Category Archives: murder mysteries

Superstition and Disease

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The current furor over the Ebola outbreak prompted me to consider the role of disease in the past. During the Middle ages there was no conception of the role bacteria and viruses play in the transmission of disease so everything was ascribed to God, the Devil, or witchcraft. The birth of a deformed calf, destruction of crops, soured milk or ale or an outbreak of some disease could mean a witch had set a curse. As I mentioned in a previous post, witch hunts continued in the United States until the middle of the 1800s. (And belief in the supernatural did not end then. There was tremendous interest in spiritualism, attracting no lesser a personage than Arthur Conan Doyle, and belief in fairies encouraged by faked photographs. But I digress.) Paradoxically, it is believed that some of the worst incidents of witch hunts and trials were magnified by poor harvest (so people were hungry and scared) and by the growth of ergot on the grains (so people were also tripping). Talk about a perfect storm.

I suspect Granny medicine – the old wise women who knew treatments from trial and error – like that certain kinds of mold could cure infection also played a part in tarring these women with the taint of witchcraft.  A host of measures to counter spells were in use. Some of the measures employed to keep a witch out of a house: storing apples (really!), a bag of salt under the master bed, a horseshoe or a clove of garlic hung over each entrance. Of course, if a spell was cast upon you, you had to employ certain methods to counteract that spell. To counteract a spell one would put seven drops of vegetable oil in a dish of water with some iron and rub the outside of the dish clockwise for three minutes. Doing so seven days would completely break the spell.

Of course such treatments had no effect on diseases. Diptheria, cholera, smallpox, the list of diseases is long. Smallpox, although us moderns have never seen a case, has been around so long scientists are not sure when it began. The theory is, though, that this disease also came out of Africa (like Ebola) and spread via trade routes.. Mummies with smallpox scars have been found in Egyptian tombs so it has been around for millennia. By my character, Will Rees’s time, advances in treating disease were beginning. At the beginning of the 1700s, vaccination as a treatment for smallpox was spreading. ( Live smallpox virus from an infected person was used – Yipes!!) The death rate for vaccination was 2%, unvaccinated and infected naturally = 14%. Edward Jenner, an orphan, was vaccinated as a boy. He had heard tales that dairymaids infected with cowpox never got smallpox. A few experiments later and in 1796 vaccination with cowpox as a treatment for smallpox was born. Rees would have seen many people with the characteristic round scars left by smallpox.   Except for some vials that are in storage, smallpox has been eradicated. I suspect Ebola will be also, eventually.

Salem, witchcraft and religious freedom

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A visit to Salem offers numerous opportunities to see dramatizations of the witch hysteria.

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Numerous theories have been put forth to explain this frenzy, including one I mentioned in an earlier post – ergot.

However, I think it important to remember that the Puritans who came here for religious freedom, came out of a history of witch trials. In Europe there were recurring trials and burnings. Some of these outbursts seemed to have roots in ordinary human nature – heirs who accused a wealthy widow to obtain property for example. But the strong religious fervor clearly played a large part. One only has to look at the Spanish Inquisition to see to what lengths men will sink, convincing themselves all the way that they are operating for some higher purpose.

And magic was already a part of the culture. Witch balls, glass balls with elaborate designs inside to capture the witch’s essence, had been in use in Britain for years. I mentioned the witch cake in a previous post. But there was also other beliefs. an egg dropped in a glass of water could help determine one’s future husband. Dried apple faces were used to keep away evil spirits. An ear of corn on a woman’s belly as she gave birth would protect her and the baby.  The effect of spells could be lessened by dry apple seeds. Of, if one was in the woods, witches could be frightened away by the clacking to two sticks together. And so on.

 

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So the residents of Salem were already primed to believe in the existence of witches. When Tituba recounted stories and spells from her religion to the girls, they took root and helped inspire the hysteria.

Witch hunts and trials continued in the United States until well into the 1800s.

 

One last comment: I don’t think we can sneer at these poor superstitious fools from this earlier time – not when shows such as Ghost Hunter on the SYFY channel are so popular.

Witches of Salem

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October is an appropriate time to discuss this part of our nation’s past. In fact, when people think of Salem, they think of the witch trials in 1692. Salem has a much longer and interesting history. My character, Will Rees, visits Salem slightly more than one hundred years later. But the memory of those trials and the witches are present in physical reminders even today.

First, I want to note that reparations were made to the families in the early 1700’s. This does not mean that belief in witches and witchcraft ended. It did not. Accusations and trials continued to the early 1800’s. Mother Ann Lee, the spiritual force behind the Shakers, was arrested on a charge of blasphemy in the 1780’s and could have been hung as a witch. However, it was upstate New York, and almost exactly one hundred years later and she was eventually released.

What happened in Salem?

Well, it is believed the witch hysteria began in the household of Reverend Samuel Parris. A slave called Tituba told stories of her religion which featured voodoo and folk magic to the girls in the  household. One of the practices was the baking of a Witch Cake (one of the ingredients being the urine of the girls – yuck) that was then fed to a dog. Another ingredient was rye.

Since a fungus grows on rye during wet conditions and that fungus produces a toxin that is similar to LSD, rye has been implicated in not only the witch hysteria here but in Europe as well. Perhaps I am looking at it from the perspective of a twenty-first century woman but my first question when I was going on the tours was why these so called responsible adults were listening to a bunch to teenage girls. I’d be instantly suspicious I can tell you.

In any event, before it was over, 150 people were imprisoned and 19 people – and two dogs- were hanged. One man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death. He cursed all future Sheriffs of Salem to die of some chest (respiratory) illness. Apparently most have, but in an era without antibiotics (forget about good hygiene or healthy food) I don’t think that is surprising.IMG_2520 IMG_2555

Salem offers a number of dioramas and costumed reenactments of this period.

Salem, past and present

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One of the things I like to do when researching a book is visit the location where it is set. I did that with Salem when I was writing Death in Salem.

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I like getting the feel of the place and a sense of the geography.

Salem is a good place to research since they have kept a lot of their past. Not all of it but enough. And a number of reminders of Salem’s past. and the past of the United States, are still present. The Burying Point, the cemetery, is there. I like that you can still visit this place and see the headstones from the distant past.

Not the accused witches, however. Witches were not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground so  were dumped. Families, although forbidden to do so, frequently found the bodies and buried them properly. This meant a great deal in this religious past. But the burying point does have memorials to these men and women. (even two dogs were accused and executed!)

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The witch trials are well remembered and some of the houses were built in that time, 400 years ago.

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Salem still has many houses from the period of the merchantmen also. Below is the Derby house, built within sight of Derby wharf. Although there are many fine houses on the waterfront, a short walk to Chestnut Street reveals a block of beautiful houses, many from the late 1700’s.

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As the merchantmen grew wealthy, they built houses on Chestnut Street. And many of these houses are still occupied.

Although the 1790’s are not ancient compared to Europe and their long history, for these United States it represents the early part of our history and so I find it exciting.

 

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/

Salem and New book Cover

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I can’t praise the graphics department of Minotaur (st. Martin’s) enough. Every cover has been outstanding. I love the new one, for Death in Salem, partly because it is so accurate to the look of Salem’s waterfront.  Take a look. Here is my picture, taken in May of this year.

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and here is the book cover for Death in Salem.

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See what I mean?

More about Salem

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My new Will Rees mystery will be coming out next spring. This time, he travels to Salem, Mass and, of course, is embroiled in a mystery.

I went to Salem to research the area.

I mixed real people and characters of my own invention but tried to keep the facts of the sailing industry accurate.

This is a photo of the custom house, but a few years later. During the 17902, the location switched among several buildings.

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This is the India store. I based the store run by my widow on this store.

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and this is a museum representation of a counting house. Again, I based my description on this.

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I’m sure I will get questions on the tunnels underneath Salem. Although I read about them, I did not see any. I guess it’s time for another road trip!

Salem and the scarlet Letter

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After my research journey to Salem this spring, I decided to reread both The Scarlet Letter and the House of Seven Gables. I read both but a long time ago – because they were on reading lists. Let me tell you, I missed a lot in The Scarlet Letter as a fourteen year old reader. I don’t know yet what I missed in The House Of Seven Gables – I haven’t read it yet. but I’ll be willing to bet I missed most of the important points.

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It was clearly owned by a wealthy family.

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There really is a house of the seven gables. Who knew?

 

 

 

This is one of the ceilings. and there was an attic for the servants and slaves to sleep in.

Puritanism and the witch trials are clearly part of the history – and not just the tourist parts either. We stopped at the Old Burying Point.

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There were a lot of small gravestones for little children. Some families lost five and six kids. Heartbreaking. But one of the most poignant were the large memorials to the people executed during the witch trials. Since they had been found guilty of witchcraft the victims could not be buried in consecrated ground. It is thought the families slipped out at night and found the bodies and gave them a decent burial. But no one knows for sure. And the graves of course cannot be located.

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Each memorial is inscribed with the name and date of execution of one of the nineteen victims. Sobering.

I read The scarlet Letter with an entirely different perspective.

Here’s a fun fact about Hawthorne. He did not want to be associated with the Judge who sent the accused to the gallows ( a direct ancestor) so he added a w to his name.

My garden = rainforest

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It is amazing how well a garden grows without critters. Shelby is doing a good job of keeping everything at bay.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

 

Shelby in pursuit

 

 

My tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and beans are taking over.

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But this is what they look like harvested.

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And I am going to have tons of tomatoes. This is ONE plant.

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Cucumbers and Las vegas

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Four of these beauties were waiting for me when I returned home from ALA. I mention that to show the difference in the climates. Las Vegas is in a desert and is unbelievably hot and dry.

I do not like Las vegas, and not just the climate. (as a gardener, the whole desert thing doesn’t work for me). But I also don’t drink, smoke or gamble. the casinos have no windows or clocks since they are trying to encourage people to gamble. Women in skimpy costumes walk around pushing cocktails. And the place smells of smoke. I admit, though, that I am a little more tolerant of the smoking. at least that doesn’t put someone’s family’s financial future in jeopardy.

More than anything, I got the feeling that I had stepped back in time, to the glory days of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.