Sleep in Heavenly Pizza (the fourth of Mindy Quigley’s Deep Dish Pizza series) starts with a bang at a holiday party for a wealthy family. Delilah follows one of the women upstairs and quickly realizes something is going on. The undercurrents continue, culminating in the discovery of bare feet and ankles protruding from a snow mound at the annual snow sculpture festival. Delilah identifies the feet and Capone, the detective in charge, and her boyfriend, reveals that the body also wore no clothes.
What is going on?
Added to this puzzle is Melody’s jealousy of the wealthy friend of Delilah’s niece, who is flirting with the sexy bartender, and Rabbit’s jumpiness. What is going on with him? A recovering alcoholic, and a felon, he has been a model employee up to now. Delilah worries he has fallen off the wagon.
Another fun and charming cozy. The recipes at the back are an added bonus.
The thistle and the rose, by Linda Porter, is a biography of Margaret Tudor.
Sister to Henry VIII and wife to James IV of Scotland, Margaret was married by age 14. James was almost thirty. She bore James six children, although only two survived: James V and his younger brother (who also died young.) Margaret was widowed in her early twenties when James was killed at Flodden.
A woman in a very patriarchal time, and in a foreign country, Margaret fought hard to hold on to the crown. The angry nobles of Scotland put the Duke of Albany over her as regent and her two boys were removed from her care. She was confined to Stirling Castle. This, despite her husband’s will, which specifically named as regent of his sons.
After a hasty remarriage, a disaster as the one that followed, and seven months pregnant, Margaret escaped captivity and fled to England and the not so tender embrace of her brother. Henry resented her, and resented him in turn and refused to obey his commands or allow him to control his life.
Margaret was really a remarkable woman. Her son, James V, became king largely because of his mother’s efforts.
The biography reads almost like fiction and is quite captivating. Highly Recommended.
Last week I blogged about the history of men’s jewelry. Today I read an article in BBC History with an interesting side note.
The article concerned the mystery of whether Richard III murdered the princes in the Tower. To summarize the history: In 1483, Edward IV’s sons were 12 and 9 at the time of the King’s death. Because Edward V was too young to rule, his uncle Richard of Gloucester was appointed Lord Protector to rule until his nephew was old enough. Shortly thereafter, he put the princes in the Tower.
Over the summer, they were seen less and less and by the end of the summer they were never seen again. At the time it was assumed Richard had murdered them. By then, he’d declared them illegitimate and taken the crown for himself.
In 1674, the skeletons of two children were discovered under a staircase in the Tower, close to where the prince had been kept. They were buried and although they were exhumed in the 30’s, the results of the analysis weren’t conclusive.
People who believe Richard murdered the boys rely on an account by Thomas More who wrote a detailed explanation of what happened and who was guilty. The skeptics believe More’s account was propaganda put forth by the Tudors.
However, the men More accuses were real people: Miles Forrest and John Dighton, and were carried out on the orders of Sir James Tyrell. He was Richard III’s right hand man and fiercely loyal. A will was also discovered which mentioned a gold chain (told you there was jewelry involved) that belonged to young Edward V. As I mentioned previously, gold chairs and jewels were frequently given as rewards to favored individuals. This chain was owned by a wealthy woman who was the sister-in-law of Sir James Tyrell. Tyrell’s lawyer was also a man named John More, the father of Thomas More. So we have a web of connections as well as a physical object.
Considering how desperately some people long for power (why, they might even invade an innocent country), the evidence here sounds pretty plausible. We may never know for sure, though, since there are no forensics except for the skeletons and tests on them have proven nothing.
I read several books while I was on vacation (somewhere warm!), I read several books. But I want to focus on one: Three inch teeth by C.J. Box.
This is one of the newest (24 of 25) by Box and continues his Joe Pickett series.
This reads less like a mystery than an adventure story since we know from the beginning what is actually happening. The novel begins with a bang when the young man courting Sheridan, Pickett’s daughter, is attacked and killed by a grizzly bear. The situation rapidly becomes far more complicated when there are multiple murders all over Wyoming.
Simultaneously, Dallas Cates, a violent prisoner who swore vengeance on Joe, his friend Nate, and others is released from prison. He hooks up with Soledad, another enemy of Nate and Joe, and the two plan to murder the men they see as their enemies.
Action and violence filled. My own criticism is that MaryBeth plays a very small role in this one.
Except for a wedding band or signet ring, in our culture men wearing chains or earrings was thought to be effeminate. That certainly has not been the case in the past. In fact, men have worn jewelry since the Neolithic. Then, they wore necklaces of teeth or claws, usually from an animal they themselves had hunted and killed. They were a sign of fierceness and hunting prowess.
In the Minoan times, men wore the fancy belts around their waists, just like the women. The frescoes show them wearing necklaces, armbands and earrings of precious metals and gems.
Ancient Egyptians not only wore earrings but armbands and large, heavy pectorals of gold and jewels. This fashion is clearly illustrated in the frescoes. Mummies were buried with their jewelry, not just the elite but common folk as well although the earrings might be made of bone instead of gold. Wearing silver and gold and precious gems was a sign of wealth and status. King Tutankhamun was buried with many pairs of earrings as well as other jewelry. Here’s an odd tidbit; statues of cats display earrings and jewelry has been found in the burials of sacred animals such as the Apis bulls. I find it hard to imagine the cats and dogs I’ve known putting up with earrings for a minute.
In the Renaissance, men wore heavy chains and massive rings, again as a symbol of wealth and status. (I suggest that the same is true of men today.Just look at the rappers and the hiphop stars.)
But what about earrings? A man wearing earrings has taken longer to become acceptable. I know I was startled when I saw a young man wearing diamond earrings that any woman would desire. But earrings have always been just as much a man’s adornment as a woman’s.
Pirates frequently wore earrings. Besides adorning themselves, the earrings could pay for a funeral if he died while on land. No one could accuse a pirate of effeminacy.
Jewelry has also been used as an award or prize. A new sailor had the privilege to put on a ring when he crossed the equator. European kings regularly rewarded a favorite with a piece of jewelry.
ashiI don’t wear too much jewelry – too lazy I guess – but I enjoy seeing it on other people.
This past week I read two books that could not be more different, both suggested to me by Amazon.
While I read Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan, I kept thinking that it had a very old fashioned feel. The action takes place at a Christmas Party, at a fancy house, in the snow. The detective, Mordecai Tremaine, is a bland fellow with piece-nez.
Christmas morning, the guests are shocked to find the body of a fellow guest wearing a Santa suit. He is the guardian of a young girl. (This is where the old-fashioned nature appears; the description of the girl, and the other women in fact, is very dated.) As usual, as Tremaine investigates, he discovers everyone has secrets, from Benedict Grame’s sister (planning to elope) to the seemingly dull married couple, to Benedict himself.
Dated in some respects but the mystery holds up. Recommended.
The second book I read was Singapore Sapphire.
Harriet Gordon has moved to Singapore to live with her brother after a stint in Holloway prison for her activities as a suffragette. Her brother is a minister and the headmaster of a boys’ school. Desperate for some income, she advertises her services as a stenographer and typist. When she goes to the home of her first client, Sir Oswald Newbold, to retrieve her typewriter, she finds his body. This introduces her to Robert Curran, the Detective Inspector of the Police force. Needless to say, Harriet involves herself in the investigation. She develops a friendship with Curran, something she wishes would be more. But he is already involved with a beautiful Chinese woman.
This mystery has it all: interesting characters, an exotic and well-drawn locale, and a captivating mystery.
Since I like to cook, I find researching the food eaten in the different times I write about in my books fascinating. I own several Shaker cookbooks as well as one of the first written (from the late 1700s). (I also own multiple ethnic cookbooks, several Amish, a Middle Ages and Elizabethan cookbooks, and a handwritten cookbook with old recipes handed down by family from the Depression.
I do not, of course, own anything from the Bronze Age Crete mysteries. Not only have we not decoded Linear A, but archaeologists are still excavating and interpreting what they find. Although we know that the Ancient Minoans had grapes and made wine, as well as olives, and olive oil, the rest of their diet is a little mysterious. We are not even sure they ate cheese, although right now theories tend toward yes. Researching what they ate has been a challenge. I assumed they drank an herbal tea and we know they drank beer as well as wine. Since barley was grown throughout the region, it is generally thought that was part of their diet. And since almond trees grow on Crete, we can be pretty sure they ate almonds.
The diet in early America tended to be meat heavy. Farmers had poke, although the pigs were almost feral and allowed to run wild. Cattle, sheep, poultry – all of it could end up on the dinner table. They also consumed game of various types. One of the recipes I saw began ‘tie the front legs of the turtle together.’ Venison is heavily featured. I have several recipes for squirrel (without any direction for cleaning or skinning). One begins with ‘cut two squirrels into pieces’, and ends with ;young squirrels can be fried.’ All I can is say is EWW.
The old time New England cookbook has fewer meat recipes but a lot involving lobsters, oysters, clams and so on. As one would expect.
What surprised me about the Medieval and Elizabethan cookbooks was the amount of spice and sugar used. These must have been food for the wealthy while the poorer folk ate cabbage.
Probably my favorites among these old cookbooks, though, are the Shaker ones. The Shaker Sisters cooked for a crowd so everything is in large amounts. They were famous for their foods, their cider, their seeds. They probably ate the best of anyone.
But what I like is those cookbooks contain extensive baking chapters. All kinds of bread, cakes, cookies and pies. Their potato bread is great, although it makes many more loaves than I need. The one failure that I’ve tried is the recipe for lemon pie. The lemons are sliced thin, covered with sugar, and baked in a crust. It was unbearably sour.
The Depression recipes include such items as navy bean hash, fried bean patties, and desserts such as tomato soup cake and grape pudding. Eggs and sugar were expensive so they were kept to a minimum or left out altogether (usually with some odd substitution.)
On the recommendation of a friend from my writing group (Mally Becker of the Mavens of Mayhem), I read Murder once removed by S.C. Perkins.
The detective/protagonist is a genealogist who researches family histories. She is researching the family history of Gus Halloran and discovers an ancestor was murdered. Halloran wants to know who murdered his ancestor and Lucy narrows down the field to two possibilities. Halloran chooses Applewhite, the ancestor of a current state senator.
Things spiral out of control. Files and Photos are stoles from another descendent and Lucy is threatened.
The mystery turns out not to be so simple and, of course, involves property and money.
I loved this. The characters, not just Lucy but her best friends Roxanne and Serena, are fun and the information about genealogy and family relationships is fascinating.
Right now, in New York where I live, it is 27 degrees. Last night it dropped to 7 and earlier this week it was 3.
The pipes in the house didn’t freeze but the outflow from the sink did. When I filled it with hot water in preparation for washing my good knives and some of the other things that cannot go into the dishwasher, I realized that the water was not draining. At all. So now, all the dishes in the dishwasher and that were waiting for washing must be washed in the bathroom sink. What fun!
That prompted me to think of the past. No dishwashers. In fact, no electricity at all. I might have to step outside into the freezing cold to use the outhouse or to pump water. No hot showers. The house might be heated by a fireplace. How cold would that be when the temperatures are at 7?
How much water would I need to pump, and then heat, to do laundry? And where would I put it to dry, in a basically unheated house?
We got about 8 inches of snow a few days ago. By 11 a.m. the next day, the plows had cleared the roads. My husband went out with a snow blower to clear the driveway and the walk. What would 8 inches of snow have done to travel plans in the past? In the 1700s and 1800s, horses and/or sleighs would have been the option.
This doesn’t even touch on the rapid communication we enjoy. If I want my husband to pick up something from the store, all I have to do is text him. Yes, we really have many amenities now. I am glad I don’t live in early America, the time of Will Rees.
I’ve been a fan of Elaine Viets since she wrote the Dead End jobs mysteries. (Very funny if you haven’t yet read any.) A few years ago, she turned to a new series. Angela Richman is a Death Scene investigator which is fascinating to read about in itself. A Star is Dead is the third in the series.
Angela becomes involved in the death of a famous, but now older movie star, Jessica Gray. She has transitioned to a stand up comic. As the last bit, she has three homeless women come on the stage and strip, humiliating them, while delighting most of her audience.
Jessica is suffering a severe respiratory disease and during a coughing fit, seizes and dies. Murder of course. And Angela’s good friend Mario, hair stylist extraordinaire, is arrested for the crime. Angela is determined to prove his innocence. She is convinced that someone else, probably one of the three members of Jessica’s coterie, committed the crime.
At the same time, one of the homeless women is murdered and Angela looks into a few other crimes.
I enjoyed the mystery and did not guess who Jessica’s murderer was. My only complaint is that Angela and the police are so obtuse they don’t pick up several of the clues, clues I thought were obvious. Still, an enjoyable mystery. Recommended.
