Enjoy great historical fiction this summer!
How will you relax, if you have the opportunity, after many difficult months?
I offer two suggestions for your reading enjoyment, both historical fiction, but each quite unique, followed by an interview with author Maryann Philip.
The Moonlight School, by Suzanne Woods Fisher
- This entertaining novel, set in early twentieth-century rural Kentucky, sheds light on both the area’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Its focus, Moonlight Schools, was inspired by Cora Wilson Stewart’s real-life crusade to wipe out illiteracy.
- This story will appeal especially to readers of Christian historical romance novels.
Martin Luther, Machiavelli and Murder, by Maryann Philip
- Who would have thought that Martin Luther, Machiavelli, the Renaissance artist, Raphael, and various cardinals and popes would feature as characters in the same mystery story?
- Author Maryann Philip uses her creative magic to weave these diverse historical personalities, as well as major fictional characters such as Machiavelli’s mistress and their daughter, Nicola (the protagonist), into an imaginative yet not incredible plot.
- This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy an engaging, sometimes earthy, Renaissance-era mystery that will keep you guessing until the end.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH MARYANN PHILIP:
What led you to set your novels in the High Renaissance period?
The High Renaissance was my focus as a history major at Stanford, because it was the dawn of the modern age and an optimistic period of extraordinary intellectual and artistic achievement.
Why did you choose Renaissance Rome as the main setting for this novel?
It didn’t happen that way. I focused on Niccolò Machiavelli as the hub to my historic wheel, because he went everywhere and knew all the powers-that-be in Renaissance Italy. Machiavelli is very well-documented once he lands on the historic stage, however, so he could not be my primary character.
Instead I chose his fictional mistress (he had several) and illegitimate daughter (none known but certainly possible) as my protagonists. Why? Primarily because I love stories of strong women, and include real ones in these “real history mysteries” whenever possible.
The first story I wanted to tell was that of the Borgia family, and their interaction with Leonardo da Vinci. That required placing Machiavelli’s fictional daughter Nicola in Rome, at the convent where Lucrezia Borgia hid out while her first husband and father Pope Alexander VI fought about her divorce, and she gave birth to the child of another man. (Real history. Too racy not to tell! I have actually been to the convent, which still exists.) Nicola’s mother had to be in Milan, where Leonardo da Vinci was at the time, until he went to Rome to work for Cesare Borgia, as historic fact. All roads lead to Rome and ultimately all the characters ended up there. I made Caterina’s husband the last murder victim, so she could remain there as a widow working for the next “warrior” pope, Julius II. That gave me the backstory that continues through the rest of the series.
Does this novel work well as a stand-alone, or do you recommend reading A Borgia Daughter Dies and Da Vinci Detects first?
All the novels in the series were drafted to read as stand-alones. The backstories of the main characters are consistent and evolve with the characters, however. You will recognize them and know their histories if you read any other book in the series.
What’s your process for creating plots involving famous historical figures? How do you keep their characters true to what’s known about the real people?
The plots derive from the story I want to tell. For example, in Martin Luther and Murder, I wanted to describe what horrified Martin Luther when he traveled to Rome as a devout young monk in 1509, inspiring him later to equate the Pope with the anti-Christ. That led me to dive into what was happening in 1509 in Rome, a story complicated by the fact that Pope Julius was actually leading papal armies against Bologna when Martin Luther was there, waiting with other monastics for him to return so they could meet with him. I therefore had to send Nicola’s mother Caterina to Bologna in order to write about Pope Julius II.
To get their personalities right, I read the best biographies I can find, and compare them. I also read some original documents. I have read many though certainly not all of the commentaries in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous codices, for example. And many of the writings of Martin Luther.
What sources helped you fill in the details of daily life for this story?
That’s hard. There are not too many social histories of ordinary life in Renaissance Italy. Two books I have found helpful are Law, Family and Women: Toward a Legal Anthropology of Renaissance Italy by Thomas Kuehn and The Structures of Everyday Life 15th-18th Century by Fernand Braudel.
Did you know how this novel would end before you began to write? Did your plot change as you wrote?
For each book I have to know first what real history I want to explore. That dictates who my murderer and murder victim(s) will be, which I have to know before I can start writing. That and the real history are the constraints that drive the plot. I knew, for example, exactly when Martin Luther arrived in Rome and when he left, a fact derived from his correspondence. The mystery had to be solved between those two dates. And the first victim had to be someone high in the Church to introduce the scandals that Luther was exposed to while visiting Rome.
How much did you have to deviate from history to create a satisfying story?
I try not to do it at all. I will take sides and often minority positions on historical controversies, which is more fun than simply repeating the conventional wisdom. I will also fill in gaps in the historical record. But I disclose when I am taking a minority view and any “cheats”–even down to minor discrepancies in dates— in the Afterword at the end of each book.
What were the most challenging aspects of writing?
The hardest work is being consistent with the real history, especially squeezing or expanding the story to comply with the dates. Some authors of historical fiction don’t bother, but this is important to me.
What did you enjoy most about writing this novel?
The money I made from A Borgia Daughter Dies allowed me to travel to Bologna and Pavia to envision these cities for the book.
What do you hope readers will take away from this story?
I call my “real history mysteries” candy-coated history and my hope is always that readers will learn some real history that is new to them. Many Catholics have been taught that Martin Luther was a monstrous revolutionary, who destroyed a church that would have remained whole, but for him. I tried to show him as I believe he was: a traditional and earnest Catholic scandalized by the terrible corruption in Rome, concerned with the sale of indulgences and increasingly uncertain about the worship of relics, both practices that Catholicism has since abandoned. Understanding this background helps explain how much tinder was lying around when Luther unwittingly struck the match.
Is there anything else you’d like to say to my readers? If you read any of my books and like them, please put up a review. The reviews are the only advertising I do. Martin Luther and Murder has not sold well. I would love to change that!
Readers, please share your favorite historical fiction reads this summer!