Tag Archives: mysteries

Sisters in Crime blog hop

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As part of Sisters in Crime SINC-UP blog round robin (www.sistersincrime.org/BlogHop) I thought I would address the question: what authors have inspired you?

 

First and foremost, Agatha Christie. I have read all of her books, some of them multiple times. The success of the many dramatizations and most recently the PBS series, several with different actresses for Miss Marple and of course the wonderful David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, speaks to the enduring popularity of Christie’s works. There is even a new Hercule Poirot mystery coming out by a different author who, in an article in Library Journal, said she was trying to remain faithful to the original character.

 

Why is Christie so popular?

 

Certainly not her characters. Although I find her detectives interesting, Christie employs a variety of stock characters: the silly maid, the ne’er-do-well heir, the wealthy older widow, the vicar and so on. The most interesting thing that can be said of these characters is that they hearken back to an era where middle class families had maids. This is a time not too distant from our own – I know people who remember the thirties – but in many ways it is as much a foreign country to us as ancient Rome.

 

But the plots, the plots are incomparable. She plays fair and always puts in enough clues so a really sharp reader can figure out the ending. But she is skilled at putting in a lot of red herrings so unraveling the puzzle is not so easy.

 

She is the Queen of amateur detectives. Miss Marple and Poirot and Tommy and Tuppence and the others do not operate in a world of writs, and Miranda warnings and all the rest. That’s why her detectives have to explain the resolution to identify the killer. Then the killer has to confess so either a tame policeman like DCI Japp can haul him away or he (or she) can commit suicide, thereby saving the police from having to develop a case with pesky things like evidence. I appreciate that model since I write historical mysteries set in a time without a framework of laws and law enforcement professionals. And that doesn’t even mention aids like fingerprints or DNA.

 

Other inspirations are Barbara Hambly (writer of the Benjamin January mysteries set in the New Orleans of the 1830’s). Now, her characters I find unforgettable, and not just January himself. His sisters, his friends, even the murderers he hunts are all fully-fleshed out characters. Ask me to tell you the story of even the first January novel, which I read years ago, and I can. They are that memorable.

 

The other piece she does really really well is setting. What a strange culture this was, exotic and captivating all at once. In my opinion, an author not to be missed.

 

Another author who is rightly famous is the incomparable Anne Perry. She is very good at evoking the setting: Victorian England with all its pretensions and hypocrisy, especially sexual hypocrisy. But I read her primarily for her characters, especially the Charlotte and Pitt series. I feel as if I know them personally. Any author can aspire to writing such believable characters.

 

Finally, there are the wonderful Ellis Peters’s Cadfael mysteries. The medieval setting and the world of the cloister is so real it serves almost as another character.

 

Surely there are male authors who have inspired me? Indeed. One of my absolute favorites is Peter Tremayne, a pseudonym for a Celtic scholar. He writes about seventh century Ireland and Sister Fidelma. A woman who is both a religious and a brehon (judge). During the course of the series she marries, this early form of Christianity was quite different than the form that became known as Roman Catholicism.

 

Surely there are other writers I read? Of course. I loved the 87th precinct by Ed McBain but more as something different from my own experience. I enjoyed the Tony Hillerman mysteries. He did such a good job of putting you into the Navaho experience and both Chee and Leaphorn are wonderful characters. I’m glad Anne Hillerman has taken on her father’s mantle and is continuing the series. C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett mysteries and the superb Longmire mysteries from Craig Johnson are character driven and action filled mysteries.

 

But it is the historical mysteries that I read of tips on ‘how to do it’. The setting is not just a background for the characters and the unraveling of the mystery, but an integral part of the mystery itself.  So you might find that a Crusader, infected with leprosy, is both judge and murderer. Or syphilis is the cause of a graveyard of dead babies. Or a passionate religious disagreement leads to murder.

 

I try hard to match such seamless interweaving of mystery, character and setting but although easy to admire, it is very hard to do.

Check out other blogs by some of the Sisters in crime blog hop and also my special friend Dora Machado at htttp://www.doramachado.com/

More about the Friendship

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In 1783 The Grand Turk, a merchant vessel not unlike the Friendship, set sail for the East When it returned with a cargo of pepper from Sumatra, Derby (the owner of The Grand Turk) made a profit of 700%.

After that, merchant ships began sailing back and forth to Turkey, India and finally China. Before the War for Independence, Great Britain had a lock on this trade, and they continued to try and maintain their hold. They stopped American vessels, impressed the seamen, blockaded the coast and otherwise made nuisances of themselves. Needless to say, all it really did was inflame passions and set the stage for the War of 1812.

By the time Will Rees visits Salem, it is sixth largest city in the US and the richest. And all that wealth rested on the backs of the sailors.

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Crews quarters. And a sailor didn’t ‘t ‘own’ your bunk either, but took whatever was available. The first mate’s quarters and captain’s quarters were marginally better. At least they had a whole room, not a large one but something to themselves.

first mate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

captain's quarters

 

 

 The captain had windows.

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the hold was designed for cargo but it was put below – where the crew slept – as well.

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Honestly, I felt claustrophobic the first few minutes I was down there.

More about American music

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When my husband and I were in Greece this past summer and went down to breakfast that first morning, a woman at a nearby table suddenly burst into a James Brown song. No lyrics, just the hook, bookended by a flood of Greek.

Although we haven’t had members of the native populations bursting into song in other countries, we have heard American music everywhere. Perhaps I should say American/British since the Stones and Led Zeppelin are well represented. As tourists, we hear plenty of the native Greek or Peruvian or other local music but the pop music is all the music we grew up with. And even the Stones and other British Bands we hear have been heavily influenced by the Blues, R and B and so on.

American music is one of our greatest exports, along with our movies.

And the interesting thing is that the ‘melting pot’ of the United States is really obvious in the music. From the Chansons Profanes of the French trappers, to the work songs (the sea shanties and field hollers), the drums of the Native Americans and of course the rhythmic music of the black slaves, American music is a combination that has really gone everywhere. (Think the popularity of Metallica in Japan!)

The history of rock from its beginnings in Blues is well documented but of course there have been other important influences, all ending up in James Brown sung by a Greek.

Shakers and the Simple Life

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The Shakers formed in the middle of the 1700’s and moved to the United States in 1774. So, at the time of  “The Simple Murder” in 1795 they were already established and rapidly growing. During the mid- nineteenth century the Shakers numbered between 4,000 and 5,000 members living in 19 communities that stretched from Maine to Kentucky. Several of these remain as museums. The converted community in Hancock, Mass has  interpretive guides after the Williamsburg model:  www.hancockshakervillage.org. Today, there are still three living Shakers residing in the Sabbathday Lake community near Auburn, Maine.

The more formal name for the Shakers, which they gave themselves, was United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, or the Believers for short, but they were called The Shaking Quakers for the dancing, singing and twirling in their services. They also called their Church the Millennium Church since they expected their Church to last a thousand years.

            From the very beginning women played a significant role in the formation and shape of the sect. Ann Lee, who joined in 1758, claimed revelations regarding the fall of Adam and Eve, and preached celibacy. She became a highly influential and revered leader, called Mother Ann by her followers.  Many of her admonitions became part of the Shaker canon.

               “Good spirits will not live where there is dirt.”

            “Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you were to die tomorrow.”