A MURDER OF FURIES

In Kuhns’ historical novel, one in the Bronze Age Crete Mysteries series, a young woman investigates the murder of a religious figure in ancient Greece.

Bronze Age Crete, 1450 B.C.E.: Martis is a young woman just short of 17 who lives in the city of Knossos. At the beginning of the story, she’s dancing in a ceremony while dressed like a bird to honor the Lady of Animals and Childbirth. While ceremonies and celebrations abound, with bull-dancing and even a sexual ritual performed by the High Priestess and her consort, Tinos, all is not well. A daughter of the High Priestess named Atana is missing. To make matters worse, a dangerous asp kills a young priestess named Phytia during a ceremony. The asp should not have been there; the fact that the snake is native to Egypt raises suspicions. Martis is visited in a dream by her dead sister, Arge, and tasked with finding Atana and determining who killed Phytia. She deduces that the asp was most likely intended for the High Priestess. Meanwhile, a group of Egyptians have come to Crete to secure a marriage between the Pharaoh’s brother, Rashid, and the High Priestess’s daughter, Hele. Hele is not interested. Later, Martis overhears plotting between Rashid and the High Priestess’s son, Khoranos, who plan to force the marriage by kidnapping Hele. Soon thereafter, the High Priestess is found dead. Martis believes that the “murder of a High Priestess [threatens] the end of the world,” and so, although Martis is merely a young bull leaper, she goes about investigating the case.

The book’s early chapters are marred by some repetition—for instance, readers learn in the first few pages that Atana is missing, but this fact then gets repeated in different ways to different people. (Martis asks someone, “Have you seen Atana?”; someone asks her, “Is Atana missing?” Arge then goes on to remind Martis that finding Atana is one of her tasks.) Once Martis gets into her investigative work, the pace picks up; she ventures to places that are forbidden to lay people and observes a portion of an underground ritual, an act that’s punishable by death. It is in such glimpses of the oddities of ancient Greek life that the narrative exerts its greatest appeal. Some details will likely shock modern readers, such as the High Priestess and Tinos having sex in a public fertility ceremony. Of course, to those in Martis’ world, this is just a normal occurrence—not that Martis, who has a fondness for Tinos, wants anything to do with seeing her crush copulating with another woman. Martis, with her clearly articulated inner life, makes for a standout protagonist. She’s certainly not what one might imagine to be the typical detective, either in an ancient realm or in modern times. Still a teenager, she’s concerned about making her mother worry too much, she gets upset if she’s scolded, and she argues with Arge and declares “I’m not a child,” though she clearly is. The compelling question is, How will this child fare with the odds stacked against her, particularly at a time with so much treachery in the air?

A unique, dynamic protagonist leads readers through a convincing ancient world.