Secret Murder: Who Shall Judge? - Softcover

Ellen Kuhfeld

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0982523289 ISBN 13: 9780982523285

Publisher: FTL Publications, 2011

Synopsis

What if, in the middle ages, North America had been settled by Europeans? The Americas would have developed very differently. Settlers from an eleventh-century Europe would have been on a relatively even footing with the local people. We could end up with an Anglo-French empire along the Mississippi up to the head of navigation at Saint Anthony Falls. North of that would be Norse, settling on the Iron Range; and north of the Norse, Finns. Large areas of North America would still belong to the indigenous peoples. Traders would travel about, by land and by river, as traders always have. At trade fairs, men and women of different lands, laws, and customs would come together. As always, jackals would gather to prey upon them....

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Secret Murder is an intriguing historical novel of passion and turbulent life, of murder and a kind of justice. The story is rife with all the trappings of a time of story-tellers, traveling bards, Vikings and native peoples who wandered the earth, a time before printing presses and cell phones. In exciting fashion author Ellen Kuhfeld suggests the possibility of a westward penetration into the new continent long before Columbus, before the Spaniards or the Portuguese came to the “new world.” Never mind there is scant reliable evidence of Finns or Norse or white Christians ever penetrating to the middle of North America before the sixteenth century. Be that as it may, had they come, here's an enthralling story of how it might have been. – Carl Brookins, author of the mystery novels Devil's Island, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, and Red Sky I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a murder mystery set in an outpost of medieval Europe, which just happens to be in Minnesota. (In the novel's world, Europeans settled in North America long before 1492 and now trade through the Great Lakes and along the Mississippi, both with Native Americans and other settlers.) An overbearing Viking is murdered at a trade fair, where Scandinavian merchants from Northern Minnesota meet to trade with English and French merchants from farther south. The chief suspect is an old enemy of the Viking, a tough as nails and likable merchant named Ragnar Forkbeard. The bailiff for the local baron is trying to solve the crime, before the fair breaks up and the killer can get away. Ragnar is trying to solve the crime, before he is arrested for it. In the course of the two investigations, we are introduced to medieval trading, religion, courtship, friendship, poetry and ethics. I could not find a false note anywhere. Kuhfeld's Vikings ring true. LIke the saga heroes, they are tough, honorable, violent and funny. His English characters are equally interesting and plausible. I enjoyed the midwestern landscape and trying to identify the locations I know now. (Milltown by the Great Falls has to be Minneapolis by St. Anthony Falls. Lakesend has to be Duluth.) The mystery kept me guessing. Its solution was satisfactory. There are two Viking funerals, one of them outstanding, and a quiet romance. What else can a reasonable person ask for? I recommend the book to anyone who is interested in Vikings, medieval Europe or a good, old fashioned, Minnesota murder mystery. -Eleanor Arnason , author of A Woman of the Iron People, winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award and Mythopoeic Society Award; and Ring of Swords, winner of the Minnesota Book Award.

About the Author:

I got a BS at MIT, an MS and PhD at the University of Minnesota. Then, having equipped myself for life as a nuclear physicist, I ran away and joined the museum world. I simply could not stand scholarly writing, which must be in the passive voice. Eventually, I ended up as curator at The Bakken Library and Museum in Minneapolis. Since graduating I've sold a number of stories, quite a few articles, and one novel. I'm working on a book about the history of electricity, expanding on columns written for the IEEE journal Engineering in Medicine and Biology. Now that I'm retired, I have more time to write. I've published my novel, and have been collaborating with a friend on short stories and poetry. Been selling them, too. And I've taken up bookbinding as a hobby. This retirement stuff ain't bad!

About this edition

• Publisher: FTL Publications
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0982523289
• ISBN 13: 9780982523285
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 154