Historical Mysteries

I’m currently trying my hand at a second historical mystery. The research is interesting, but it’s a difficult task to get things right for a particular point in time. My setting is Rome in the middle of the seventeenth century. In doing research on my protagonist (a real historical person), I keep finding other intriguing characters and situations to further explore. In this time period, there was a woman who was the power behind one of the Popes; Queen Christina of Sweden who abdicated and converted to Catholicism; a woman who invented a poison and was accused of poisoning over 600 men; papal-nephews who were the trusted advisers to Popes; gobs of illegitimate children attributed to Popes and Cardinals including one who became the head of the Pontifical Swiss Guard; and nepotism up the wazoo. When a Pope died, the servants often stole everything in the Papal chamber including the clothes off the dead body. Needless to say, I’m finding lots of material.