David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "superstition"
Prayers the Devil Answers
PRAYERS THE DEVIL ANSWERS is not a continuation of the Ballad series. This one is set in 1936 and is based on a real life story when a woman in Owensboro, Kentucky, served out the term of her late husband and officiated during a hanging.
McCrum can not resist oldtime superstitions, and she starts the book with one called the Dumb Supper, where young girls prepare a meal for their future husbands. Only two boys show up. During the ceremony the girls must not look at the table, they bring the silverware, plates and food to the table backwards. But one of them, Celia, drops a knife; when she picks it up, she looks at the table. Bad, bad luck.
We jump ahead to 1936 when Ellie, one of the girls at the Dumb Supper, is nursing her husband, who has pneumonia. She finally calls a doctor, whom they can't afford, but by then it's too late. He just happens to be sheriff of the country, having been elected three months early, thanks to some political gamesmanship. But he was a good sheriff. She gets the crazy idea to ask the chief commissioner for the job, so she can feed her two young boys. What seals the deal is when she shows him her scar from a dog bite. The dog had rabies and she branded the bite with a red hot poker, which possibly saved her life.
Next we meet Lonnie Varden, an artist who has been hired by the government to paint a mural in the post office. McCrum shows the preparations involved. You don't just paint the wall. He's going to paint an Indian attack on a local fort. But he has no idea what the fort looks like, so he goes to the schoolhouse to ask the teacher, Celia of course, if she has any historical pictures he can look at. She does. They start courting and eventually get married. Three years later they go for a walk, his wife looking for something beyond flowers and trees she can take pictures of with her new camera she got for Christmas. They go to “The Hawk's Wing” a cliff way up on the mountain where you can see forever. She walks out onto the cliff to get a better picture. He is wrestling with himself about how to tell her something he did. But instead of telling her, he pushes her off the cliff, and there are witnesses, other lovers out for a walk.
So then, the suspense involves when we're find out why he did it. He seemed like such a likable person. I'll admit I didn't think he did it. We're also wondering whether a nice little woman like Ellie will be able to hang him.
There's some questionable behavior at the end that just doesn't fit Ellie's character. I guess McCrumb is trying to tell us we're all capable of a mean streak.
McCrum can not resist oldtime superstitions, and she starts the book with one called the Dumb Supper, where young girls prepare a meal for their future husbands. Only two boys show up. During the ceremony the girls must not look at the table, they bring the silverware, plates and food to the table backwards. But one of them, Celia, drops a knife; when she picks it up, she looks at the table. Bad, bad luck.
We jump ahead to 1936 when Ellie, one of the girls at the Dumb Supper, is nursing her husband, who has pneumonia. She finally calls a doctor, whom they can't afford, but by then it's too late. He just happens to be sheriff of the country, having been elected three months early, thanks to some political gamesmanship. But he was a good sheriff. She gets the crazy idea to ask the chief commissioner for the job, so she can feed her two young boys. What seals the deal is when she shows him her scar from a dog bite. The dog had rabies and she branded the bite with a red hot poker, which possibly saved her life.
Next we meet Lonnie Varden, an artist who has been hired by the government to paint a mural in the post office. McCrum shows the preparations involved. You don't just paint the wall. He's going to paint an Indian attack on a local fort. But he has no idea what the fort looks like, so he goes to the schoolhouse to ask the teacher, Celia of course, if she has any historical pictures he can look at. She does. They start courting and eventually get married. Three years later they go for a walk, his wife looking for something beyond flowers and trees she can take pictures of with her new camera she got for Christmas. They go to “The Hawk's Wing” a cliff way up on the mountain where you can see forever. She walks out onto the cliff to get a better picture. He is wrestling with himself about how to tell her something he did. But instead of telling her, he pushes her off the cliff, and there are witnesses, other lovers out for a walk.
So then, the suspense involves when we're find out why he did it. He seemed like such a likable person. I'll admit I didn't think he did it. We're also wondering whether a nice little woman like Ellie will be able to hang him.
There's some questionable behavior at the end that just doesn't fit Ellie's character. I guess McCrumb is trying to tell us we're all capable of a mean streak.
City of Lights, City of Poison
In 1665 and 1666 Jacques Tardieu, criminal lieutenant of Paris, and Dreux d'Aubray, civil lieutenant of Paris under Louis XIV were murdered. They were two of Louis's principal advisers.
As a result, Louis appointed one of his most trusted advisers, Nicolas de La Reynie, as the first police chief of Paris. At the time Paris was known as the “crime capital of the world.” De La Reynie set to work installing gas lights in the city, hence the moniker “City of Lights.” The streets were also muddy and mixed with animal refuse as beef cattle were regularly herded through the city on their way to the slaughter house. De La Reynie required that shopkeepers and home owners get up early in the morning to sweep the mud and refuse into the middle of the streets so that street cleaners could collect it more readily.
Still, Montorgeuil neighborhood, the center of crime and poverty, remained a nuisance and the murders kept happening, particularly poisonings. But that's where de La Reynie centered his investigation, rooting out apothecaries, pick pockets, rogue priests, witches, and poisoners. It was here he found his most reliable witnesses, women who cast spells and made love potions or poisons to attain revenge. Ultimately de La Reynie questioned 442 people, put 218 in prison, executed 34, and sentenced another 28 to life in prison or the galleys. Nothing much has changed since the late 17th century. If you were found guilty and were a nobleman or woman, you were decapitated; an ordinary citizen was either hanged or burned alive.
De La Reynie acquired so much evidence he couldn't make sense of it. Eventually King Louis called a tribunal to sift through the evidence. De La Reynie also gave the king a black box with evidence that pertained to his former mistresses. The king was adamant they should be left alone. His second mistress, the marquis of Montespan, had been mentioned by numerous witnesses as participating in rituals, asking for potions to make the king love her and perhaps even murder. She remained at Versailles for ten years after the poisoning scourge ended, then retired to the south of France.
This is a hard book to read. There are so many poisoners, rogue priests, relatives of amateur apothecaries who testified, that when author, Holly Tucker, mentions them, the reader can't remember who they are. This book definitely needs a glossary. It does have a very nice picture segment. What is rather surprising is how essentially decent Louis XIV was. Yes, de La Reynie practiced torture that would make Dick Cheney look like a boy scout, but this happened everywhere. The king was faithful to his wife, in his way, throughout their marriage. When she died he married the former governess, because she was pious and easy to talk to.
As a result, Louis appointed one of his most trusted advisers, Nicolas de La Reynie, as the first police chief of Paris. At the time Paris was known as the “crime capital of the world.” De La Reynie set to work installing gas lights in the city, hence the moniker “City of Lights.” The streets were also muddy and mixed with animal refuse as beef cattle were regularly herded through the city on their way to the slaughter house. De La Reynie required that shopkeepers and home owners get up early in the morning to sweep the mud and refuse into the middle of the streets so that street cleaners could collect it more readily.
Still, Montorgeuil neighborhood, the center of crime and poverty, remained a nuisance and the murders kept happening, particularly poisonings. But that's where de La Reynie centered his investigation, rooting out apothecaries, pick pockets, rogue priests, witches, and poisoners. It was here he found his most reliable witnesses, women who cast spells and made love potions or poisons to attain revenge. Ultimately de La Reynie questioned 442 people, put 218 in prison, executed 34, and sentenced another 28 to life in prison or the galleys. Nothing much has changed since the late 17th century. If you were found guilty and were a nobleman or woman, you were decapitated; an ordinary citizen was either hanged or burned alive.
De La Reynie acquired so much evidence he couldn't make sense of it. Eventually King Louis called a tribunal to sift through the evidence. De La Reynie also gave the king a black box with evidence that pertained to his former mistresses. The king was adamant they should be left alone. His second mistress, the marquis of Montespan, had been mentioned by numerous witnesses as participating in rituals, asking for potions to make the king love her and perhaps even murder. She remained at Versailles for ten years after the poisoning scourge ended, then retired to the south of France.
This is a hard book to read. There are so many poisoners, rogue priests, relatives of amateur apothecaries who testified, that when author, Holly Tucker, mentions them, the reader can't remember who they are. This book definitely needs a glossary. It does have a very nice picture segment. What is rather surprising is how essentially decent Louis XIV was. Yes, de La Reynie practiced torture that would make Dick Cheney look like a boy scout, but this happened everywhere. The king was faithful to his wife, in his way, throughout their marriage. When she died he married the former governess, because she was pious and easy to talk to.
