Category Archives: Elizabeth Peters

Sisters in Crime Challenge Post #2: Historical Women

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To me at least the phenomenon of historical fiction which features somewhat feisty females is easily understandable. If you read much actual history, including contemporary primary sources from just about any time before the 20th Century (and a good deal of the stuff written after 1900 too) women don’t appear all that often. When we do we’re generally in the background being demure (if we’re lucky) or being traded like chattel and abused in every way imaginable (when fortune does not smile so kindly upon us). So it doesn’t surprise me that female crime writers enjoy creating imaginary worlds of times gone by in which women participate more equitably in world affairs than reality might have allowed.

One of my recent, and newly favourite, discoveries in this genre is Ariana Franklin who was introduced to me by Norman from Crime Scraps Review (who single-handedly reignited my interest in historical fiction after I’d abandoned the genre many years ago). Franklin is a pseudonym for journalist and writer Diana Norman who sadly passed away earlier this year.  So far I’ve read three of the four adventures set in medieval England in which a woman, the rather magnificent Adelia Aguilar, shines. She is part of a team sought out by King Henry II to investigate a gruesome death which is being blamed on the Jewish population whom Henry is sick of offering protection because while he is doing so they’re not out earning money with which to pay him taxes. Adelia is said to be able to ‘read bodies’ which is the skill she brings to the table.

The basic facts of Adelia’s character, including her being trained as a doctor in Italy, are allowed for by historical record according to the Ariana Franklin website. And who knows…the other aspects of her unconventional character such her forwardness, eschewing of romance and disdain for organised religion might well have appeared in real women of the 12th century though we’ll probably never know because they do not make copious appearances in the few contemporary sources remaining. But it’s pretty difficult to imagine that there haven’t always been at least a few women wanting something more than a life of slavery and playing second-fiddle to men.

But the books do not only offer a marvellous protagonist, they are first and foremost tales of adventure and derring-do, with intricate plots and of loads of period detail to become absorbed in. In order the series books are

Franklin also wrote a standalone novel called City of Shadows which purports to tell the tale of the last living granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. I do own this one but haven’t read it yet either.

There are a plethora of historical fiction series written by women and many are similarly packed with strong female protagonists, though I have to admit I don’t like them all equally (and one or two have been the subject of a rant). Three I do enjoy and think share Franklin’s attention to period detail, ability to create warm and intelligent characters and willingness to have a little fun and display a sense of humour are

Elizabeth Peters whose novels featuring wealthy heiress Amelia Peabody and her implausible but delightful adventures in the archaeological digs of 1880′s Egypt are a treat I still enjoy. The first book, Crocodile on the Sandbank, was released in 1975 and the 19th book in the series was released last year. Of course Amelia is just a little over the top but I can’t help but get swept up in her various escapades, helped along by the exotic locations and Peters’ attention to detail.

Imogen Robertson whose novel Instruments of Darkness I read last year and thoroughly enjoyed. It’s set in England in 1780 and features as one of two investigators Mrs Harriet Westerman who runs her family estate while her husband is off at sea with the Navy. She does what has to be done and stands up for those less able, even when it gets dangerous for her to do so.

Victoria Thompson whose first mystery set at the very end of the 19th Century and featuring a New York midwife, Sarah Brandt, was called Murder on Astor Place. Sarah, who has been widowed before the book begins, is estranged from her wealthy family and so has to stand on her own two feet from the outset when she alone tackles an investigation into the murder of a young girl (after trying and failing to get either the police or the girl’s parents interested). I somehow lost track of this series but realise there are now 14 books to try, all seemingly named after famous New York streets.

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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sisters in Crime (US) author, blogger and current Sisters in Crime board member Barbara Fister issued book bloggers the challenge of writing about women’s contribution to crime fiction. There are three levels of the challenge and I’m aiming for the expert level which requires me to write ten blog posts about works of crime fiction by a woman author and, for each, mention three similar women authors whose works I would recommend.  Though I am taking Barbara at her word and using the “whenever” deadline as a concrete goal, so it may take me a while to do all ten posts. And it turns out I might find it hard to stick to recommending just 4 authors per post. Even if you only occasionally blog about crime fiction why not join in the challenge and help celebrate the women who write it? So far for this challenge I have written about:

Crime Fiction Alphabet: A is for Archaeology

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It seemed like an omen that the week I was deliberating over whether or not to participate in the crime fiction alphabet meme this year I would be reading two crime fiction books which both happen to feature an archaeologist. And so it was decided, I will participate in the meme (at least semi-regularly though I don’t promise to complete all letters) and I will write my posts about the themes, sub-genres and plot elements that crop up regularly in the crime fiction I love.

I have a sneaking suspicion that archaeologists are over-represented in crime fiction, given that I don’t run across them in real life nearly as often as I do in crime fiction. Why does the profession lends itself to inclusion in this genre far more than say laundrette manager or dentist? I guess it is because the profession itself already has an air of mystery and romance about it. What child hasn’t fantasized about getting dirty and digging things up for a living? Or is that just me?

These are the archaeologists I can remember meeting in my crime fiction reading, please leave a comment with the names of any more you know of that I might need to investigate.

The first archaeologist I came across in crime fiction was Amelia Peabody, who since 1975 has starred in 19 adventures set in Egypt/Africa/the Middle East. The books by Elizabeth Peters are a mixture of historical fiction, amateur sleuthing and the discovering of ancient Egyptian artifacts. Crocodile on the Sandbank introduces us to the force of nature that is Amelia Peabody, (recently orphaned and now independently wealthy) and her soon-to-be husband. The series is still going strong with the release last year of A River in the Sky which places Amelia and friends in Palestine just prior to the outbreak of the first world war.

Jessica Mann, who studied archaeology herself and is married to an archaeologist, published a series of six books featuring Tamara Hoyland who was an agent of the British secret service and an archaeologist . The first of these, published in 1981 is Funeral Sites and though I think I’ve read them all (in the days before my wonderful spreadsheet so I can’t know for sure) the only one I can remember much about is the fourth book, Death Beyond the Nile, in which Tamara joins an archaeological tour of Egypt in order to thwart the dastardly schemes of a woman who is threatening British security. I remember the book being full of fun characters and lots of dastardly plotting. A teensey bit of googling tells me that Mann also has a series of three earlier books starting with The Only Security (1971) which feature an archaeology professor as the heroine.

While Lyn Hamilton‘s Canadian heroine Lara McClintock is not herself an archaeologist she is an antiques dealer who specialises in archaeological objects and the books, starting with 1997′s The Xibalba Murders take us on adventures all over the globe looking at a fascinating range of ancient cultures including the Mayans, the Celts, the Etruscans and even the people of Easter Island.

Beverly Connor wrote about the first forensic archaeologist I can remember reading about, in 1996′s A Rumor of Bones. Her heroine is Lindsay Chamberlain who in this first novel discovers that the bones police believe belong to a missing girl they have been searching for belong to a different child who appears to have been sexually abused. Eventually they work out there are bones of more than one missing child on the site which is when things take an extremely grim turn.

I can attest to the fact that Erin Hart‘s 2003 novel Haunted Ground, about a well preserved head discovered in the peat bogs of Ireland, is a book you don’t forget quickly. The hero of the novel, Irish archaeologist Cormac Maguire, works with an American anthropologist to solve both a historic crime and a present-day one. This is a very dark and atmospheric book set in a closed community.

And of course last year I became besotted by the Elly Griffiths novels featuring Dr Ruth Galloway who is a forensic archaeologist at the fictional North Norfolk University. Both The Crossing Places and The Janus Stone were great books, full of wonderful characters, lots of atmosphere and curious mysteries. The third book in the series, The House at Seas End, was one of the two books that prompted this post (I finished it yesterday, review to come later this week).

The other book I am reading (via audio) this week is Kate Ellis‘ A Perfect Death in which the protagonist, who is a policeman, has a best friend who is an archaeologist and whose investigations seem to always involve the subject. In this book there is a grizzly murder on the site of an ancient one and records of the site’s excavation have vanished! I stumbled across this book on special at audible but now realise the whole series (this is book 13 of what is soon to be 16) features things archaeological so there’s a backlog for me to trawl.

Are there more archaeological mysteries you’ve read? Why do you think this profession is so highly represented in crime fiction? Do you know any real-life archaeologists who lead such exciting, dangerous lives?

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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week.

This is the second round of the meme which was first run from late 2009 to early 2010. My contributions that time were discussions of books with one word titles.

Review: Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

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Title: Crocodile on the Sandbank (the 1st Amelia Peabody mystery)

Author: Elizabeth Peters

Publisher: Warner Books (original edition 1975, this edition 1992)

ISBN: 0-445-40651-8

Length: 262 pages

This is the first book to introduce the impossibly unbelievable heroine Amelia Peabody. It’s around 1880 and Amelia is a 32 year old single woman who has just inherited a sizable fortune. She leaves her native England and, after a short stop in Europe where she acquires a companion by the name of Evelyn who has been ruined by an unfortunate love affair, she heads for Egypt. While waiting for their boat to be ready for a trip down the Nile, Amelia and Evelyn meet the Emerson brothers, Radcliffe and Walter, who they later encounter at Armanah where they are excavating. When the ladies join the dig a mysterious mummy frightens the local workmen away but Amelia is not so easily scared.

This series is something of a guilty reading pleasure for me. I have always been a little obsessed with things Egyptian and so love the tales of the digs and discoveries that are full of fun and adventure. It’s rare for me to want to swap lives with the fictional people I read about but I’d happily switch places with Amelia if such things were possible. Peters clearly knows her subject as even in this first book the historical details are accurate and she takes care to depict the excavations and other events as they would have been carried out at this period (assuming that a force of nature such as Amelia had taken part any way).

This book does a nice job of introducing all the characters of the series: providing some back story but leaving some things too for revelation in later books. Over-the-top Amelia is able to master all manner of skills including medicine, archaeology, negotiation, languages and virtually anything else she turns her mind to. I’m sure she’d be annoying to be around at times but her total disregard for the social conventions of the day would, I think, make up for her superiority complex. The rest of the characters are either equally wonderful human beings (Amelia wouldn’t settle for anything less in her friends) unless they’re dastardly rascals intent on mischief.

If you fancy a girls own adventure with a heroine you can’t help but admire and a liberal dose of humour then try Crocodile on the Sandbank for yourself. The plot is a little convoluted at times but it all works out in the end and, anyway, I like these books more for their sense of time and place and can forgive some annoyances with the plot.

My rating 3.5/5

Sunday Salon: What to read first (a revised Dartmoor Dozen)

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Last week I wrote about being unable to meet Uriah Robinson’s challenge of putting together a list of books in these categories as a reading list for someone new to this genre. I was told by more than one person that I was missing out on a golden opportunity to recruit new people to the crime fiction cult fold and, when Uriah created a new, more varied list, I decided I’d give it a go in the interests of spreading the word to the uninitiated. And so, my recommendations to you, the novice crime reader.

1] The Origins:

Naturally enough it’s all my mother’s fault. My obsession with crime fiction that is. She has admitted to reading her favourite writer, Edgar Allan Poe, to her children as babies. She started with the poetry but soon moved on to the darker prose. She could be forgiven for thinking that 6 month old me wouldn’t understand anything but her tone of voice but something must have seeped into my teeny developing brain because as soon as I could choose my own books I was reading mysteries. And I’ve never stopped. In honour of my mum then I would have to recommend you pick up a copy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination and read the two stories featuring the adventures of Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, probably the world’s first detective and definitely a direct ancestor of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Or, as it’s freely (and legally) available on the web you could get started on The Murders at the Rue Morgue right now.

2] The Age of Sherlock Holmes:

I’d just turned 20 when I moved to Sydney to take up my first ‘real’ job after leaving Uni with a fascinating but almost useless politics degree and the clothes on my back. The place I moved to had a pretty woeful library (countless rotating stands full of Mills & Boon books and two shelves of mechanical manuals for Holden cars) and my budget didn’t run to buying a lot of books. I scoured second hand shops though and discovered a set of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and I read the lot, cover to cover, several times over that year. The Adventure of the Final Problem is my favourite Holmesian adventure though only by a bee’s whisker from almost everything else. It’s quite fascinating to trace back many of the character traits today’s fictional detectives display, including arrogance (albeit justified), above average intelligence and a predilection for self-destructive behaviour, to Holmes.

ngaio-marsh3] The Golden Age:

In Australia it’s fairly common practice to appropriate all the good things that come out of New Zealand as ‘ours’ so here I will recommend a novel by New Zealand author (Edith) Ngaio Marsh. First published in 1935 The Nursing Home Murder was the third of 32 novels featuring British police detective Roderick Alleyn and on the surface it’s a standard police procedural about the death threats being made against a leading British politician. Like much of Marsh’s work though it has a serious undercurrent and tackles the weightiest political issue of the time namely the rule of what was then called Palestine by Britain. Even today it is illuminating and as a bonus Marsh wrote superbly.

4] Hardboiled:

Without question this is my least favourite of the sub-genres. I’ve read a few over the years but can’t recall being engaged by a single one. All the things that define the genre: the sex and violence, the focus on plot over character development, the kind of first person narrative many of them use, leave me cold. To top it off I generally find them pretty misogynistic and although I can accept they were a product of a different time there’s not enough incentive for me to forgive that. If forced at gunpoint I’d recommend Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon as the ultimate example of the genre but I find it difficult to recommend something I didn’t enjoy.

5] The Police Procedural:

In contrast to the previous category this is one I adore. I have read avidly and compared techniques of fictional police investigators all across the US, the UK, Europe, and parts of Africa. Of late I’ve been discovering my own country’s rich offerings in this arena too and therefore will recommend Peter Temple’s The Broken Shore. It’s a dark, sometimes funny, tale of the investigation into the death of a local businessman in a rural Victorian town. It’s a very Australian story and although when I first read it I lamented its grimness it has stuck with me long after many other books have been forgotten. It also features some of the clearest, most concise writing you’ll see in the genre.

6] Detectives [police, forensic and private]:kathryn-fox1

Another category where I am spoiled for choice. However I’ll continue to highlight Australian talent and recommend Kathryn Fox‘s Without Consent which features forensic doctor Anya Crichton who helps police investigate a series of brutal rapes which may, or may not, have been committed by a man recently released from prison after serving 20 years for rape and murder. I was delighted when I first read this book because it reminded me of the early Patricia Cornwell novels (the ones that actually made sense and had a credible plot). Crichton is a fabulously believable character with no super human powers and the book has a real humanity too in the way it tackles the issue of rape and its affect on its victims.

7] Psychological suspense:

Don’t tell anyone but I’m not much of a fan of Barbara Vine novels. I know it’ll probably get me thrown out of the crime fiction fan club (or at least earn myself a few demerit points) but of those I’ve read I’ve found most of them dull and ponderous. For that reason I have tended not to read other novels in this genre but one I can happily recommend is Dead Lovely by Helen Fitzgerald (another Australian author although she lives in Scotland now). On the very first page of Dead Lovely we’re told that Krissie has killed Sarah, her best friend since they were four. The book then looks retrospectively at how the friends’ relationship deteriorates from ‘best friends’ status and also at the aftermath of the killing. The book’s chapters are short and sharp and Fitzgerald does a great job of differentiating between the voices of her very believable characters, especially Krissie who is struggling with the responsibilities and feelings she experiences as a new mum.

8] Caper and comic crime fiction:

I have written before about the elusive nature of comedy in fiction. I’ve lost count of the number brand new Janet Evanovich books I’ve given away unread because people keep giving them to me as gifts. They’re not funny (to me) and I wish people wouldn’t make assumptions. It’s probably not quite a match for this category but I’m nominating Ian Sansom’s The Case of the Missing Books anyway. It features the world’s most reluctant mobile librarian, Israel Armstrong, whose trials and tribulations while recovering the lost books of the Tumdrum and District Public Library (Northern Ireland) were, for me at least, genuinely laugh out loud funny. And it’s the only book on this list in which no one dies so it’ll suit the weak-stomached reader.

elizabeth-peters9] Historical crime fiction:

Here I can’t go past Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody books which combine several of my favourite things in fiction: a strong female character, humour and Egyptology (I dreamt of being an archaeologist as a child). The series is still going today but I think for this series you have to start with the first book, Crocodile on the Sandbank. It’s 1884 and our heroine, Amelia Peabody, travels to Egypt for the first time meets the man who will become her husband and solves her first archaeological mystery. It’s a rollicking, old-fashioned puzzle with loads of suspense, fantastic characters and a whole lot of heart.

10] Thrillers:

Mostly, for me, this category is my ‘summer/airplane’ reading: fast, fun and a bit forgettable. They generally don’t have the memorable characters that take a book from good to great on my scale but, on the flip-side, the genre has some of the best story tellers in all of fictiondom. To introduce a newbie to the genre I’d recommend Airframe by Michael Crichton. Actually I’d recommend almost anything by Crichton but this one in particular because it takes such a mundane subject and makes a thoroughly entertaining, edge-of-your-seat story out of it. I’m sure it takes skill to make thrilling stories out of international espionage or ancient curses but to make one out of aircraft design and maintenance demonstrates another level of genius all together. It shows, as always, his skill in turning extensive research into entertainment and my only caveat would be to suggest nervous travellers choose something else to read on their next flight.

11] Crime fiction in translation:

I’m sad that the rest of my list is entirely populated by books written originally in English but in my defence I’ve only been actively seeking out the translated stuff for about a year. Until then I relied on my local library for advice and, frankly, they stick pretty much to the mainstream. However it’s hard to pick just one of of all the marvellous translated books I’ve read in the past 12 months but I am going to choose something I only read this month. Fred Vargas’ The Three Evangelists is a truly marvellous book (here’s my review) and, I think, a particularly good pick for people new to the genre as it has a fairly literary feel to it.

12] The Wild Card category:asa-larsson

Here I’ll stick with the translated fiction and recommend Asa Larsson’s The Savage Altar (published as The Sun Storm in the US). It was the first Scandinavian crime fiction I read and I think it encapsulates the best of the standard procedural while successfully moving the genre to a modern setting. If you haven’t read translated fiction it’s an excellent place to start because it evokes a wonderful sense of its unfamiliar (to me) Swedish setting yet there are familiar plot devices such as the investigative techniques used by the police so you don’t feel completely like a fish out of water. And the characters are wonderful.

And then…?

There are many, many books I couldn’t squeeze into the above categories. Where does the amateur sleuth/cosy fit for example? It’s an enormously popular sub-genre and one I dabble with on occasion. And none of my Dick Francis favourites seemed to fit either although he’s just about written enough for a genre all of his own. And in most categories I have a lot of equally good suggestions as the book I chose. However I’ve decided not to be too concerned about the books not listed as I’m confident that once my target reader has sampled what the genre has to offer via these recommendations they’ll be in touch for the names of the several hundred other books on my shortlist for this challenge.

Other people who’ve met Uriah’s Challenge

Bibliophile at (Another) 52 Books

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