From My Review Desk
Here’s a review of a funny, lighthearted book that might hit the spot for a lot of people right now. I originally wrote this review for Historical Novels Review in 2014.
Rhys Bowen’s Queen of Hearts offers all the fun her readers associate with her Royal Spyness series. In these light mysteries set in the 1930’s, Georgie, penniless cousin to King George, usually finds herself surrounded by famous people and a dead body—with a lurking murderer hiding behind a high society façade.
Queen of Hearts continues the light-hearted social satire by carrying Georgie to Hollywood where the “royalty” are eminently spoofable. Georgie’s scandalous actress mother needs a quickie Nevada divorce so she can marry her rich German lover. She decides to take Georgie along for company. On the transatlantic crossing a serial jewel thief strikes and the chase begins.
While on board, Georgie’s mother is persuaded by a movie mogul, Mr. Goldman (and yes, the echo of a famous movie studio is intentional, I assume), to take a role in his movie about English royals. It’s a preposterous “drama” about a supposed romantic rivalry between Elizabeth I and Mary over Philip of Spain—a situation everyone knows never happened. In the process a dead body does show up in one of Bowen’s more satirical settings—a nouveau riche, tasteless mansion suspiciously reminiscent of Hearst castle with its own zebras and giraffes wandering the grounds. Charlie Chaplin adds sardonic commentary on the proceedings (and off-scene bed hopping) to spice up the mix.
Archaeology I Enjoyed
Sunken Thonis-Heracleion
Before Alexandria became the major port of Egypt in the ancient world, the city of Thonis-Heracleion acted as the center of trade in the Mediterranean for Egypt. Gradually the thriving city with a grand temple to Herakles at the mouth of the Nile sank below the waters of the Mediterranean as seismic activity caused sink holes underneath.
In 2000 Franck Goddio and the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology discovered the remains of this now underwater city. Since then, they have brought to the surface impressive pink granite sculptures of pharaohs, queens and gods. They also located a gold plaque inscribed in Greek saying Ptolemy III dedicated a temple to Herakles on a 500-foot-long wall of the temple.
One intriguing dark stone statue of a woman in the tunic of a priestess of Isis could be imaginatively seen as representing Cleopatra given her famous allegiance to that goddess. Click here for The Vintage News “The Lost Egyptian City Of Thonis Heracleion Submerged for 1000 Years”
Precious Purple
I’m intrigued by this article about Tel Shikmona a site near Haifa, Israel that was a purple dye center for centuries. The dye was perhaps the most highly valued commodity of the ancient world.
In the Bronze Age world I write about, the city of Ugarit paid part of its tribute to the Hittite empire in the form of purple wool. The dye was precious because it was hard to get and made a beautiful, permanent, nonfading blue or purple color. The raw liquid used for the dye is extracted from a gland in the murex sea snail. The shell has to be crushed, and the gland carefully removed and then processed. A huge number of sea snails go into a small amount of dyed fabric.
Interestingly, this site in modern Israel, right on the coast was excavated in the 1960’s but its function as a major “factory” of murex production was completely missed. A recent reexamination of the pottery shards with blue dye on them led to a complete reinterpretation of the site’s earliest role. Click here for Archaeology Magazine “The Price of Purple”