Humor and Murder: Guest Post by Priscilla Royal

Priscilla Royal:

Humor and Murder 

Humor and death may seem odd companions, but they have always been best friends. 

Think Hamlet and the gravedigger scene. Call to mind jokes told by those who have suffered pogroms, slavey, the horrors of WWII, or other individual but horrible tragedies. 

Jokes are a survival technique, a way of gaining some distance from a terrifying situation. After the Hinckley assassination attempt, President Reagan quipped: “Honey, I forgot to duck.” Poignancy may also hold hands with humor. The story of the young Jewish man who saves his life for a little bit longer by promising to teach the Tsar’s horse to fly is an example. When his companion says this is impossible and he will be murdered just the same, the man replies: “Or the horse may fly.” Humor in the face of death demonstrates a unique defiance and pride. 

Laughter in a book is a way of breaking tension, a literary form of taking a coffee break from an arduous task. In Geoffrey Household’s The Watcher in the Shadows, a 1960 stalker tale, the protagonist, in danger of being murdered by an unknown person from his past, stays with a vicar who owns a horse. The horse lives in the house and is first met staring affectionately over the shoulder of a woman shelling peas in the kitchen. The entire cast in this bucolic scene is funny and delightful. Yes, the killer is still in the shadows, but the reader gets a breather as does the protagonist. 

Humor shows something about character. Inappropriate jests may suggest he or she is an insensitive boor, but they may also suggest trauma. People do laugh instead of weeping in response to unthinkable news. It is a surprise reaction that can also be a red herring. 

Another example of how humor works in literature is best exemplified by Shakespeare’s fool. Monarchs often let their fools tell them the truth, albeit as a jest, but occasionally they listened while they laughed. A fool’s joke is often seen as madness, just as unpalatable truth is in a world where the meaning of decency has been perverted or destroyed. No one dares to tell corporate or political leaders they are wrong, even if following their orders might be catastrophic. In fiction, however, the fool is allowed to provide insight and warnings, perhaps as the joking sidekick, the semi-sleazy informant, or event the sleuth. Nick and Nora Charles come to mind. 

So murder is a grim topic, and I have no wish to ignore that, but I prefer to mix a little humor with it when I write. As for heroes who conquer all odds in books, that for me will always be the guy who said: “Or the horse may fly”. …

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Priscilla Royal is the author of seventeen mysteries set in thirteenth century England. The sleuths, Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas, belong to the famous Order of Fontevraud, a unique religious Order including both men and women but ruled by women. Along with adding humor to her books, Priscilla enjoys finding surprising and accurate details about the medieval era that upend many popular misconceptions. Her website is www.priscillaroyal.com. Her most recent book is Prayers of the Dead and will be published in September 2021.

Hate History? Have I Got A Surprise for You: Guest Post by Priscilla Royal

Priscilla Royal is the author of the critically acclaimed Prioress Eleanor/Brother Thomas medieval mystery series set in thirteenth century England. A passionate reader and theater fan, she enjoys taut, visual storytelling and loves history for its unexpected revelations. 

PRISCILLA ROYAL:
Hate History? Have I Got a Surprise for You...

It’s no secret that I love history. Were I the US Grand Poobah of Educational Curricula, I’d insist it share primacy with math, science, and the requirement that all American children be functionally bilingual.

I am not talking about the war-treaty-dates-principle names-more war kind of history most of us endured. I mean three-dimensional, flesh and blood, in-the-moment kind of history. Adults aren’t the only ones who like good stories. Children unabashedly adore them.

Family tales were how I learned to love history. Not talking about famous people here. I’m talking about the tale of a family traveling from Maine to Illinois in the 19th century in a cart pulled by two horses named Bouncing Betsey and Queen Victoria. Or the story behind why a young doctor, dying of TB in pre-Civil War Pittsburgh PA, added a codicil to his will, in a barely legible hand a week before he died, that no child of his could be “raised south of the Mason-Dixon Line where they would be contaminated by the evil of slavery”. All families have similar stories. They teach us that history really is, as Thomas Carlyle said, “the essence of innumerable biographies”.

Carlyle’s statement was the principle I applied when I switched from being a faceless bureaucrat to committing murder medieval style in the 13th century. It also explains why I chose a cast of characters from various backgrounds. I wanted to show how the culture of the time and historical events impacted people like us or others we know. Although we are told that the failure to know history dooms us to repeat it, our inability to recognize current danger from past lessons is not just due to ignorance of the historical facts. We are also blinded by our erroneous assumption that we are superior to our benighted ancestors.

Although we may know how disease is spread, human psychology hasn’t changed, and, once again, history surprises by demonstrating that our ancestors weren’t all that benighted. They may have phrased their views differently, but many of their ideas sound contemporary. This is another principle I applied to the characters in my books. For those who think I’m being too modern, I point to Ecclesiastes who said that there is nothing new under the sun.

Attempting to gain clarity in a modern dilemma by applying the facts of a past era is like looking in a pond and not seeing a perfect image of ourselves. That is why I chose the period 1280-1300 (+) for my mysteries to demonstrate the problem. There are similarities between then and now, yet the match is not perfect. History is not an exact science, but its study generates questions and provides the tools for thoughtful analysis.

In the end, the value of history may be my passion, but the chief purpose of storytelling is to entertain, and I adhere to that in my mysteries. That said, as Homer, Shakespeare, and Ellis Peters might agree, it doesn’t hurt if you pick up something a little extra from the tale as well…

For any so inclined, there are fourteen books in my Prioress Eleanor/Brother Thomas medieval series, beginning with Wine of Violence and ending (at the moment) with Wild Justice. My website is www.priscillaroyal.com.

Priscilla Royal Literary Salon July 13

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for an afternoon Literary Salon in Berkeley, CA, with medieval historical mystery author Priscilla Royal.

Wednesday, July 13, Berkeley, CA 2 p.m.
Please RSVP for directions and to attend. Make a comment below with your email address.

Priscilla Royal has a degree in World Literature from San Francisco State University, where she discovered the beauty of medieval literature. She is a theater fan as well as a reader of history, mysteries, and fiction of lesser violence.

Priscilla grew up in British Columbia and until 2000, worked for the Federal government in a variety of positions, all of which provided a wonderful education in the complexity of human experience and motivation.

Her mysteries include Land of Shadows, Satan's Lullaby, Chambers of Death, Covenant with Hell, Favas Can Be Fatal, A Killing Season, Valley of Dry Bones, The Sanctity of Hate, Tyrant Of The Mind, Valley of Dry Bones, Forsaken Soul, Justice for the Damned, Sorrow without End, and Wine of Violence.

When not hiding in the thirteenth century, she lives in Northern California and is a member of the California Writers Club, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime.