Red Hats in Fiction and Life

Hats appear, at least in the crime fiction I read, to be making a comeback. Two months ago one of the sleuths in The In Crowd was Calliope “Callie” Foster, a milliner. My last post was a review of Glory Daze by Danielle Arceneaux. Glory Broussard is a member of the Red Hat Society of Acadiana. The cover of the book, a copy is below, features a wonderful drawing of a red hat that I expect Glory would be proud to wear though it appears a tad simple compared to hats I have seen online worn by real life Red Hat Society ladies.

My blogging friend, Moira Redmond at her wonderful blog Clothes in Books, has recently been featuring hats. At the same time I was writing about the hats created by Callie she was writing about matron hats. They were hats designed for mature women dressing up. 

She followed up with a post that had more matron hats and added garden party hats. I loved the illustrations of hats more than the photos.

I have links below to both of Moira’s posts. 

In Glory Daze Glory wears to her Red Hat Society meeting “wide-legged red pants with a coordinating blazer and a red hat”.

Glory is always conscious of her appearance and makes an effort to be distinctive. For a night out at the local casino She wears a: 

….navy-velvet dress that draped a little at the neckline for a slightly dramatic look. Because she was a proper Southern woman, she had purchased the matching shawl to go with it. The skin on her upper arms had transformed into a crepe-like texture, which she had long ago acceped … She had even sprung for a pair of heels with a wedge - wearable for about four hours - which was all the time she needed to play a few hands of blackjack and catch the Commodores live, in concert.

Regular readers of this blog know my wife, Sharon, loves hats. She has dozens in her collection. While she is not a Red Hat Society lady she has a wonderful red hat that I am sure would meet Glory’s approval. A photo is at the top of this post.

I find it remarkable that Glory, a strongly Catholic Black lady and even more devout member of the Red Hat Society is also a bookie working out her own betting lines for football, NFL and college (mainly the SEC). What was most interesting to me was how she worked out the anticipated scores for her clients to bet upon. She factored in an issue, wind, that she states was not a part of major betting lines. Ms. Arceneaux created a unique sleuth in Glory.

In my life as a sports columnist I recently wrote a column on the wind impacting a Saskatchewan Roughrider game in Regina. Wind on the prairies is almost as constant as at sea.

Getting back to clothing, Glory wears to the St. Agnes’s 31st Red Hat gala for Mardi Gras which is hosted by the Red Hat Society of Acadiana, a “white-sequined jumpsuit” accessorized by a belt that “was thin and had two red tassels at the end, a nod to the membership” and “a pair of white platform sandals with red soles”. 

I wish I could go have king cake at St. Agnes’s Mardi Gras gala in Lafayette with Glory and the ladies of the Red Hat Society of Acadiana.

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Glory Daze by Danielle Arceneaux

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Links to posts from the Clothes in Books blog:

Have I Got Hats for You - matrons and others

More Hats - for matrons and garden parties

Glory Daze by Daniele Arceneaux

(33. - 1276.) Glory Daze by Danielle Arceneaux - Glory Beverly Broussard is a bookie in Lafayette, Louisiana. She is doing well with NFL playoff games underway. Her work, church and the Red Hat Society of Acadiana occupy her time.

Her contentment is upset when Valerie LeBlanc asks Glory to help find her missing husband, Sterling, who is Gloria’s unlamented, repeatedly unfaithful ex. Glory snaps out her refusal and Valerie says she hopes Glory will help for the sake of Delphine, the daughter of Glory and Sterling.

A fuming Glory finds Sterling at his private hideaway. He is dead with a knife sticking from his chest.

Delphine, a lawyer, flies home from New York City. Delphine and Sylvia convince Glory to find Sterling’s killer. Glory has achieved local fame for solving a murder a few months ago.

Glory is a methodical woman with a talent for numbers. She makes a comfortable living as an independent bookie because of her ability to analyze football and prepare her own betting lines.

Glory would prefer to investigate alone but reluctantly accepts the participation of Valerie and Delphine. It pains her when Valerie proves helpful.

The women of Glory Daze are vivid characters. The men are interesting but the women drive the story.

The investigation takes Glory to the casino where Sterling was working when he died. Most of her conversations are with women who work there in lower paying positions such as blackjack dealer and cashier.

Glory is a woman who speaks her mind including talking directly to God. A staunch member of St. Agnes parish she frankly states what is on her mind to the Lord. At least in the book it is a one way conversation.

While a staunch Catholic Glory has a a 6’7” associate who assists with collections when necessary.

Amidst the investigation Glory is also caught up in the demanding preparations for Mardi Gras. The Red Hat Ladies of Arcadiana take their role in the celebration very seriously. As Mardi Gras nears their preparations intensify. They are so determined to be perfect that on a Sunday before Mardi Gras they skip Mass to ensure everything is in order.

Most members of the Lafayette Police Department resent Glory for having previously solved a murder they had deemed a suicide. She will not be intimidated. 

There is a great scene where Glory, Delphine and Justice visit a world famous chef knife maker:

A pit of fire was the first thing that Glory noticed. Orange flames leap like trained gymnasts inside a shoulder-height cauldron …. Dozens of knives clung to a magnetic wall …. Some had handles of ebony or rosewood. Others, mahogany. Each had carvings of his signature celestial designs, though no design was exactly the same.

I love Glory. What a remarkable woman and sleuth. She is Black and proud to be Black. 

Stone Cross by Marc Cameron

(34. - 1277.) Stone Cross by Marc Cameron - Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Arliss Cutter has a “natural aversion to smiling”. A solid 220 pounds he has an intimidating physical presence. Cutter is adjusting to the “chill of Alaska” after working as a member of the Florida Marine Patrol. He is the leader of the Alaska Fugitive Task Force working with Cook Islander Lola Teariki pursuing fugitives in and out of Anchorage.

Cutter’s deft use of a rock draws out a hulking fugitive from Nevada named Twig Ripley. Twig’s arrest goes badly for him when he hits a police dog with a crowbar.

Cutter has come to Alaska to help his widowed sister-in-law, Mim, with her twin 7 year old boys, Michael and Mathew, and her 15 year old daughter, Constance. Ordinarily he resembles his taciturn grandfather who was nicknamed Grumpy. With his nephews and niece his personality lightens. Cutter is professionally successful and a multiple failure at marriage.

As the story proceeds a darkness in Cutter’s psyche festers.

When a handwritten, badly spelled, threat is sent to Federal Court Judge, J. Anthony Markham, Cutter and Teariki are assigned to accompany the judge to Stone Cross five hundred miles from Anchorage. The independent, oft imperious judge, grudgingly accepts their presence. Their official assignment is to enforce a warrant for the most minor of charges, public urination in a national park.

The Yup’ik people of Stone Cross, mostly Russian Orthodox believers, await the judge who will be deciding ownership of a valuable spit of land by the airport.

Birdie Pingayak’s life is a mixture of the traditional and current lifestyles. She has a chin tattoo following her maternal ancestors. She has gone to university and is principal, at 31, of the local school. She is a wonderful character who has faced great adversity in her life.

Life in bush Alaska is hard. Isolation, poverty, harsh weather and a demanding landscape are too much for many urban dwellers who come to work there. Violence is common.

Cutter and Teariki learn the threat reaches back decades and involves Markham as a young government lawyer. There is significant complexity involving Yup’ik people and the white establishment.

While at the village the Marshalls are drawn into a murky murder and abduction from a fishing lodge.

There is a remarkable chase in the wilderness involving dogsleds during a blizzard. I could feel the wind and cold I have experienced in a Saskatchewan storm. I was reminded of the dog sled race in Murder in a Cold Climate by Scott Young in which Inspector Matthew "Matteesie" Kitogitak of the RCMP engages in a dog sled search in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Each pursuit was dramatic and a reminder of the history of the North.

It should have been no surprise, since he is a fugitive hunter, but I was caught off-guard at Cutter’s skill in tracking. He can deduce a great deal from a careful examination of the ground.

As I started the book I thought it might follow the pattern of many American mystery thrillers with a double digit body count, little subtlety and a predictable ending. I was wrong.

Stone Cross blends a strong mystery with an unflinching look at life in rural Alaska. While the book is set in southwest Alaska I was reminded of the Nathan Active novels by Stan Jones set on the northwest coast of Alaska in another indigenous village. I want to read more of Arliss Cutter.