arrowhead was buried in her leg. In the early 1990s, the remains of a woman buried with a dagger were found near the Kazakhstan border.

Some of the skeletons reveal that the women had used bows and arrows extensively. Historian Bettany Hughes observed that “Their fingers are warped because they’re using arrows so much. Changes on the finger joints wouldn’t just happen from hunting. That is some sustained, big practice. What’s very exciting is that a lot of the bone evidence is also showing clear evidence of sustained time in the saddle. Women’s pelvises are basically opened up because they’re riding horses. [Their] bones are just shaped by their lifestyle.”

This is particularly interesting to me since current theory suggests patriarchy came from the steppes with the adoption of the horse. Maybe the story isn’t as cut and dried as it appears.

A documentary detailing some of these finds will be broadcast on the BBC in April. In it, Hughes visits the mountain village of Khinalig. This is the highest inhabited place in Europe. There has been a settlement there since the Bronze Age, and stories handed down through their generations tell of women who fought like men but covered their faces with scarves.

Women, it appears, enjoyed more varied lives in the ancient past than those brought about by patriarchy in our more recent cultural history.

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The Gold Pawn in L. A. Chandler’s second Art Deco mystery, after The Silver Gun, and continues the story of Lane Sanders.

Lane continues investigating the mystery of her parents, as well as of their deaths. To do that, she travels to Rochester to visit her childhood home. But, once there, she experiences such a powerful and negative emotion that she rushes back to New York City. A banker, Mr. Hambro, has disappeared. Fio wants Lane to look into it.

Meanwhile Finn, on assignment in Great Britain, is learning more about Rex Ruby and the Red Scroll gang.

The action bounces back and forth as both Lane and Finn piece together the dangerous mobster and the possibility of an heir to him.

Lots of fun. I admire Chandler’s ability to keep the story light and amusing while underpinning the mystery with a serious nod to Jeyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Women in Minoan Crete

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Since March is Women’s History month, I thought I would discuss the women of Bronze Age Crete. In my series, I chose to write about this advanced society from about 2600 to approximately 1100 B.C.E. where women played pivotal roles in religion, culture and possibly even the governing of the cities. (In my previous series, I had a male protagonist, a traveling weaver, because women had a much inferior role in the United States of the late 1700s. They couldn’t own property or vote and if their husbands died, their sons took on the responsibility for their care. I wrote about the Shakers extensively, however, since in that society, women were equal and shared equal power in governance of the community.)

Frescoes and artifacts unearthed portray women in positions of reverence and power, suggesting a society where gender roles were viewed differently from contemporaneous civilizations.

Religion was female-centric, with goddess worship at its core. The male figures were always pictured as smaller than a central and large female figure. Women – or priestesses – were often depicted with open arms in a gesture of divine power. I imagined them as influential figures, managing religious ceremonies and advising on state affairs.

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Although the myths about Minos and the Minotaur are what we know today, one has to remember they were told by the Classical Greeks, a very patriarchal society. On Crete, real women likely held sway in the Minoan court. Administrative records and luxurious goods designed for female use display their influence, hinting at the wealth and status women enjoyed. I previously blogged about textiles and the elaborate clothing women wore.

Archaeological findings suggest that queens may have ruled alongside kings or even independently. The opulent grave goods of priestess-queens, often buried with symbols of power, reveal the respect and reverence these women commanded. I imagined a male consort who managed administrative details, under the Queen who was also the High Priestess.

The archeology suggests women’s influence extended beyond the spiritual realm into economics and craftsmanship. The intricately designed pottery, seal stones, and frescoes feature women in prominent roles. We know the intricate textiles, woven by the women, were traded all over the Aegean.

Emerging evidence further suggests that women in Minoan society received an education. In my books, I talk about the agoge, an initiation into society. I based it on what we know of the ancient Spartans who also educated their women. They spent a year minimum in a dorm with other women before marriage and children. (Boys, we think, went into a dorm at the age of seven.)

These ancient Minoans were a progressive culture ahead of its time.

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Circles of Death by Marcia Talley is the twentieth book in her Hannah Ives series.

Noel, a young friend of Hannah’s, appeals to her for help. Noel and her sister both took a DNA test and discovered that, not only are they not sisters, but they are not related at all.

Hannah uses her genealogical skills to begin tracking down relatives of Noel’s. With those relatives, they can begin finding someone who might be able to shed some light on the mystery.

At the same time, Noel and Hannah look into the poisoning of several eagles nearby and discover a farm that is using a banned pesticide. The man Hannah suspects of using that pesticide is murdered, his body floating to her dock.

The twin investigations lead to a long ago murder. Although the identity of one of the murderers is not difficult to figure out, the identity of the other was a total surprise.

I’ve read that this might be the last of the Hannah Ives mysteries. I am sorry to hear it. I so enjoy spending time with her and her family and friends.

Linear A and B

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I am fascinated by words and language. I’m not sure if that is because I’m a big reader or I became a reader and eventually an author because of it.

In any event, when I began researching the Minoans for my latest series, (In the shadow of the Bull and On the Horns of Death),

I quickly ran into the question of these old, probably the oldest, written languages. Unlike the hieroglyphics, which were finally deciphered thanks to the Rosetta Stone, Linear A and B resisted decoding.

Linear A, which was used by the Minoans, still has not been deciphered. And Linear B was not deciphered until the 1950s. An Englishman from Hertfordshire, Michael Ventris, finally succeeded, using a multi-disciplinary approach.

Tablets with this writing have been found in Knossos and Pylos, as well as other places, and was very early on recognized as the earliest form of Greek. Deciphering changed the way we understand the Aegean Bronze Age, especially the complex societal structures and the far flung trade networks. Linear B has been determined to be a very early form of Greek

I suspect when Linear A is deciphered, it will include primarily trade information but we can hope it will open a window into this exotic and still mysterious culture.

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As I begin preparing for Malice Domestic, (I am moderating a panel on setting ), I read a book by a featured author. Peril in the Pool House by Judy L. Murray, is the third in the Chesapeake Bay series.

At an open house party, thrown for the announcement of Eliot Davies’ candidacy as well as a welcome to their old, thoroughly renovated house, the body of Eliot’s campaign manager is found stabbed to death in the pool house. Who could have wanted this woman dead?

Helen Morrisey, the realtor who sold Eliot and his wife the house, and sometime detective, begins to poke around. Although warned off by her off and on love interest Joe McAlister, Helen knows Eliot and Alison have sunk every penny into the house – turned into a B & B – and they’ll lose everything unless the murderer is found.

Helen is an engaging detective with an unusual Detective Club. It is an imaginary one including such luminaries as Jane Marple and Nancy Drew.

I enjoyed this so much that I will go back to the first one and read all three. Lots of fun.

I also read The Paris Mistress by Mally Becker.

This is the third of the Revolutionary War series. I have enjoyed all of them but this one is my favorite so far.

Becca, along with her mother Hannah and mother-in-law Augusta, travel to France to meet Daniel Alloway. Becca and Daniel plan to marry in France. Almost immediately, Benjamin Franklin asks Becca and Daniel to listen and report back. Franklin knows there is a spy in his household reporting to England. Reluctantly, the couple agrees.

The visit goes from bad to worse. The body of the young man, Jude Fenimore, who’d traveled to France on the same ship with Becca, is found dead on the roof of Franklin’s house. The magistrates in France refuse to allow Becca and Daniel to marry (all for frustrating bureaucratic reasons) and Daniel is attacked.

Now Daniel insists Becca, her mother and mother-in-law return home before something else happens.

Highly recommended.

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L.A. Chandlar is the moderator for my Murderous March panel, The Reluctant Sleuth, on March 9. Since I will be reading all the books for my panel mates, I decided to read hers as well.

The Silver Gun.

Chandlar’s series, The Silver Gun is the first, is called the Art Deco mysteries. They take place in the late 1930’s in New York City. This is after Jimmie Walker and Tamany Hall. Fiorella LaGuardia is currently mayor and on a mission to clean up the city.

Lane has been his assistant for six months. Life is exciting as she rushes around, trying to keep up with his schedule. But then she is thrust onto the subway tracks right in front of an oncoming train. Then she realizes a gangster is following her. He doesn’t trouble to hide it, grinning at her and making threatening gestures.

What is going on? Lane had to understand her own past, and the mystery of her parents’ deaths, before she can figure out why the gangsters have targeted her.

An illicit romance with a mysterious many further complicates Lane’s life.

This is a lot of fun. Recommended.