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OK, so I’m a sucker for a pun. But so is Rita Mae Brown, since she titled her new Mrs. Murphy mystery Santa Clawed — and if someone as smart and well-read as Rita Mae can love a pun, so can I.

I wasn’t prepared for Rita Mae Brown’s erudition. I’m not much of a “cozy” mystery fan, and I’m not a fan at all of books with speaking animal protagonists. But I am a fan of Rita Mae’s earlier work, her long years of feminist activism, and her willingness to assert her opinions into her books (even when those opinions are unpopular ones). I thought it would be good to meet her in person, even if I was just asking polite questions about plotting murder mysteries.

I met Rita Mae and her media escort at one of my favorite DC coffee shops, Ebenezers – and even if I’d never seen a photo of her, when I walked in, I would have known who she was. Rita Mae Brown has a livewire presence, full of energy and engagement.

We plunged into a conversation that seemed to start in medias res after I reminded Rita Mae that we’d had a long and interesting phone interview several years ago. (She doesn’t have a computer.) But in person, instead of simply giving articulate answers, she engages — our conversation went in so many different directions. Here are a few snippets as a Christmas treat.

Rita Mae Brown on The South: “Yankees are all about ideas; Southerners are all about people. You never want to push a Southerner to the brink of having to say “no” to you. Why? Well, because we lost the War! The South is an honor culture, and the worst thing in the world is not to be included in something.”

Rita Mae Brown on Animals: “I believe their lives are equal to ours, so with every animal in my life, I ask: What did I learn? What did I give? We have to remember that there is a big difference between animals that are predators, and animals that are prey. We’re predators, and so are cats and dogs. Horses are prey. It’s a completely different mindset. Predatory animals look to us for leadership; prey animals look to us for care.”

Rita Mae Brown on Literature: “Americans cannot write farce because it requires a certain amount of self-awareness that we’re not good at; the British can do it. Comic writing requires a certain amount of aggression, and that’s why I think I’m the only woman who has ever succeeded in writing a comic novel. At this point, after many, many years, I’m ready to return to writing in my literary voice instead of my commercial voice. My book Sandcastles that came out in the summer of 2008 is part of that return.”

Rita Mae Brown’s Reading List for Me:

The Great Warming by Brian Fagan — Subtitled “Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations”

Mistress of the Vatican by Eleanor Herman — Subtitled “The True Story of Olimpia Maidalchini, The Secret Female Pope”

Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon

Sportman’s Notebook (Hunting Sketches) by Ivan Turgenev

“Anything by F.R. Surtees” — I’ll be investigating this…

Read Santa Clawed for pure fun, and look forward to what’s coming next from Rita Mae Brown so that you can learn where the past couple of decades have taken her in life, in politics, in activism, and in intellect.

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Full disclosure: I have absolutely no objectivity about this book, because Louis Bayard is a friend. So unfortunately, if I tell you that he’s a brilliant writer, you’ll have to dismiss my opinions as sentiment-raddled ramblings.

That’s why I’m happy to say that there are plenty of other critics out there who can tell you that Louis Bayard is a brilliant writer, and that his latest novel The Black Tower is a terrific read. Don’t believe me? Listen to them!

Sarah Weinman: “To neglect history is to ignore it and suffer the consequences. But to write about it, to take salient points about a particular time and place and character and create both an engaging mystery that provokes the reader, is to ensure a positive feedback loop of remembering that solves the problem posed at the beginning of this review. The make-believe world of The Black Tower succeeds by broadcasting larger truths that might otherwise elude us.”

Marilyn Stasio: “Bayard makes brilliant application of Vidocq in this fanciful adventure…No snatch-and-run researcher, Bayard takes care to capture Vidocq’s roguish voice and grandiose affectations, as well as the melodramatic substance of his published memoirs.”

Ross King: “The Black Tower weaves history and fiction together in the trademark style—linguistic brio, a slickly unfolding plot, a raft of colorful characters—that has propelled Bayard’s work into the upper reaches of the historical-thriller league…In Bayard’s hands, Vidocq becomes an arrogant, bullying, wine-swilling, foul-smelling underworld spy and master of disguise—and an utterly compelling character.”

We’ve got ten copies of The Black Tower to give away to the first ten readers who respond to this post (following our giveaway guidelines, please) and tell me which historical character you think would make a great fictional detective.

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…is VOTING! I’m glad that I’ve already cast my ballot and don’t have to wait in line today, but if you haven’t gotten out there yet, I wish you luck and an easy time in line (by the way, the best company in that line? A book, of course!).

My mother-in-law gets props today for sending me a wonderfully relevant tidbit. She receives and reads mystery author Susan Wittig Albert’s newsletter, “All About Thyme: A Weekly Calendar of Times and Seasonings.” This week, Wittig Albert wrote about “Election Cake:”

“I  was browsing through an early nineteenth-century cookbook when I came across a recipe for something called Election Cake. ‘Old-fashioned election cake,’ I read, ‘is made of four pounds of flour… ‘

Election cake? I’d never heard of it! But some online research pulled up an answer, from an article written by the well-known food historian Alice Ross. Election cake, Miss Ross says, was a tradition that began back in England, with the ‘Great Cake,’ rich, spicy fruit-filled cakes baked to celebrate important family or community occasions. One such occasion arose during the Revolutionary War, when men flocked to the colonial towns to report for duty in the Revolutionary Army. The inns and taverns served cake: ‘Mustering Cake.’ After the War, men came to town again—this time to vote in elections for which they had fought and died. It was time to celebrate again, this time, with ‘Election Cake.’

The recipe for Election Cake appears in the second edition of Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery (1800)—a truly American cookbook, with recipes for such colonial novelties as Johnny Cake, Indian Slapjacks, ‘Pompkin pudding’ (the first pumpkin pie), cooked squash with whortleberries, even the quintessentially American Spruce Beer. What’s more, Mrs. Simmons was the first cookbook author to use the word cooky, from the Dutch ‘koekje,’ the treats offered in colonial New York to holiday callers. So it seems altogether appropriate that American Cookery should include recipes for three American cakes: Independence Cake, Federal Pan Cake, and Election Cake. Here is Amelia Simmons’s recipe, for a cake that was obviously intended to be served to a large crowd of enthusiastic voters. (You’ll find three other recipes on Alice Ross’s website.)

Election Cake
30 quarts flour, 10 pound butter, 14 pound sugar, 12 pound raisins, 3 doz eggs, one pint wine, one quart brandy, 4 ounces cinnamon, 4 ounces fine colander seed*, 3 ounces ground allspice; wet the flour with milk to the consistence of bread over night, adding one quart yeast; the next morning work the butter and sugar together for half an hour, which will render the cake much lighter and whiter; when it has rise light work in every other ingredient except the plumbs**, which work in when going into the oven.

*Colander seed is coriander seed, brought to Britain by the Romans. It was once used extensively in confectionery. “The seeds are quite round, like tiny balls,” Mrs. Grieve tells us, “about the size of a Sweet Pea Seed… The longer they are kept the more fragrant they become, with a warm pungent taste.” Coriander seed was kept whole and roasted and ground before use.

** “Plumbs” are dried raisins.”

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Stephen Carter’s elegant mystery novels are sui generis, a combination of the Yale Law professor’s education, erudition, and anthropological interest in nearly every aspect of American culture.

His focus, however, in each of his three books (The Emperor of Ocean Park and New England White were the first two) is on elite African-American communities and how they’ve negotiated the twentieth century. In choosing to examine individuals and families with material and educational advantages, he provides a different view of race in our country — one that contains struggles, secrets, and hypocrisies, just like European American society. However, he never ignores or plays down the roles of slavery and civil rights in everyone’s lives.

Carter entwines certain plotlines and characters from book to book, but Palace Council, like its predecessors, is a standalone read. Here, the murder of a prominent white businessman in Harlem affects the life of writer Eddie Wesley, whose sister June has inexplicably disappeared and seems to be involved in a revolutionary group called Jewel Agony. Meanwhile, Aurelia Treene, the love of Eddie’s life, also becomes a part of the decades-long search for the truth about why a group of men is so dedicated to creating a kind of dynasty.

We’ve got ten copies of Palace Council by Stephen Carter to give to ten readers who share their favorite mystery titles — I’ll select the ten randomly from the first 20 responses. Thanks for reading, and please come back tomorrw for my interview with Stephen Carter.

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