Evocations of Cultures in Time and Space by way of MURDER.*

William W. "Skip" Koolage

March 8, 2001
(obviously a work in progress)

Arthur W. Upfield

There are twenty some novels featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon (Bony) Bonaparte knocking about the Aussie outback. Written between the 1930s and 1950s, they describe a timeless land, Dreamtime peoples, and changing cultures,  eg. The Will of the Tribe. Bloody good.  Reprintings include

An Author Bites the Dust                                                           The Bacheloros of Broken Hill
The Battling Prophet                                                                 The Bone is Pointed
Bony and the Kelly Gang                                                           The Bushman Who Came Back
Death of a Lake                                                                         Death of a Swagman
The Devil's Steps                                                                        Journey to the Hangman
Man of Two Tribes                                                                    The Mountains Have a Secret
Murder Down Under                                                                 Murder Must Wait
The Mystery of Swordfish Reef                                                  The New Shoe
No Footprints in the Bush                                                         The Sands of Windee
Sinister Stones                                                                           The Torn Branch
Venom House                                                                            The Windows of Broome
The Will of the Tribe                                                                 Winds of Evil
Wings Above the Diamantina                                                   Bony Buys a Woman
The Lake Frome Monster                                                         Bony and the Mouse
Bony and the Black Virgin                                                        Bony and the White Savage
Madman's Bend                                                                        The Barrakee Mystery

About Arthur Upfield:  The Spirit of Australia:  The Crime Fiction of Arthur W. Upfield by Ray Broadus Brown 1988

Tony Hillerman

The master of Navajo territory intrigue, murder and scheming. Not to let you in on too much, the archeologist did it (or was done to, or is a jerk or worse). Hillerman doesn't like toffee nosed archaeologists. Since I'm not of that persuasion, I can recommend these Officer Jim Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn mysteries most highly. And Hillerman's Navajo ethnology is very good. Talking God puts the other skull on the desk.

Jim Chee and Lt. Leaphorn Series:

The Blessing Way (1970)                                                            Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)
Listening Woman (1978)                                                            People of Darkness (1980)
The Dark Wind (1982)                                                               The Ghostway (1984)
Skinwalkers (1986)                                                                    A Thief of Time (1988)
Talking God (1989)                                                                   Coyote Waits (1990)
Sacred Clowns (1993)                                                               The Fallen Man (1996)
The First Eagle (1998)                                                              Hunting Badger (November 1999)

Lindsey Davis

Her 1st century A.D. plebeian Roman detective Marcus Didius Falco and his patrician divorcee/accomplice/assistant/mistress/saviour of his sorry butt,  Helena Justina, lead us through Imperial Rome and the Empire. Start with The Silver Pigs as these are best read in order. May the garum be with you.

Falco mysteries

The Silver Pigs (1989)                                                                Shadows in Bronge (1990)
Venus in Copper (1991)                                                              The Iron Hand of Mars (1992)
Poseindon's Gold (1993)                                                             Last Act in Palmyra (1994)
Time to Depart (1995)                                                                A Dying Light in Corduba (1996)
Three Hands in the Fountain (1997)                                          Two for the Lions (1998)
One Virgin Too Many (1999)                                                      Ode to a Banker (2000)

Http://www.lindseydavis.co.uk/  

Robert Van Gulick

Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An): An Authentic Eighteenth-Century Chinese Detective Novel is a wonderful introduction to a different type of sleuthing. It is translated by Van Gulik and has culturally and historically important notes for the later novels which were authored by him.

Celebrated cases of Judge Dee                                                    The Red Pavilion, 1961
The Chinese Gold Murders, 1959                                                The Emperor's Pearl, 1963
The Chinese Bell Murders, 1960                                                  The Chinese Maze Murders
The Lacquer Screen, 1962                                                           The Willow Pattern, 1965
The Haunted Monastery, 1961                                                    The Chinese Lake Murders, 1960
The Chinese Nail Murders                                                           The Monkey and the Tiger
Judge Dee at Work                                                                       Necklace and Calabash
Murder in Canton                                                                        The Phantom of the Temple
Poets and Murder

Ellis Peters

The Brother Cadfael series, such as A Morbid Taste For Bones, transports the reader to 12th Century Britain for well researched depictions of medieval life and death most foul. Monks, murder and mayhem.  Jolly good.

A Morbid Taste for Bones                                                            One Corpse Too Many
Monk's Hood                                                                                St. Peter's Fair
The Leper of St. Giles                                                                  The Virgin in the Ice
The Sanctuary Sparrow                                                               The Devil's Novice
Dead Man's Ransom                                                                    The Pilgrim of Hate
An Excellent Mystery                                                                   The Raven in the Foregate
The Rose Rent                                                                              The Hermit of Eyton Forest
The Confession of Brother Haluin                                               The Heretic's Apprentice
A Rare Benedectine                                                                      The Potter's Field
The Summer of the Danes                                                            The Holy Thief
Brother Cadfael's Penance

Dana Stabenow

Kate Shugak, an Aleut detective living "in the Park", is stabenow's protagonist.  Good suspense with great descriptions of contemporary Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Alaskan life.  Chilling.  Stabenow has introduced another protagonist in her "Liam Campbell" series.  Also very entertaining.

Novels featuring Kat Shugak:

A Cold Day for Murder (1992)                                                    A Fatal Thaw (1993)
Dead in the Water (1993)                                                            A Cold-Blooded Business (1994)
Play With Fire (1995)                                                                  Blood Will Tell (1996)
Breakup (1997)                                                                            Killing Grounds (1998)
Hunter's Moon (1999)                                                                  The Singing of the Dead

Liam Campbell Mysteries

Fire and Ice                                                                                  So Sure of Death
Nothing Gold Can Stay                                                               Better to Rest

Lynda Robinson

Robinson is an archaeologist with a Ph. D from the University of Texas who writes about ancient Egypt.  Her vivid descriptions of daily life, as in Eater of Souls, enhance her deadly tales.  Slithery.

Lord Meren Mysteries

Murder in the Place of Anubis                                                    Murder at the God's Gate  1995
Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing. 1996                                      Eater of Souls 1997
Drinker of Blood  1998

Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels

If you like a good laugh with the gruesome end of the trowel, her Elizabeth Peabody mysteries are full of great reconstructions of turn of the century Egyptian archaeology.  They are also good reconstructions of life in 19th century colonial Egypt.  Dr. W. R. Johnson, field director of the Epigraphic Survey, Oriental Institute (Chicago House, Luxor, Egypt had this to say:  "Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels has once again brilliantly evoked the mystery, excitement, and yes, passion of a Golden Age of Egyptology, with generous doses of wit and suspense thrown in for good measure.  This Egyptologist gives 'The Hippopotamus Pool' three thumbs up!"  So there.  Ps.  Elizabeth Peters has a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago.

Please, dear reader, read them in order.

Novels featuring Amelia Peabody:

Crocodile on the Sandbank (1975)                                                The Curse of the Pharohs (1981)
The Mummy Case (1985)                                                               Lion in the Valley (1986)
The Deeds of the Disturber (1988)                                                The Last Camel Died at Noon (1991)
The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog (1992)                              The Hippopotamus Pool (1995)
Seeing a Large Cat (1997)                                                            The Ape Who Guards the Balance (1998)
The Falcon at the Portal (1999)

Paul Doherty

In the Mask of Ra, Doherty transports us to ancient Egypt 1479 BC.  Full of intrigue and behind the throne shenanigans, it is a whacking good tale.  (I haven't had an opportunity to try his medieval whodunits such as the Hugh Corbett mysteriest or the Sorrowful Mysteriest of Brother Athelstan.)  (Titles were taken from Amazon.Com and there may be some mix-ups).

Egypt

The Anubis Slayings 2001                                                               The Horus Killings  2000
The Mask of Ra  1999

?The Serpent Among the Lilies ?

Medieval

The Demon Archer:  A Medieval Mystery  2001                            Ghostly Murders:  The Priests Tale .....   1998
The Death of a King                                                                       The Devil's Hunt  1998
A Tournament of Murders:  The Franklin's Tale...  1997              A Tapestry of Murders:  The Lawyer's Tale   1996
Satan's Fire  1996                                                                          The Prince of Darkness  1996
The Assassin in the Greenwood  1996                                           The Song of a Dark Angel  1996
Satan in St. Mary's                                                                         The Crown in Darkness
The Whyte Harte                                                                            Spy in Chancery
Angel of Death                                                                               The Fate of Princes
The Masked Man                                                                            Murder Wears a Cowl

Margaret Coel

Her Arapaho country mysteries are fun.  The Story Teller (1998) revolves around a "controversy" of whether the Arapaho were also among those massacred at Sand Creek in 1864.  (The November/December 1999 issue of Archaeology indicates that Cheyenne and Arapaho oral tranditions led archaeologists and historians to "redicover" the site after 100 years.)  Discussion of NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) and its influences on modern tribal affairs is timely and well woven into the plot.

The Eagle Catcher (1995)                                                             The Ghost Walker (1996)
The Dream Stalker (1997)                                                             The Story Teller (1998)
The Lost Bird (1999).

Kathi Reichs

Déjà Dead is not for the faint of heart.  Reichs is a forensic anthropologist who writes knowingly of contemporary Montreal.  Very good.  Very grisly.

Dèjà Dead                                                                                      Death du Jour
Deadly Décisions

Another writer of this genre is Patricia Cornwell who involves a forensic anthropologist in Point of Origin.   Also grisly.

Aaron Elkins features Gideon Oliver, a forensic anthropologist ("skeleton detective") in a variety of exotic settings and scenarios.

Curses                                                                                            The Dark Place
Fellowship of Fear                                                                        Murder in the Queen's Armes
Old Bones                                                                                      Icy Clutches
Make No Bones                                                                             Dead Men's Hearts
Rotten Lies                                                                                    Twenty Blue Devils

Aimee and David Thurlo bring us Ella Clah, a Navajo detective

Blackening Song (1995)                                                                Death Walker (1996)
Bad Medicine (1997)                                                                     Enemy Way (1998)
Shooting Chant (April 2000)                                                        Red Mesa (April 2001)

Steven Saylor returns us to Rome with

Arms of Nemesis                                                                           Catalina's Riddle
A History of the Black Press                                                         The House of the Vestals
A Murder on the Appian Way                                                       Roman Blood
Rublicon                                                                                        The Venus Throw

John Maddox Roberts

SPQR  (includes a glossary at the back)                                           The Cataline Conspiracy ("Spqr II)
The Sacrilege (Spqr III)   1999                                                      The Temple of the Muses (Spqr IV)
Spqr V:  Saturnalia    1999

Murder in Tarsis

?The King's Gambit?                                                                    The Temple of the Muses
Legacy of Prometheus

Dominic Highsmith.....     (untried)

Peter Tremayne.....        (untried)
 

HRF Keating

This author sets his mysteriest in 1950s - 1970s India.  Bats Fly Up for Inspector Ghote is a bit on the tame side, but then almost everything is compared to Reichs and Corwell.

*  Acknowledgements to Professor George Demko, Geography, Dartmouth College (Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, April 1997: 20-21) for this idea. His book, Landscapes of Murder, should be out by now.  Special thanks to Dr. Lea Stirling, Classics, University of Manitoba for putting me on to Lindsey Davis and Elizabeth Peters as well as associated websites.

Associated Websites

A "Lindsey Davis"  (Falco) website

http://www.lindseydavis.co.uk/

Archaeology in fiction:  by Anita G. Cohen-Williams.  A very large "Fiction" website dealing with archaeology
http://www.tamu.edu/anthropology/fiction.html

http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/elizabethpeters

http:www.tulane.edu/~rome/weekeight.html