The rich city of Knossos is the setting for IN THE SHADOW OF THE BULL, a vibrant crime fiction novel, the first in the Ancient Crete Mystery series. We learn about life in the Bronze Age, as a young woman comes of age. While Martis is too young to marry at fifteen, her older sister Opis is married to a landowner, and her next older sister Arge is about to wed. Saurus, a barbarian trader from the North (meaning Europe), has successfully bargained with their father Bais for Arge’s hand, giving him trading links with a family of weavers and leatherworkers. But Arge dies at the ceremony, and poison is suspected.

Martis is visited in a dream by her sister’s shade, who asks for the murderer to be found. Martis has to agree, but she’s actually quite a busy person. Every morning she trots down to the training grounds for the bull jumpers. As in the legend of Theseus, cattle, and especially bulls, were revered and used for many purposes on Crete. Horses had only recently been brought from the mainland, and people hadn’t caught on to making use of them yet. Martis trains to be one of the brave young people who dance around a wild bull and leap over its horns and back, not only as entertainment but as part of a ritual to ensure godly favour. She has to wonder if she will be able to do this, supporting her teammates; and then she goes home to be taught the fine points of weaving and dyeing by her mother Nephele.

The bull-jumping is the inspired note which sets this story aside. Any girl could have walked the city and docks, visited the temples and graveyard, and made inquiries at houses and farms. But not any girl could be a bull-jumper. Depending on where someone was born on the island, they could be a serf or a free citizen. I learned a great deal about everyday life in Knossos and the people who arrived there, as this city was one of the trading crossroads of the known world.

Having recently read RIDER OF THE STORM by Annelise Gray, about a young woman chariot driver competing in the races at Rome, I see many similarities. Sports, daring, and entertainment went down well in early civilisations. While men had power in Rome, in Crete a Goddess blessed the island and women ruled in her place. Girls had relative freedom until the age of sixteen or so and were expected to marry early. They weren’t expected to solve crimes. But Martis won’t let that stop her. IN THE SHADOW OF THE BULL by Eleanor Kuhns is a fantastic read for YA adventurers and adults alike.