Today’s interview is with Eliot Pattison, author of Freedom’s Ghost, the latest installment in his Bone Rattler series, a historical mystery series set in pre-Revolutionary War America.
I read Freedom’s Ghost earlier this month. What drew me to the book was the historical setting—I admit I’m a sucker for a history lesson while I solve a mystery, and this one fit the bill perfectly, with rich, immersive historical detail and real-life characters like John Hancock, Crispus Attucks, and John and Samuel Adams.
You can read my full review here, and stay tuned for Eliot’s and my discussion. We talk about the challenges of historical accuracy, his background in international law, and more.
Connect with Eliot on Facebook, X, and his website. Grab a copy of Freedom’s Ghost here.
Hi Eliot, thanks for joining! Freedom’s Ghost is the seventh installment in your Bone Rattler mystery series, set in pre-Revolutionary War America. What drew you to this time period, and how does this setting challenge or enhance elements of traditional mystery? What characteristics make your protagonist, the highlander-turned-patriot Duncan McCallum, an effective investigator?
The years preceding the Revolutionary War were some of the most interesting in all of Western history. This was when the real revolution was occurring, as the colonists began to shed their English identity and evolve toward a new, unprecedented American identity. The cast of colonists, reflected in my novels, was a diverse, colorful company of outcasts, criminals, orphans, renegades and exiles who had fled or been forced out of England. This presents fertile ground for a novelist, as these colonists were experiencing an explosion of scientific discovery (e.g., Ben Franklin’s many inventions), literacy was rapidly increasing (e.g., the colonists read more books than their counterparts across the Atlantic), and philosophical ideas that had been germinating in Europe for generations were taking root in America. Tensions and conflicts were also on the rise with the emergence of the Sons of Liberty and British agents secretly working against them, danger-laden smuggling to support the patriots, and the ruthless military occupation of Boston (four thousand troops in a city of sixteen thousand).
In Freedom’s Ghost, my resourceful protagonist is thrust into this volatile mix. Trained as a doctor but exiled into servitude for helping an aged Scottish rebel, he has earned a reputation as Deathspeaker among the native tribes for his ability to resolve murders. Drawn now into a series of killings involving the British occupation troops he soon realizes that there can be no resolution of the murders without provoking a violent reaction by either the troops or his friends among the patriots. His careful navigation of this treacherous landscape brings him close to a solution—but then on a snowy March night British troops fire on civilians in the infamous Boston Massacre.
In the Bone Rattler series, you blend intricate detective work with rich historical and cultural details. Can you discuss the research process and the challenges you face when ensuring historical accuracy while crafting an engaging mystery? How do you plot these intricate mysteries, and/or how do you bring historical figures and locations to life?
Historical fiction is a challenging genre since the novelist must assure the authenticity of the historical backdrop while weaving an engaging tale into that factual fabric. Writing such novels becomes a balancing act between fact and fiction—and neither should impinge too far on the other. I devote a lot of time to research both before and during my writing process, building on a love of history I’ve been nurturing since I found my first arrowhead at age seven. I have read countless volumes of history and biography but one of my favorite sources is newspapers of the day, which often surround me as I write. No better source exists for understanding daily life in 1770 than these first-hand, “live” reports of colonial affairs. They help me grasp not just the events but how people spoke, what they ate, how they earned their daily bread, what they sang, and what they gossiped and worried about. I don’t want to instruct my readers about history, I want them to feel history.
To do that I populate actual events with both recognizable figures like John Hancock—an intriguingly complex character—and less conspicuous elements of daily life. When John Adams appears, for example, he is fidgeting with his quill, then serving tea, and worried about his morning porridge. Before breathing life into these characters I do fastidious research through biographies and other sources, just as I research locations and other details. Harbor locations figure often in the new novel, and they likewise acquire an 18th century atmosphere by integrating images of sailing ships, odors of fish and shipwright sawdust, and fish drying racks as well as authentic figures from the Marblehead fishing fleet.
Authenticity is critical. Done well, the historical novel brings us closer to our past than any number of sterile history texts. As Rudyard Kipling observed, “if history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” By offering such stories, historical fiction breathes life into the past. If I have done my job well, my readers will realize that the past lives depicted in my tale are separated from our own lives not so much by aspirations, appetites, and ambitions, but merely by technology and time.
You also write the now-complete Inspector Shan mysteries, set in Tibet. Like the Bone Rattler series, these books incorporate significant social and political themes into the mysteries. What drew you to mystery as a genre through which to illustrate these themes?
I have always loved the mystery genre which in recent years has significantly gained in respect as more literary mysteries have appeared. I consider the genre a powerful vehicle for social and political messages. The mystery reader is a very engaged reader, one who devotedly turns pages, joining the characters in solving the subsidiary conundrums that all add up to resolve the ultimate mystery. Overlay a good mystery with sympathetic characters and the reader is committed to seeing them through their dilemmas. Overlay the characters with a deeper political backdrop (e.g., the repression of Tibetans) and the reader also assimilates that backdrop as part of the journey. Feeling that character’s pain, the reader thus begins to feel the pain of the repression. More than a few readers, for example, have told me that they had never understood the persecution of Tibetans until they read my Skull Mantra series.
Certainly there are other genres that can convey political themes, but many of those entries are dark and painful with no promise of a hopeful, or at least humane, resolution; not all readers finish those books. Mystery readers commit to reach the finish line.
How has your background as an international lawyer impacted your writing career? Are there any surprising overlaps between fiction writing and law?
An international lawyer has to have strong communication and cross-cultural skills, strengths which transfer well into the novelist’s world. Getting immersed in Chinese affairs for several years provided a deep background, and impetus, for my Skull Mantra series. A good lawyer also has an instinct for problem solving, another quality that serves the mystery writer well. Both lawyers and mystery writers aim to find the truth, the lawyer in an objective sense, the novelist using more subjective approaches. Sometimes the novelist’s quest gets closer to the truth.
Lastly, what are you currently working on? Can we expect more books in the Bone Rattler series, or do you have any other projects in the works?
I look forward to taking my characters further into the turbulent years leading to the Revolution. I also have an interest in a more contemporary treatment of the painful dilemmas facing historians and cultural custodians due to the devaluing of our past and national borders. Opportunities abound for intriguing characters among disenchanted professors, antiquity thieves, and post-modern, disenfranchised intelligence agents.
Thanks so much to Eliot for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.