Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

The words do not have to be perfect.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Consistently wrong since 2002

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

This really is a full service blog.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

The willow is too close to the house.

No one could have predicted…

Battle won, war still ongoing.

In my day, never was longer.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

You are here: Home / Authors In Our Midst / C.C. Edge – Murder in the Magic City!

C.C. Edge – Murder in the Magic City!

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This post is in: 

Featured today is C.C. Edge (aka Carol Edge, HeartlandLiberal’s wife)  Let’s give her a warm welcome.

I haven’t read her book, Blood Terminal, which was just released on Amazon, but the description made me think of one of my favorite books – Animal Dreams – because if you asked me what Animal Dreams was about I could describe it in five different ways, and all of them would be true.

I understand that HeartlandLiberal designed the book cover, so he gets a shoutout, too!

If you would like your talents featured in the Artists in Our Midst series – or your work as an author featured in our Authors in Our Midst series – please send me an email message.

Blood Terminal: Murder in the Magic City
by Carol Edge

Animals and social justice, beloved by the jackals of Balloon Juice: heady company in which to talk about my new mystery novel. My book is a novel and it’s a mystery, but it’s mostly about social injustice, and there are no animals anywhere. Unless someone sneaked one on the train.

Blood Terminal takes place when Jim Crow, Prohibition, and the Great Depression ruled the lives of everyday people. For those who could afford it, the 1930s were a glorious time for passenger trains. My novel brings together the ordinary people who serve on trains and those who ride them.

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The train is the Hummingbird Express; the ordinary people a railroad bull, a Pullman porter, and a maid; the less ordinary are the family the maid works for, the railroad officialdom, and the Birmingham police force. As disparate as these social elements are, it’s all about race. Even when sexism and classism appear, it still about racism. But it’s also about murder and finding the right murderer.

What can I tell you other than what the story’s about? After all, it’s a mystery. I can’t tell you whodunit or how the solution unfolds, right? For the sake of that universal arc, I will say that there is some social justice in the end. But, remember the setting, all sorrows aren’t tied up in ribbon. Our society is still waiting for that solution.

Birmingham, Alabama, has been called ground zero for the civil rights movement of that period. Deservedly so. It’s also my hometown and thus first choice as a setting for Blood Terminal. There’s not a single character, place, or event in the book that I haven’t witnessed or had some connection to, through time and space, first-, second-, or third-hand. I’m not Black, cannot speak for any Black person’s experience, but I can speak to what I’ve observed and learned. My intention was never to disrespect Birmingham or its police force, but rather to illustrate how some aspects of Jim Crow culture played out in that very typical setting.

I also wanted to show a friendship that crossed the barbed racial wires fencing people apart from each other. There must have been a number of such instances of Black/White human interaction, but those don’t make the history books so often. My father was in part a model for the character of Earl; some of their life experiences run parallel, including having a close Black friend in the early and middle twentieth century. My father “stood up for Bessemer at his wedding” and was a pall bearer at his funeral.

My mother and the mothers of friends paid a pittance to Black women to clean and cook in their homes. Emma reflected the duality those women had to live day after day. But her spirit comes from one particular woman who worked for my mother. Mattie, I believe, saw me as a real person, not just a White kid, and I think I saw her.

The Pullman porters are true American originals. Their history, way of life, accomplishments are legendary and in great part generally unknown. The character of T.J. is a composite, mostly extrapolated from the biographies and true stories of Pullman porters recorded by social historians.

The history of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is as fascinating as any in this nation’s amazing panoply of origin stories. I wholly agree with those who say that today’s Black middle class was founded on porters and postal workers. Domestic workers certainly played an active role in that as well. That is, in fact, what Blood Terminal is about: the struggle of a family wanting security and respect while living a gentle and righteous life. Murder is a metaphor for the killer struggles African Americans have endured here.

Yet it’s anything but an academic novel. Blood Terminal is a murder mystery. I hope readers enjoy it as such. I also hope that the themes, characters, and setting will resonate for them as they do for me.

If you read the book, please leave a review or comment somewhere. Additional information can be found on my website.

Especially during these hard times, it’s important to celebrate when we can, and to find joy where we can.  It’s how we find the strength for the fights ahead.

Thanks, C.C. for sharing your joy with us today.

Reader Interactions

89Comments

  1. 1.

    C.C.E.

    Thank you, WaterGirl!
    As you know, this is my first published novel, so I’m quite new at this. I really appreciate Balloon Juice’s hosting me.

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    @C.C.E.: Welcome to Balloon Juice!  And thanks for trusting us. :-)

    edit: sometimes these get off to a slow start, but it will pick up.  So don’t take it personally!

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @C.C.E.:

    Oh, this sounds wonderful on all sorts of levels!

    I love trains. I love murder mysteries. And I love good writing. Am really looking forward to reading Blood Terminal.

    ETA: Ordered and downloaded

  8. 8.

    Kalakal

    I’m looking forward to reading this. I’m a sucker for murders on trains and the time and setting is one of which I could do with knowing more. Thanks for posting here

  9. 9.

    C.C.E.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: When I began writing Blood Terminal, I didn’t think of it as history, strangely. It seemed a time period so close to the time when I grew up in Birmingham — and was within the living memory of relatives — that it was only afterwards that I fully realized that 90 years ago is history.

  11. 11.

    C.C.E.

    @Kalakal: It’s a fascinating, if tragic, period in this country and the world in many ways and I tried to bring that flavor into the story. If there’s one bit of history then that I’d really like to underline, it’s the Pullman porters. Maybe the story will spark your interest in that direction.

  12. 12.

    Kalakal

    @C.C.E.: History is funny that way, it knocks me sideways every so often when I realise many events in my lifetime might as well have been concurrent with the Spanish Armada to a lot of people in their 20s.

  13. 13.

    C.C.E.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I hear that! Although I admit that someday I’d like to write about the ’60s. Coming of age in Birmingham circa 1963 — whew. A daunting subject to tackle though.

  15. 15.

    C.C.E.

    @Kalakal: Exactly! In truth though, we are sometimes closer to a seemingly distant past than we think we are. My father was mid-40s when I was born and his father was close to 50 when he was born. The upshot is that my grandfather was a boy during the Civil War. He told me, when I was 5, how he hid under the fig tree when the Yankee soldiers rode up to their yard. He was 93.

  21. 21.

    MomSense

    @C.C.E.:

    The time period reminds me of the stories my family members told me and my maternal grandmother worked as a domestic for wealthy tire company owners in Akron.  She was born in 1898.

  22. 22.

    MisterDancer

    Fascinating. As a Mystery Fan, I will tuck this away for my next To Read purchases!

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Well, I’m a couple of chapters in, the body has been discovered, and there’s another mystery emerging (one, I suspect, which will prove to be closely connected to the murder). Ooh, I’m enjoying this!

  25. 25.

    C.C.E.

    @MomSense:  Wow. I bet you have some interesting tales to share. It’s important to pass these stories on to the family and historians if possible. It enriches the family of humanity. (My father was born in 1898 too.)

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @C.C.E.:

    Hah! Well played.

    Yes, lots of readers here. I’m going to stop myself from commenting because I’d hate to drop inadvertent spoilers, but I’m already feeling pretty involved with the characters.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    @C.C.E.: I have heard not exactly that, but something similar.  That people who like mysteries tend to have a strong sense of right and wrong, and are drawn to mysteries because they are looking for justice and fairness in the outcomes.  I have always felt that to be true.

  32. 32.

    C.C.E.

    @WaterGirl: Sounds right to me too. I wonder if, also, those readers are pitting their wits against the detective in certain types of mysteries, for instance the classics like Agatha Christie.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @C.C.E.:

    I’ve heard that readers of mysteries are seeking the restoration of justice in the world. Could that be true??

    This is actually a theme in the OLLI class I’m preparing to teach. It focuses on the detective fiction of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, but more broadly deals with social issues in 20th-century England and how mystery stories reflect those issues. And it seems undeniable that, especially in times of great turmoil and peril, people want to spend time in a world, however fictional, in which justice prevails and moral balance is restored.

  35. 35.

    C.C.E.

    @SiubhanDuinne: Cool! Best wishes with the class. Christie and Sayers are still tops in plots. Isn’t the best fiction always related to our lives, either with contemporary themes or universal ones? To me, mystery (not just detective) fiction is the perfect canvas for asking and answering some of the questions that never go away.

  38. 38.

    JAFD

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     Well, having lived thru the Sixties, I tell the young’uns that the best books about that time are two novels, James Carroll’s Prince of Peace and George RR Martin’s The Armageddon Rag (good luck finding ocpies of original version of the latter, had song verses as chapter epigraphs, music rights owners wanted fortune for reprint)
    Anyway, there is the ’18xx’ series of games on 19th century railroad building and finance, one on Alabama, I’m in middle of game at
    https://18xx.games/game/75682
    Will pass along book news to my train buff friends

  39. 39.

    schrodingers_cat

    @SiubhanDuinne:Your class sounds interesting. I have read all of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. I really don’t like most of the adaptations trying to modernize her books

    I do try to solve the puzzle along with the detective and can guess who the murderer is 9/10. She actually gives you enough clues to figure it out.

  40. 40.

    C.C.E.

    @WaterGirl: And that’s why mystery writers have to follow the rule of giving the reader all the information the protagonist has to solve the crime. No rabbits in hats and no deux ex machina.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @C.C.E.:

    That’s beautifully put, and I fully intend to quote it in the class, verbatim  :-)

    With proper attribution, of course. “One of today’s most compelling mystery writers, C. C. Edge, mentioned in a private conversation…. “

  45. 45.

    Kalakal

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think there’s a lot in this. Christie, Marsh, Sayers et al had their heyday in the 30s and very much is not only justice done but society and stability is preserved. They’re all very aware of the after effects of WW1, eg many of Christies characters are involuntary spinsters, too many men of their generation being dead. In their Victorian and Edwardian predecessors such as Doyle and Freeman justice is done but stability is usually assumed. A really interesting contrast is Hammett and Chandler’s world weary cynicism

  47. 47.

    C.C.E.

    @Kalakal: You’ve had this discussion before! Excellent choices to compare and contrast. The second two introduce a new level of action too, with violence and fear taking a new turn. As much as I admire each of those mystery writers, Raymond Chandler is the one whose writing always amazes me.

  48. 48.

    Kalakal

    @C.C.E.: Ronald Knox of the detection Club set down 10 rules for detective stories in 1929. eg

    The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know

    The detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover 

    Josef Skvorecky wrote a nice parody collection called “Sins for Father Knox” where he had fun breaking a rule per story

  49. 49.

    KSinMA

    I’m looking forward to reading the book.  That’s a terrific photograph on the cover, too!

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kalakal:

    Absolutely. The rapidly-changing role of women is a major theme in my course. It’s present again and again in both Christie and Sayers, generally as a kind of background noise but front and center in, for instance, Gaudy Night. And, of course, the entire persona of Miss Marple — sweet little old lady, reminiscing about her girlhood, knitting away, and gently gossiping; no reason in the world a murderer would fear her.

    :-)

  51. 51.

    J R in WV

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Come on, Subaru Diane, when did we get to be “private conversation” on this top 10,000 blog???

    More seriously, I’ll be buying and downloading this, I love trains and historical murder. Dorothy Sayers more so than Agatha Christie.

  52. 52.

    C.C.E.

    @Kalakal: That’s right! I’ve heard of those rules. I think the culprit had to appear in the first five pages. That kind of thing is just a sitting duck for parody. Skvorecky sounds like fun.

    But I do think it’s only fair to make all clues available to the reader, and the reader must allow the writer to disguise some of those clues. Or what’s a sleuth for?

  53. 53.

    Kalakal

    @C.C.E.: I love them all but Chandler’s writing is top class. In complete contrast, as pure puzzles John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson is incredible, but his writing, sadly, is pretty bad.

    I read a collected set of Hammett’s Continental Op stories arranged in order of publication and what surprised me was how the early ones have very little violence. They’re puzzles about Insurance scams with nary a gun in sight.

  54. 54.

    Kalakal

    @SiubhanDuinne: Your course sounds really interesting. I always liked the way Christie made her sleuths harmless, a little old lady and an absurd, pompous little man

  55. 55.

    C.C.E.

    @KSinMA: Thank you! That photo captured my attention the moment I saw it. There’s something in both sets of eyes that speaks to their respective stations in life and a lot of history informing their roles. The splash of blood hitting the porter harder than the passenger is metaphorical.

    HeartlandLiberal is the guiding tech light behind the cover. The back cover has an old postcard picture of the actual terminal.

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @J R in WV:

    By “private conversation” I meant that I didn’t have to go to a reference book and look up CCE’s quote. She handed it to me/all of us in real time.

    For some reason, every time I see “top 10,000 blog,” my brain weirdly turns that into “This top blog has 10,000 readers.” I know that’s not right, and I’ve told it to stop, but it keeps on thinking that.

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kalakal: Little old ladies can be dangerous AF.  Especially with jars of pickled things close to hand.  One can only imagine the havoc they could wreak with their knitting needles.

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kalakal:

    Yup! And don’t forget Lord Peter’s “Cattery,” which provided any number of intelligent single women (superfluous women, according to society) with decent incomes and challenging work, often to advance a detective inquiry. I love Miss Kitty Climpson!

  60. 60.

    C.C.E.

    Speaking of HeartlandLiberal, he tells the little hand on the clock has reached the big hand and I have to sign off now. I’ll check back in the morning for any dangling comments. Many thanks to everyone for participating, and for your kind remarks about Blood Terminal!

  71. 71.

    Suburban Mom

    I just ordered my copy.  It sounds terrific. I’ve spent time in Birmingham and look forward to learning more about the history.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    @Raven: Wow!

    I could never be an artist.  (even if I had talent)

    If a piece was really good I would not be able to part with it. If it wasn’t good, I wouldn’t want anyone else to have it.

    I keep telling you that we should feature your bride in one of these.  The door is totally open, she just has to walk through it. :-)

  76. 76.

    Wolvesvalley

    I’m sorry to have missed this discussion until so late. I have ordered and downloaded the book and look forward to reading it. With so many Sayers devotees here, I have to put in a plug for her essay “Aristotle on Detective Fiction,” which was collected in Unpopular Opinions. An introductory quote:

    Now to anyone who reads the Poetics with an unbiased mind, it is evident that Aristotle was not so much a student of his own literature as a prophet of the future. He criticised the contemporary Greek theatre because it was, at that time, the most readily available, widespread and democratic form of popular entertainment presented for his attention. But what, in his heart of hearts, he desired was a good detective story; and it was not his fault, poor man, that he lived some twenty centuries too early to revel in the Peripeties of Trent’s Last Case or the Discoveries of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

    Sayers has Aristotle walk us through the principles of detective fiction as laid out in the Poetics, including, most importantly, “the right way of telling lies” — that is, giving the reader all the clues while obscuring their value and meaning.​​​

  77. 77.

    Ben Cisco

    I will have to add this to my “to read” list. Intriguing that it is set in the city I call home (and just returned to from assignment).

    Welcome CCE, and thank you.

  78. 78.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @C.C.E.: yes, mystery novels are fantasies about justice (I think that Lois McMaster Bujold said or quoted that). Romances are fantasies about love, and SF is fantasies about power.

  81. 81.

    C.C.E.

    @Raven: Yes, congratulations! We bought linen sheets a few months ago and really love them. The more washings, the better.

  88. 88.

    C.C.E.

    @Ben Cisco:  Oops — I should say fictional history! Only the setting is real; the events are not.

    Terminal Station was a revered landmark in Birmingham but taken for granted. Then, pow, it was up for demolition. Awareness of the situation came too late and the Magic City lost some of pixie dust.

Comments are closed.