When Hani, an Egyptian diplomat under Akhenaten, is sent to investigate the murder of a use-ful bandit leader in Syria, he encounters corruption, tangled relationships, and yet more murder. His investigation is complicated by the new king’s religious reforms, which have struck Hani’s own family to the core. Hani’s mission is to amass enough evidence for his superiors to prose-cute the wrongdoers despite the king’s protection—but not just every superior can be trusted. And maybe not even the king! Winner of the 2020 Geoffrey Chaucer Award for historical fic-tion before 1750.
Trigger Warnings:
Sexual abuse of children
I’ve always loved books and was lucky enough to grow up in a family where the idea of being a writer wasn’t especially far-fetched. My father wrote short stories for Boy’s Life, a cousin was a novelist, my aunt was book editor of the paper. But I had so many career things happening that it was really only after I retired that I decided to put some of the fascinating history I had studied into fictional form. My mission as a teacher had been to help people understand that the characters of the past are human beings just like us. In spite of different languages, clothing, and world-views, they have the same range of emotional responses we do, so their actions are comprehensible. That goal translated seamlessly into writing novels. The final inspiration, however, came with a classroom assignment: here are the few documents which give all we know about a certain royal divorce in the 13th century BC. Tell me what we can say about it for sure. It was obvious that most of what we thought we “knew” was pushing into speculation/fiction. And “Gee,” I said, “why not fiction?” There was plenty of room for the imagination to operate between facts!
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
The hardest part about Bird in a Snare was trying to boil down the many things that really happened in Egyptian foreign policy as revealed in the Amarna Letters into a single plot. I’m not sure I succeeded, but the later books are more purified, simpler. Since this is a mystery series, another thing that’s tricky is, as you may imagine, coming up with a culprit that readers haven’t guessed long before the reveal. I’m a pretty spontaneous plotter. I certainly don’t start out knowing whodunnit. In fact, I usually find out about the time the reader does, and that can make for some anxious authorial moments toward the end of the book.
Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
All my characters become very real to me, and that can be a problem when they’re historical personages because we know virtually nothing about the personalities of these people, and so when they occur in a novel, they’re essentially fictional, not to be confused with the unknown real man. That’s one of the reasons I decided to write under a pen name. I wanted to keep my historiographer self clearly separated from my novelist self, at least in my own head. That being said, I find the characters in the Lord Hani series especially lovable. Hani himself is the father I wish I’d had. And as a modern woman, I identify with the spunky Neferet, who doesn’t let social expectations define her. (Readers who agree with me will be happy to know she’s going to get her own series.) But among the lesser characters, I find Ptah-mes interesting. He turns into a more important personage over the course of the books, I guess because I started finding layers I hadn’t planned. In some ways, he’s an anti-Hani, a good man but not very amiable—rigid and demanding where Hani is flexible and compassionate.
If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?
Oh gosh—people always ask, and it’s an impossible question for me! I don’t own a TV, and it’s pretty rare when I see a movie. All the actors I know are too old for the parts now. But I would like to specify that the Egyptians should be people of color—Latinos, Arabs, real Egyptians. Blacks for some characters. We’re so used to thinking of Elizabeth Taylor or Claudette Colbert. No, no, no. White people can play the Syrians and Hittites. And frankly, I think The Lord Hani Mysteries would make a really fun TV series, although production values might run a little pricey. Bring on the green screen!
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
Well, entertainment, of course. A trip to a foreign country that draws you in with all your senses. And there’s the comforting quality of mysteries that everything turns out all right at the end—villains get their comeuppance, wrongs are righted. But even more, I have the same hope for readers as I used to for students. I’d like them to come away realizing that the people of the past are just like us. Their technology is different, and they may see the world very differently intellectually, but they have the same repertoire of emotional responses to life that we do. They love their families, they feel fear and elation, envy and a sense of duty just like us. To whatever extent people start to care about the characters, I will have succeeded.
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N.L. Holmes
N.L. Holmes is the pen name of a professional archaeologist who received her doctorate from Bryn Mawr College. She has excavated in Greece and in Israel and taught ancient history and humanities at the university level for many years. She has always had a passion for books, and in childhood, she and her cousin (also a writer today) used to write stories for fun.
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Thank you so much for hosting today's tour stop for Bird in a Snare.
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Mary Anne
The Coffee Pot Book Club