Slavery and the Will Rees Mysteries

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When I first began writing the Will Rees mysteries, I made a conscious decision to avoid jumping into that messy part of our history. Not because I didn’t think it was important, I did, but I didn’t think I was ready to navigate this serious subject. I allude to it in several books. In Death of a Dyer, for example, I mention the two people stolen from the village street by slave takers. This becomes important later.

Many books later, I wanted to set a mystery in the Great Dismal Swamp. Even now, although much smaller than it was 300 years ago, is still a pretty hostile environment. I’ve posted before about that previously. Anyway, fugitives from neighboring plantations, the escapees were called Maroons, set up small communities in the swamp. Tobias, the man stolen in Death of a Dyer, escapes and asks Rees to help recover his wife, now living in the swamp. Rees and Lydia travel to Virginia to do that and, of course, run smack into a murder.

Death in the Great Dismal forced me to confront slavery head on with characters who were so desperate for freedom they fled to the dangerous and forbidding swamp.

I continue the story in Murder on Principle. In the previous book, Rees and Lydia have rescued a couple of the enslaved people.

In Murder on Principle, the owner comes looking for them, bringing a grudge and smallpox that sweeps through the village. When he is found murdered, suspicion falls on the people Rees has brought north. I posed several ethical questions. One, if the slave owner intended to recover the people he thought of as his property, would they be guilty of murdering him or was it self-defense? How far does loyalty and friendship go in a case of murder? Are Tobias and Ruth justified in their anger at Rees for suspecting them? And finally, should Rees turn the murderer over to the constable or, considering the circumstances, let him go free? And what about the escaped slave who has lived in the north for years and is suddenly confronted with the prospect of recapture?

In Murder, Sweet Murder, I send the family to Boston. Lydia’s father has been accused of murder. Lydia, who has been estranged from her father for years, is reluctant to go and we soon learn why. He is a slave trader – despite the fact that Boston was the center of the Abolition movement.

Even though I do not address the issue of slavery in The Long Shadow of Murder directly, I feature the ripple effect of some of the actions taken during Murder on Principle. It is not just war that leaves people with PTSD but previous decisions and consequences from those decisions.

Currently Reading

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I regularly read Science fiction and this week, on the advice of a friend, I read Project Hail Mary. It doesn’t hurt that Ryan Gosling will be starring in a movie soon.

A lone astronaut wakes up with no memory of who he is or what he is doing in this metal room with two corpses. Gradually, as his memories returns, he remembers he is Ryland Grace, scientist/school science teacher, on a mission to save humanity. And how did he go from scientist to teacher? He disagreed with the establishment and left research in a huff.

A space microbe, named by Grace as Astrophage, has infected the sun and is drawing the energy away in such large amounts the sun’s output will diminish by several percent. All life on earth will perish and the Hail Mary project is an effort to reach Tau Ceti and find out why it is not infected. The space ship, hastily cobbled together by the nations of earth, and with three crew members from different countries, have been put into induced comas and sent on this dangerous and likely to fail mission.

And then, as Grace enters the Tau Ceti system, he is met by an alien ship.

There are so many twists and turns in this novel, it is hard to keep up. This is truly hard science fiction, full of physics and math. (It at least all sounds plausible.) I very much liked Grace’s reasons for, not only helping with the research, but pushing his way onto the ship. As a teacher, he feels the kids he teaches are HIS kids so he has a stake in saving them, a feeling I both agree with and totally understand.

Highly Recommended.

PTSD and Will Rees

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In the newest Will Rees mystery, I look at several serious themes. One is PTSD. Although not called that in 1802, or for almost three centuries afterward, I am sure that it existed. We know that ‘battle fatigue’ was PTSD. (In WWI, women went around handing white feathers for cowardice to able-bodied men home from war, no doubt making already traumatized men feel worse.)

I remember working with a patron at a library in the nineties. A car backfiring outside caused the man to drop to the floor in reaction. He was the right age to be a Vietnam vet. It was scary for all of us, especially him. His wife had to come and collect him.

In The Long Shadow of Murder, we discover that Rees joined the Continental Army when he was sixteen and served at Jockey Hollow and Valley Forge, both of which have come down to us as beyond terrible. Ephraim Sewell, a young man who is considering joining the Shakers, was even younger, following his brother into war at eleven.

Both are haunted by their wartime experiences. Although Rees has managed to put the memories aside and move forward with a wife and family, Ephraim still has nightmares. The stew of grief and guilt has kept him fixed at that point in time and cost him his family and his farm.

Other characters are also suffering. One from events that occur in A Murder on Principle; the other from the behavior of the British soldiers during the Revolutionary War. As I describe, they took everything they could, stealing chicken and livestock, commandeered people’s houses, and raped women. The resentment felt by the colonists increased accordingly.

TSDAlthough the Revolutionary War happened twenty five years before the action in Long Shadow, and the murder in this novel, the trauma experienced by the different characters continue to affect, not only the characters themselves, but also all the people around them.

Currently Reading

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After a week’s vacation in Maine, I am resuming my usual schedule. During this week, I read the latest by C. S. Harris.

Who will remember is Harris’ twentieth Sebastian St. Cyr mystery. I’ve read all of these books and enjoyed them all.

1816, the year without a summer. A young ragged boy appears at St. Cyr’s home and tells him there is a dead body hanging by one foot in a ruined chapel. St. Cyr investigates and discovers it is. What’s more, it is a Nobel, brother of one of the Regent’s boon companions. The victim, Farnsworth, is well-known as a crusader against crime, sin, immorality.

But as St. Cyr investigates, he discovers Farnsworth may not be the good and pure man many believe.

And what is the link with the Frenchman who may be an assassin sent by Marie-Therese, daughter of Louis and Marie-Antoinette, and the sole remaining member of her family?

The setting – Regency England with glaring economic inequality – and the poor who struggle to survive is beautifully rendered. Another winner! Highly recommended.

Weaving and history

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Hand weaving has been inextricably linked in history from neolithic times right up to the Industrial Revolution. Weaving was a profession. Men (and the professionals were mostly men) had an apprenticeship of between seven and nine years. (That changes one’s view of the Luddites, who were seeing the end of their professions, doesn’t it?)

Weaving has now been mechanized but the machines follow the same process that modern looms employ.

Previous looms were much simpler. The Egyptians looms were similar to those used by Navahos.

The weavers in South America use a backstrap loom, where the warp goes around the back, and the tension is controlled by the weaver. Patterns are memorized.

Modern looms look more like this.

They all utilize sticks that separate the threads in the warp and make a cross. The shuttle carries the weft threads through it. Anyone who has ever woven a potholder on a little frame knows that the threads have to go over and under to make a mat.

Looms were very expensive and heavy so if a woman wove, she did so in her home.

We have words in English that memorialize this craft; for example: heirloom, i.e. heir loom.

In the Will Rees mysteries, his weaving supports his family.

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Rita Todacheen is a forensic photographer, an unusual choice for a Navaho. Navahos avoid death; Rita is photographing the dead every dat. She also sees ghosts, a gift/curse that she has had her whole life. Now she is haunted by a murder victim, Erma, who insists Rita find out who murdered her.

More murders, one of a judge and a family, begin to push Rita onto the path to discovering the murderer.

This has a real Sixth Sense vibe. I found the identity of the murderer fairly easy to figure out and the mystery is somewhat overwhelmed by the ghost angle.

Still, unusual and captivating. Recommended.

Foul Play in La Playa is the fourth and the newest in the Vermont Country Living Series. In this outing, the Buckleys accompany their friends Alma and Sheriff Mills to Mexico for a destination wedding. First, Stella and Nick discover that the previous occupant of their cottage was murdered. Then, barely a few days later, one of the other guests is found murdered.

In certain mysteries, the victim is so unpleasant that the reader thinks he or she deserves it. This is one of those cases. Georgie is a vile woman who ferrets out secrets and then blackmails the secret holder. Naturally, the mystery turns out to be far more complicated than that.

Another winner. I hope Meade continues with this series. It is stellar!

Currently Reading

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First, a shoutout to let everyone know I’ll be at Clifton Park Mall this Saturday, June 21, 10 – 4. There will be a lot of authors there and so a lot of fun.

This week I read two very good books.

The first was the new one by well-established author, Anne Perry. The One Thing More takes place during the French Revolution on the eve of the execution of the King. Celie, born into minor aristocracy, is now a laundress. She is also working with a group trying to arrange the King’s escape. Several other people, including the owner of the house, are not only involved but leaders. But the plans are halted when Bernave, the house’s owner and the leader of the plot, is murdered during an incursion by a mob. Who murdered Bernave and why? Now the house is surrounded by the police, including the dogged Menou. Celie, in an effort to connect with another plotter, has to go over the roofs.

The murderer and the motive are not identified until almost the final page after some pretty hair raising scenes. Perry has not lost her touch. Recommended.

Death upon a Star is Amy Patricia Meade’s newest mystery. Evelyn Galloway travels to Hollywood in the late thirties to work as a script girl for Alfred Hitchcock on Rebecca. On Evelyn’s first day, she meets a kind older actor who had been a silent movie star. They make arrangements to meet for lunch the following day but he doesn’t show. Evelyn can’t let it go and begins her own sub rosa investigation.

Meade’s trademark humor and interesting characters are on full display but the real star is the setting. From the activity in the studio to the long ago stars to Alfred Hitchcock himself, Meade hits every note perfectly. Although not as funny as the Country Living series, Death Upon a Star is charming and fun. It deserves a wide readership. Recommended.

Inventions by Shakers

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Besides their skill at building furniture and buildings, the Shakers were also talented inventors. (This does make one wonder if celibacy creates strengths in other areas!)

Besides improving on various types of machinery, they invented the flat broom, seed packets, metal pen nibs and metal chimney caps, an improved plow, the circular saw, and a prototype of a washing machine called a washing mill. (Some of these are discussed at the Hancock Village museum).

The washing line was another, and this really interested me – they also invented a substance that helped clothing being washed and ironed from wrinkling. This was almost 150 years before modern technology caught up.

As you can see from the list, the inventions covered the gamut and were not restricted to primarily male tasks. Some, like the future washing machine and the non-wrinkle powder, were later marketed by the outside world as ‘labor saving’ devices. This community valued work of all kinds.

I find them endlessly fascinating.

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Game over at Guild Hall in the third in the Vermont Country Living Mystery series. In this outing, the Buckleys are invited to attend at Game Supper at the Guild Hall. Not a sports game supper or a board game supper but a game meat supper. The object is to sample all of the game recipes: venison stew, bear meatballs and the like.

The supper does not turn out as planned. An young man, Mudd Morrison, angry that his ‘gleaned’ meat (read roadkill) is not included, confronts organizer Bessent. He is sent on his way but a short while later Bessent drops dead, poisoned.

Later that night, Stella sees a light at the guild hall as someone searches Bessent’s office.

She begins to dig into the mystery, discovering that Bessent’s game supper has created quite a few enemies, from the exhausted volunteers, to Mudd Morrison, to the environmentalist who is worried about sustainability, even the local priest.

Then, in the middle of all this, Stella’s mother arrives unexpectedly with a catastrophe of her own.

And I can’t forget the talking dog. Yes, seriously. Truly funny.

The Nick and Nora Charles vibe is alive and well, the characters are offbeat but never implausible, the mystery is intriguing. I love this series and can’t wait for the fourth installment. A must read.