This past week I read Dachshund Through the Snow by David Rosenfelt. I love these books. They are funny and with good mysteries as well.
In this one, Andy Carpenter is persuaded by his wife and by a Christmas wish from a young boy, to bring his father home. But he doesn’t want to be found. He knows he is suspected of a murder that happened long ago, a murder he assures Carpenter he didn’t commit.
As he investigates, Carpenter begins to believe the young man is telling the truth. Especially after several people assigned to watch Carpenter are murdered. Then another man who was asking questions.
Sure enough, the case is way more complicated than it first appears. But Andy pursues it to the end and justice is served.
Bulls in Ancient Crete were sacred. We know that from the murals and the statuary that show how valuable the bull was. Rhytons, drinking cups, were even made in the shape of a horned bulls head. I’ve certainly discussed at length the ritual of bull leaping. Teenagers, little more than kids actually, ran at a charging bull, grabbing the horns, and flipping over the beast.
These are not out modern bulls either. These were bulls that were especially fast. They are not extinct, a poacher killed the last one that was housed in a Polish zoo.
How do we know about this ritual? Well, anyone who knows the Theseus myth is familiar with the minotaur. Athens had to send 14 tributes to Knossos; 7 boys and 7 girls. In the myth, they face the minotaur in the labyrinth. Theseus, with the aid of a ball of string and a sword given him by the king’s daughter Ariadne, defeats the minotaur.Frescoes from Knossos show they teenagers leaping over a charging bull. Another member of the team caught the jumper. There seems to be no doubt this ritual occurred.
What is behind the veneration of the bull? I’ve read varying explanations. Is it because the Bull represented the male principle, even in a society with a Supreme Goddess? Is it because of the connection with Poseidon. also a God in this culture. (I have mentioned previously how much the Classical Greeks borrowed from the Minoans).
A stylized version of the bull’s horns, called the Horns of Consecration, were used everywhere. Examples have survived in Knossos.
Our Lady of the Overlook, by R.L. Carpentier III is a police procedural.
Mike Ellis is a rookie cop, working under the shadow of his father. Charles Ellis had been the police chief in the little town for years.
Now it looks like history is repeating itself. Mike Ellis finds the body of a woman murdered, at the overlook, just like his father had forty years ago. Although Mike’s investigation takes a heavy toll on him, he pursues it to the end. Mike’s character evolves and changes as he faces truths that are, at best, uncomfortable.
The mystery takes a little while to get started but once it does, I couldn’t put the book down. I’m glad Carpentier has planned a trilogy as I have already ordered the second one in the series.
I am a big fan of the Shetland mysteries (Vera and Jimmy Perez.)Several years have passed and Jimmy has settled into his new home in the Orkneys with his partner Willow Reeves.
One night, during a terrible storm, a close friend disappears and is found murdered. A Neolithic story stone is found next to his body. Jimmy is heartbroken. Archie Stout was as close as a brother. And Jimmy is too close: questioning Archie’s wife and family is difficult.
And rumors – about Archie’s relationship with a young artist, as well as concerns about a television star and his wife, swirl about the island. But Jimmy, assisted by Willow, preserves to the tragic solution.
I finished the final two entries for the Wren Winters series, at least up to now.
In the second outing, Wren and her friends are thrilled at the invitation to appear on the podcast of a popular influencer. But Noelle collapses and by the time the police arrive, she is dead. Noelle, it becomes clear, was being threatened online. Further investigation turns up a jealous ex, a former business partner, and a sister determined to force Noelle offline.
Then Wren’s. pink haired librarian friend begins to display similar symptoms. Now Wren and her friends have to hurry before Esther follows Noelle to the grave.
Wren and her friends head off to a gaming con. Wren is reluctant, because this was the exact convention her beloved husband Marcus attended before his death. Wren soon realizes that the jealousies and rivalries between the members are dangerous and when two of the women are murdered, and then Wren herself is attacked, she realizes the case goes all the way back to Marcus and his death. Once declared an accident, it is obvious he too was murdered. Was it by the same person? And why?
I really enjoy these books. The gaming world is a fresh and original setting (and one I, a former D&D player revel in) and the mysteries are complicated and intriguing. I hope this is not the last we’ve seen of Wren Winters and her posse.
Sam, Candie and the gang are involved in another adventure. In this outing, Hank’s brother Aaron (Hank is Sam’s squeeze) is in town and involved with Joy, the daughter of the owner of the diner. A barbecue contest sees a bank manager make a pass at Joy. Aaron leaves in to defend his girlfriend. When the bank manager is found squashed to death by a pumpkin, Aaron is a prime suspect.
But there are many suspects, all with strong motives for wishing Edgar dead.
Lots of fun. The pet parade with all the pets in fancy costumes was a highlight. And I have to give Kazlo credit for finding some of the strangest methods of murder ever. Not only the 2000 pound pumpkin, but an outhouse, a bag of dogwood and so on.
With the USA’s 250th birthday coming up, there has been several books about the American Revolution.for example: The American Revolution: An Intimate History, by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns and a new Burns’ documentary. I was particularly interested in the section on smallpox.
Like Covid-19, smallpox was a viral disease and greatly feared.The initial symptoms were similar to the flu, Covid-19 and many other viral diseases: fever, muscle pain, fatigue and headache. Before the distinctive rash erupted, small reddish spots appeared on mucous membranes of the mouth, tongue, and throat.
The characteristic skin rash form within two days after the reddish spots on the mucous membranes. The rash was formed of pustules with a dot (that became filled with fluid) in the center. These spots scabbed over and then the scabs fell off, usually resulting in scarring. In Murder On Principle, Constable Rouge suffers a case of smallpox and becomes terribly scarred.
The origin of smallpox is unknown although the theory says the virus developed in certain African rodents 60,000 or so years ago. The earliest evidence of human illness dates to the third century BCE with Egyptian mummies It is a lethal disease with a fatality rate for the ordinary kind of about 30 percent. Higher among babies. The Malignant and Hemorrhagic forms are over ninety percent fatal. Occurring in outbreaks, it killed hundreds of thousands, including at least six monarchs in Europe. In the twentieth century it is estimated to have killed 300 million alone. As recently as 1967, 15 million cases occurred worldwide.
During our Revolution, General Washington realized that a. smallpox epidemic would kill many of his troops. Accordingly, he had his soldiers vaccinated against the disease. They used a live virus so the risk of contracting smallpox was a possibility although usually the disease was less severe and less fatal.
In 1796, Edward Jenner discovered that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox, a much less serious disease, did not come down with smallpox. He began a trial and proved that inoculation with cowpox prevented smallpox. The cowpox was safer than the live virus..
Later, the vaccine was made of the killed virus. In Great Britain, Russia, the United States vaccination was practiced. However. My father contracted small pox as a toddler and lived to tell the tale. When he volunteered for the Army during WWII, they tried to vaccinate him but of course it never took because he was already immune.
A concerted global effort a to eradicate smallpox succeeded with the last naturally occurring case in 1977. (The last death was in 1978. A researcher contracted the disease from a research sample.) WHO officially certified the eradication of smallpox in 1980.
Hana Babic îs a quiet, unassuming woman who works in the library. (Not a librarian, actually. No degree.) One day a detective arrives with bad news. Hana’s best friend Amina is dead under mysterious circumstances. Amina has left her grandchild to Hana.
Hana knows she had to discover the identity of Amina’s murderer or the eight-year-old child will never be safe. Hana has the skills to do it for she is more than she appears. During the Serbian/Bosnian conflict, Hana survived when the rest of her family were murdered. She became a partisan, known as the Night Mora, a lethal mythological creature. Now Hana must become the Night Mora again to protect the child and finally find closure for the horrific experiences she endured during the war.
When we first meet Will Rees in A Simple Murder, he is pursuing his son to a nearby Shaker community.
David has run away from his aunt’s rough treatment. When the boy was eight, his mother died. Rees drops his son on his sister and leaves, ostensibly to pick up weaving jobs. The truth is, though, that Rees, besides grieving the devastating loss of his wife, is also dealing with a huge amount of guilt. He is running away. And David views that as abandonment and it takes many years, and a lot of work, before the estrangement is resolved.
Through the series, we see Rees evolve from an indifferent father, at best, to an engaged and caring father. In Cradle to Grave, he and Lydia adopt several orphaned children, increasing the number of children to six.
By the Long Shadow of Murder, Rees and Lydia have a little girl of their own and she is pregnant with another child.
And Jerusha, the eldest of the adopted kids, is now in her late teens and hoping to attend The Litchfield Female Academy to become a teacher. Although Rees would never crush her dream, he hopes Jerusha will stay home. He wants to keep his children close.
In my head, I imagined Rees’s evolving – growing up if you will – from a fairly self-centered man to a husband and father whose core is his family.
Simon Rouge, Will Rees’s frenemy in the Will Rees mysteries, is the Constable in the village. Why a constable? We don’t use that system in the United States.
Oh, but we did, once upon a time.
In the beginning, when Boston, New York and Philadelphia were just colonial villages, night watchmen and constables were appointed to keep the peace and provide law enforcement. Constables were, at first, generally unpaid or paid very poorly. Few people were interested in taking on a hazardous job with little pay and low status so the quality of those that did apply was poor.I imagine that little crime was prevented and few crimes were solved.
As the northern cities grew thanks to an influx of immigrants, and dealt with increasing crime, the southern states established patrols to control the large enslaved population.
The spread of people to the frontier created new problems for crime control. In 1789, the US Marshals were created as the first federal law enforcement agency. In1823, the Texas Rangers was formed to protect American settlers from Indian attack in the Mexican territory of Texas.
In 1790, only two US cities had populations over 25,000. By 1820, both New York and Philadelphia had populations of over 100,000. The ability of night watchmen and constables could not keep up.
So, where did our current system of policing come from? Well, just like the system of night watchmen and constables (and sheriffs too), the US copies the ‘modern’ police force of London’s Metropolitan Police force, set up by law in 1829. New York City is the first American city to set up a unified, prevention-oriented police force in 1845. In 1853 they adopted uniforms.
So, in the late 1700s and early 1800s, Rouge would still be a constable, poorly paid and with very little authority. This is also why he earns his living, not as a law enforcement officer, but as a tavern owner.
