We are delighted to welcome author Allan Levine to Omnimystery News.
Allan's recently published historical thriller is Evil of the Age (Yucca Publishing; November 2014 hardcover and ebook formats) and we asked him how difficult it was researching elements of a story that takes place over 100 years ago. He titles his guest post for us today, "Recreating the Past".
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Photo provided courtesy of
Allan Levine
Did people in 1911 use sugar cubes? Who knows? Some years ago when I was writing my first historical mystery, The Blood Libel (1997), I recalled being told that my grandfather Sam Kliman (who I had named my main character, Sam Klein after) sipped tea with a sugar cube lodged in his cheek. So in one early scene in my novel I had Sam Klein do the same thing. Before the book was published, an astute reviewer pointed out to me that though the sugar cube had been invented in Europe in the 1870s, they were not widely available in Canada, where my novel was set in 1911, for some years later. After more digging I learned that my grandfather actually cut off a piece of sugar from a long stick and that is what he put in his mouth when he drank tea.
This seems like a minor issue, but when you are writing a historical mystery the details definitely count. If you want to transport your readers back to a particular time and place, then it is essential to get your facts right. How did people go about their daily lives in the era you are writing about? What were their normal customs? What did they eat? How did they prepare it? When did they bathe and how? What did they wear? If as a historical mystery writer you don't get these basic facts correct, then you will lose credibility with your readers. As a historical mystery author, you can make-up the story, but don't fool around with the facts!
I came to historical mystery writing in a different path than many mystery writers. I am a historian and have spent much of my career writing non-fiction narrative history. However, the opportunity arose in the late 1990s to try fiction and between 1997 and 2002 I wrote a trilogy of historical mysteries featuring Sam Klein (who was as noted inspired by my grandfather), a Jewish immigrant living in Winnipeg, Canada in the early years of the 20th century. Klein wrestles with being an outsider in a prairie city that is a microcosm for the many problems confronted by European immigrants before and after the First World War.
The success of those books, two of which were also published by Random House Germany, prompted me to write Evil of the Age set in 1871 New York City. My approach has been to combine solid historical research with a great story and fascinating characters. My object has been always to truly give readers the "feel" of the novel's setting. In order to be successful, I approach mystery writing as I would a non-fiction book: By extensive research of primary and secondary sources.
Before I started writing Evil of the Age I spent a lot of time at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street reading many booklets and pamphlets about the city written in the mid-19th century. Those, along with newspapers and magazines of the era provided me with the background — the people, customs, lifestyle, events, and issues — to recreate New York in 1871, a time when civic corruption was rampant and when you could get your throat slit if you wandered into the wrong neighbourhood after dark. I also was inspired by an 1871 story in the New York Times detailing the discovery of a body found in a trunk at the Hudson Railway depot, exactly how Evil of the Age begins.
The key character in the novel is Charles St. Clair, a journalist who works for the magazine Fox's Weekly, a journal like Harper's Magazine. St. Clair is a widower; his wife died in a botched abortion, another common occurrence in post-Civil War New York. Thus when he is asked to investigate the activities of Madame Philippe, the city's most famous abortionist, he is conflicted. St. Clair is far from perfect. He has lost a lot of money gambling and has an ever increasing debt with a notorious crook. Still, he is defined by his high morals that do not always serve him well. One of his enemies, who he has been reporting about is Victor Fowler, a corrupt civic official modelled after the real life "Boss" William Tweed, Tammany's chief who ran New York City with his "Ring" in the 1860s and 1870s. The random element in the story is a beautiful woman named Ruth Cardaso, who is not what she appears to be. St. Clair suspects there is more to her, but he is nevertheless drawn to Ruth early in the book.
Readers accompany St. Clair on his travels from the mansions of Fifth Avenue to the brothels of SoHo on the trail of Victor Fowler and Madame Philippe. But what he uncovers proves to be more shocking than even he ever imagined.
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Allan Levine was born in Winnipeg and received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Toronto. He is the author of 9 non-fiction books that have examined a wide-range of political, social and economic issues. He has delved into Canadian, European, American and Jewish history. He has also published four historical mystery novels, and has been freelancing articles and reviews for more than 30 years. In all of his work, he aims to bring the past alive and reflect on history's lessons.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at AllanLevine.com and his author page on Goodreads.
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Evil of the Age by Allan Levine
A Thriller
Publisher: Yucca Publishing
The summer of 1871 in New York City is hot and humid. The city is gripped by two seemingly separate events. The first is the discovery of a beautiful young woman's body stuffed inside a trunk at the Hudson railway depot. The second involves Victor Fowler, grand sachem of Tammany Hall, and the "Boss" of what is popularly referred to as "The Ring." This is a small clique that includes Governor "Dandy" Archibald Krupp, Fowler's man at the state assembly in Albany; Mayor Thomas "The Prince" Emery, an opportunist of the worst variety; "Slimy" Bob James, the cunning and sly city comptroller; and Isaac "The Wizard" Harrison, the City Chamberlain, who is possibly the most treacherous of the "Ring Rascals."
New York journalist Charles St. Clair, tracking down the story of Lucy Maloney, the "kept woman" found murdered and stuffed in a trunk at the Hudson railway depot, moves from the mansions of Fifth Avenue to the brothels of SoHo to the seedy and dangerous saloons on Water Street. St. Clair soon uncovers Lucy's connection to a ring of abortionists and to Madame Philippe, a wealthy woman who known as Madam Killer.
St. Clair confronts Madame Philippe at the Tombs prison, where she awaits the hangman's noose for Lucy's murder. St. Clair believes her to be innocent and sets out to prove it, discovering deceit at the highest levels of political power and the shocking secret of the "Ring Rascals."
— Evil of the Age by Allan Levine
