One of the problems with understanding the culture in Ancient Crete is that we are limited to archaeological discoveries. We have not deciphered Linear A and so the writings, that might explain unknowns about this civilization cannot be read. That means that many facts, about their diet for example – did they have cheese? -, about their political structure – was there a King or was it a theocracy-, or about whether this society was an empire or a loose confederation of city states, are unknown.
We know there were colonies spread out over the Aegean. Akrotiri, buried in ash and currently being excavated, is one. But were they just colonies or independent city states?
On Crete, other cities besides Knossos, arguably the largest and best known, were wealthy and powerful. Gortyna was one and it is thought there was conflict between the two cities. That seems to imply equally powerful city states – but we don’t know.
I’ve read arguments on both sides of the debate and both seem equally plausible to me.
I read two books this past week. Neither were traditional mysteries. The first one was Her Past Can’t Wait by Jacqueline Boulden.
At a business function, Emily is groped by an important client. Instead of accepting it, she turns and slaps humans causes a big scene. Although her supervisor saves her job, she is suspended for two weeks. During that time, she goes for therapy and discovers a long ago trauma. Her investigation of that trauma leads to a serial predator and almost costs Emily her life.
The second book was Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney.
Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart which has made her alternately scorned and spoiled. When her estranged family arrives on a tiny island in Cornwall for Nana’s eightieth birthday, they all arrive with secrets. Because of the tide, the house will be cut off for eight hours. As a storm rages outside and on the stroke of midnight, Nana is found dead. One by one, each of the family dies. Who can be killing the family?
Creepy and captivating. Perfect for a Halloween Read. I admit, however, that I was not thrilled with the final twist.
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I’ve been asked why I chose such a long ago era to write mysteries about. After all, it is the Victorian era that is so popular now.
Well, I am fascinated by the ancient past. In some ways, the past is all around us. A large Roman mosaic was just discovered in Eastern Turkey by a man gardening on his property. Roman ruins have been discovered in Italy, Greece, Great Britain, France and more.
In other ways, the ancient past is an undiscovered country. There is much we don’t know. Although they were human beings like us, so many aspects of ancient cultures are strange, odd, sometimes downright offensive to modern eyes.
Ancient Crete
Differences between Ancient Crete and our current culture go far deeper than clothing of technology. It is believed the Minoans were matrilineal, maybe even a matriarchy. Some of the archeologists I read had real problems with that. It is certainly true that women were powerful.
The Minoans worshipped a Supreme Goddess, although there were Gods in their pantheon.
And some of their sports/rituals seem absurdly dangerous to us. The bull leaping, in which teenagers run at a charging bull, grab the horns, and flip over, is something that would not be allowed today. I cannot imagine a parent nowadays who would allow this.
Some archaeologists have even suggested the Ancient Minoans practiced human sacrifice (of children no less) under certain exigent circumstances.
These differences are what make this society so fascinating. It shows the breadth of human culture and belief.
The other factor that I find captivating is the cultural line that stretches from Ancient Crete to Greece and then to the entire Western civilization. (Greece is commonly honored as the cradle of democracy.) Certainly, the mainland Greeks who became Classical Greece, adopted Minoan Gods, art, and language. Although Linear A has not been deciphered, Linear B has and it is an early form of Greek.
So here it is. This ancient culture, so very different from our own and with so much still unknown about it, influenced the course of Western Civilization right down to modern times.
This title, written by Jacqueline Boulden is the winner of several Indie awards.
At a corporate function, Emily Archer, tired of the sexist comments and harassment, slaps a man who gropes her. Since he is an important client of her company, she is immediately threatened with dismissal. Her boss manages to keep that from happening but she is suspended. Therapy reveals a long ago trauma.
Now sensitized, she is made uncomfortable by the behavior of a new hire. This evolves in the reveal of a sexual predator, and puts her life in danger.
Although not a whodunit, engrossing. Recommended.
I also read the new mystery of Donna Leon.
I’ve read all of Leon’s books and greatly enjoyed them but I found this one disappointing. The book starts with a bang. The members of two gangs are arrested and brought into the station. When the father of one of the boys, does not pick him up, Griffoni walks him home. At the same time, Brunetti is asked to vet that father, Dario Monteforte, for a job.
Monteforte, lauded as a hero twenty years previously, was never awarded a medal. Why the contradiction?
The case becomes even more serious when the forensic scientist, Enzo Bocchese, is attacked in his apartment.
I found this book confusing. The two halves don’t mesh well and it felt to me as though two different stories had been mashed together. Leon’s writing is, as usual, lovely and her characters are wonderful but I felt the story was disappointing.
The third of Amy Myer’s cozies, Marsh and Daughter’s murder mysteries, Murder in Hell’s Corner, finds Georgia and her father investigating the murder of Patrick Fairfax, a revered WWII pilot.
As Georgia and Peter investigate, especially looking into a close knit group of pilots who knew Fairfax, they realize that he was not as universally admired as his family believed.
Was the murderer one of his many women? Or one of the other pilots? Or his business partner? The solution, and the twist at the end, is surprising.
What I found captivating, though, was the descriptions of WWII. The relentless bombing by the Germans, the loss of friends and comrades that occurred almost hourly, the sheer scale of a war pounding at this small country. Like Foyle’s War, it is a reminder that England was almost destroyed and was metaphorically hanging by its fingernails.
On a Bookbub recommendation, I bought the set of Marsh and Daughter mysteries by Amy Marsh.
So far, I have read the first two and begun the third.
Georgia and her father, a retired police detective, research cold cases. Anything that piques their curiosity – a little bit of supernatural here – and then write books solving the mystery.
In the first one, The Wickenham Murders, a young gardener Davy Todd is accused of murdering Ada Proctor, the Doctor’s daughter. But so many parts of the story don’t make sense. The villagers don’t want the Marshs poking around but there is that strange music indicating someone doesn’t believe Davy was guilty. Then Georgia discovers Davy’s old sweetheart, still alive, and convinced of his innocence.
In the second book, Murder in Friday Street, a rock musician, Fanny Star, is murdered when she returns to the village to give a concert. Although her partner is accused of the crime, serves time and is murdered almost immediately upon his release, Georgia and her father don’t believe he was the guilty party. Suspects abound but the investigation into ‘the gang’, the friends of Fanny when they were kids, leads to the solution.
These are darker than Agatha Christie but, like her mysteries, show that murders happen even in cozy villages.
The Olympics are associated with Classical Greece, where these games officially began.
But there were contests of athletic skill before that. And women participated. At least we know they did in Sparta. (Some of the writings by men in other areas were shocked by the freedom of Sparta’s women.)
Since the murals and frescoes in Knossos seem to display both male and female athletes, I chose to believe the young women in Minoan Crete also engaged in races and other games of skill.
And with the Summer Olympics are going on now, I’ve reflected on the athletes who are competing.
I’ve gotten more than a few questions on the youth of my protagonist. (Martis is 16.) Here’s my question: do you think a forty-year old has the stamina, the speed, and the fearlessness to run at a charging bull?
Even in the 2024 Olympics, the athletes tend to be young. One of the skateboarders is 11. Another competitor is 12. There are quite a few teenagers competing. DHINIDHI DESINGHU, a swimmer from India, is 14 years old.
Hezly Rivera. American gymnast, is 16. After Kamila Valieva, a Russian figure skater, won at fifteen (and then lost the gold because of a doping scandal) the age for competing in figure skating has been raised to 17.
The ‘old’ athletes in their late twenties are referred to as though they have one foot in the grave and the other on a roller skate. Simone Biles, arguably the best modern female gymnast, is the oldest competitor at 27 since the 1950’s. She’s referred to as a ‘veteran’ and ‘experienced.’So, a 16 year-old athlete is not an outlier at all, even now.
I’ve been a big fan of Victoria Thompson for many years. Murder on Madison Avenue is book 25 in her popular Gaslight Mysteries.
Malloy is approached by a distraught Mrs. Bing who wants a divorce from her husband but won’t explain why. Mr. Bing is the owner of a automobile company, an EV too – a really interesting part of the book. Curious, Malloy and Sarah attend the car show to get a read on Mr. Bing.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Bing is found murdered, run over by on of his very own cars.
To complicate matters, Bing’s first wife, who he abandoned but never divorced, shows up. Her story is that when Bing abandoned her, he also took their daughter Pearl, and Nora Bing wants her back.
Now, hired by the second Mrs. Bing to discover the murderer, Malloy and Sarah investigate.
As always, the characters and the setting are fascinating. I knew what was going on, though, from very early in the book. I suspect most modern readers would. But I did not guess the identity of the murderer. B+. Recommended.
Every era has its own standards for beauty. In the Middle Ages, the high forehead look was popular. In the artwork, all the women have protuberant abdomens, a definite no-no now. In the United States, a round-shouldered, pale appearance was considered beautiful, a little weird since that look is a symptom of advanced TB. Very white skin was valued in the Elizabethan era, a look achieved by the liberal application of white lead.
The ancient Greeks also had standards. Symmetry of facial features was one. (That is valued now as well, think Denzel Washington.) Pale skin was another admired trait. The theory is that since people who worked outside were tanned, those who had the leisure to stay inside were the wealthy – the elite. Of course, that standard has changed since it is the elite now who have the leisure to tan.)
Physical fitness, especially for men, was particularly valued. Just look at the statuary and the pictures. And, of course, it was the Greeks who began the Olympics.
One of the admired traits I found surprising: the unibrow was apparently considered beautiful. That definitely is not the case now!
Since I am watching the Summer Olympics, my usual reading has taken a hit. I am about half way through Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead.
The previous book in the series ended with a cliffhanger: Finlay sees a proposed hit on her husband with a bounty of $100,000. She is pretty sure Theresa is not behind it since she is in jail for her connections with the Russian mob.
Since Finlay is nothing if not impulsive, she not only looks at the hit, she responds to it. The coded response comes to both Finlay and ‘EasyClean”, saying whoever murders Steve first will get paid – and she wants it done by Christmas.
Finlay and her nanny/friend begin investigating and are in Steven’s trailer at his business when someone firebombs it. The discovery of a body in a storage unit rented under Theresa’s name further complicates the case.
Like the first in the series, it is funny. But also full of contrivances. Finlay does a lot of foolish things, impulsively and without thought. I would give the series a B to a B+. It’s funny and the story keeps moving but I find Finlay’s thoughtlessness and impulsivity annoying.
