From My Fantasy Writing Desk
The Silver Shooter by Erin Lindsey: A Fun Read!
This review first appeared November 2020 online in Historical Novels Review. I’m not sure why this review was left out of the print edition of HNR, but this book is good fun and we need that sort of thing these days, so here it is. I hadn’t read the first two in this series, and I wasn’t lost in this one.
The Silver Shooter is the exhilarating and entertaining third in Lindsey’s Rose Gallagher historical fantasy mystery series. Set in 1887, it opens in New York with Rose and her elegantly tailored mentor Thomas Wiltshire receiving an assignment from Theodore Roosevelt. Rose has risen from maid living in the slums of Five Points to Pinkerton agent specializing in otherworldly crime.
Roosevelt tells a tale set in the Dakota Badlands of “a murder, a monster, and magic,” a phrase Lindsey uses as a chapter ending, one of her many effective closings that entice readers onward. Lindsey cleverly intertwines these three threads into a multi-layered plot with twists and surprises for a fast-paced read.
The Plot Goes Wild
Soon Rose and Thomas are on their way to the West, far wilder than they imagined. Lindsey builds from historical aspects, Roosevelt’s ranching days and colorful associates, a deadly winter known as the Blue Snow, and an outfit of thug “cattlemen.” The author adds inherited magic arising when “fae and mortals occasionally coupled.” Magic people are “lucky,” with one of a variety of powers, some tending toward scientific, such as “elemental,” identification by touch of a soil’s minerals. Roosevelt has “uncanny magnetism” that “drew people to him like moths to a flame,” thus combining his historical charisma with the fantastical premise.
Two other successful facets are chemistry between Thomas and Rose, and dry humor in the narrative voice. The romantic sizzle sparks excitement without detracting from mystery solving, and the challenges keeping them apart add richness to character development. Humor bubbles up throughout. At one point, Rose uses her jujitsu on an unsavory attacker, but adds “a Five Points variation,” knee to groin. “He curled over himself on the floor, whimpering in a register mainly discernible by dogs, and I can’t pretend I didn’t find it just a little gratifying.”
Highly recommended for readers who enjoy a lively mixture of history, mystery and the fantastical.
Archaeology I Enjoyed
A Boastful King Uncovered
This time of year, Archaeology Magazine features the Top 10 Discoveries of the Year. I enjoy the round up and love to see if I missed anything major. Of course, this year, little to no excavating happened during the spring and summer when most digs have their seasons. But nonetheless there were some great discoveries.
My favorite, predictably enough, came from Turkey, where a Luwian royal inscription appeared in a canal during a surface survey. Luwian is closely related to the Hittite language. Regions in Anatolia used Luwian, and many records in this language are part of the overall “Hittite” corpus.
A Mystery Solved
The inscription carved in Luwian hieroglyphs on stone celebrates the military accomplishments of a Great King Hartapu. (Hittite and Luwian are both written in cuneiform on clay tablets and in a kind of hieroglyph on stone monuments.) Harpatu is not a name that appears in the Hittite Great King lists. Previously we did not know about this Great King beyond seeing his name carved on two nearby mountain hilltop sanctuaries. Those enigmatic mentions gave no hint of the date of his rule or the extent of his realm.
Thanks to this “ditched” inscription in southern Turkey, we know that this mystery ruler was an Iron Age Neo-Hittite king in the 8th century BCE (hence not on the Hittite lists). Neo-Hittites lived in certain key cities in Anatolia and down into the Levant after the total collapse of the Hittite empire. They somewhat indirectly preserved some of the artistic traditions and other aspects of Hittite life.
And Then I . . .
This king boasts in this inscription that he has conquered Phrygia, a major kingdom in west-central Anatolia and overcome a coalition of 13 kings. That would make him a very important guy in the rough and tumble Iron Age world of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East. His capital must have been the nearby mound which has both Bronze Age and Iron Age ruins of one of the largest cities in Anatolia. It will be excavated with this new focus of enlightenment about its “biggest” ruler and his much bigger than expected realm (if he isn’t making stuff up on this inscription, of course!).
Somehow boasting about power has taken on a whole new feel over the last four years. It’d be such fun to sit in on one of his court sessions and decide who and what he really was. Could someone invent my time machine? That seems like a great Covid-safe way to travel, and I’ve got a long list of people to visit. Where are you going? Click here for Archaeology Magazine, “Luwian Royal Inscription”
The Empty Tomb of Romulus
Here’s another of the Top 10 Discoveries from Archaeology Magazine. You’d think the Roman Forum would have no secrets left to reveal. However, a shrine to Romulus has surfaced during repairs to the stairs of the Curia Julia, the ancient Senate House. It’s true it was first exposed by archaeologist Giacomo Boni in 1899, but then reburied and forgotten. Romulus was the legendary founder of Rome, who may or may not have existed. The shrine has a subterranean tomb and an altar. Archaeologists don’t believe the tomb ever held a body. Rather it served as a symbolic place for Romans to worship their founder and celebrate the origins of Rome. This newly bared gem of history reminds me how much there is still to be found—even if we have to make a second try sometimes. Click here for Archaeology Magazine, “A Shrine to Romulus.”