#Projectplaces: Guilty Pleasures - Jane Bolitho's Cornish Mysteries
I don't think I'm alone in having some guilty pleasures in reading - books that I know aren't that well written or clever, but that I enjoy all the same.
Chief among them, for me, are the novels of Debbie Macomber. She's written numerous series - the one I like best is about a knitting shop - and they are all based on the things I know I shouldn't like - 'American values', stereotypical heterosexual romances, the virtues of good behaviour....I know, I know. Sometimes these stories are just so comforting, even though my inner critic tells me to put them down and pick up something better. Macomber has sold millions of books and is massively popular on both sides of the Atlantic. She writes to her fans, chats about her grandchildren and her knitting, shares recipes - nobody can say she doesn't put the hours in. I'm sure I'll be reading some Macomber novels later this year.
Looking for my next read for #projectplaces I came across 'Killed in Cornwall', one of a series of crime novels by the late Janie Bolitho, who was born in Falmouth. It's about a widowed artist, Rose Trevelyan, her on/off partner DI Jack Pearce, and Rose's various local friends - gallery owners, fishermen, shopkeepers, her salt-of-the earth-cleaner Doris, her retired parents Evelyn and Arthur - you get the idea. In this book Jack is investigating a series of attacks on young women, but it is of course Rose who knows, or gets to know, the people involved, and who ultimately confronts the perpetrator. Bolitho's writing could have done with a bit of editing - she is prone to giving us every last detail of inconsequential events;
'She made a mug of tea, picked up an apple and one of the library books she had chosen that morning then went outside to sit on the wrought-iron garden bench'
could be condensed into 'Rose made herself some tea and drank it in the garden' - but after a while I started to enjoy these long-winded descriptions. In many thrillers one needs to concentrate on every word, and I'm forever getting lost or forgetting what's happened. I love Ian Rankin's Rebus books, for example, but I'd never read one when I was tired. Bolitho's prose rolls over me, and I know that for once even I am going to understand the denouement when it comes.
Bolitho loved Cornwall, so she is keen to throw in as much local information as she can - again this can be seen as a good or bad thing depending on one's mood. I always enjoy a book set in an area I know, but too much 'tourist board' stuff can slow the story down. If used well it does, however, leave one with a sense of place, and by the end of the book I wanted to stay with the characters and find out more about them. So, after a hiatus when I read some infinitely better written - but, it must be said, not always so enjoyable - Literary Novels, I returned to Bolitho and 'Caught Out in Cornwall', which was the last book she wrote before her early death in 2002.
In this one a small child has gone missing from a crowded beach - and naturally, Rose was on that crowded beach and saw the abductor. Despite Jack's efforts to stop her, Rose is soon inveigling her way into the lives of the child's mother, aunt, grandmother and estranged father, and indeed it is Rose who finally works out what did happen to Beth Jones.
I devoured this book on a long bus journey and was really quite put out when the driver turned off the lights, so the story had certainly gripped me. It was good to catch up with Rose's own family and friends and find out what was happening in their lives. There are five earlier books in this series, which I will now seek out at the library, and I feel genuinely sorry that there will be no more news from Newlyn.
Janie Bolitho's Cornish books are published by Allison & Busby.
Chief among them, for me, are the novels of Debbie Macomber. She's written numerous series - the one I like best is about a knitting shop - and they are all based on the things I know I shouldn't like - 'American values', stereotypical heterosexual romances, the virtues of good behaviour....I know, I know. Sometimes these stories are just so comforting, even though my inner critic tells me to put them down and pick up something better. Macomber has sold millions of books and is massively popular on both sides of the Atlantic. She writes to her fans, chats about her grandchildren and her knitting, shares recipes - nobody can say she doesn't put the hours in. I'm sure I'll be reading some Macomber novels later this year.
Looking for my next read for #projectplaces I came across 'Killed in Cornwall', one of a series of crime novels by the late Janie Bolitho, who was born in Falmouth. It's about a widowed artist, Rose Trevelyan, her on/off partner DI Jack Pearce, and Rose's various local friends - gallery owners, fishermen, shopkeepers, her salt-of-the earth-cleaner Doris, her retired parents Evelyn and Arthur - you get the idea. In this book Jack is investigating a series of attacks on young women, but it is of course Rose who knows, or gets to know, the people involved, and who ultimately confronts the perpetrator. Bolitho's writing could have done with a bit of editing - she is prone to giving us every last detail of inconsequential events;
'She made a mug of tea, picked up an apple and one of the library books she had chosen that morning then went outside to sit on the wrought-iron garden bench'
could be condensed into 'Rose made herself some tea and drank it in the garden' - but after a while I started to enjoy these long-winded descriptions. In many thrillers one needs to concentrate on every word, and I'm forever getting lost or forgetting what's happened. I love Ian Rankin's Rebus books, for example, but I'd never read one when I was tired. Bolitho's prose rolls over me, and I know that for once even I am going to understand the denouement when it comes.
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| Newlyn harbour by David Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14333323 |
Bolitho loved Cornwall, so she is keen to throw in as much local information as she can - again this can be seen as a good or bad thing depending on one's mood. I always enjoy a book set in an area I know, but too much 'tourist board' stuff can slow the story down. If used well it does, however, leave one with a sense of place, and by the end of the book I wanted to stay with the characters and find out more about them. So, after a hiatus when I read some infinitely better written - but, it must be said, not always so enjoyable - Literary Novels, I returned to Bolitho and 'Caught Out in Cornwall', which was the last book she wrote before her early death in 2002.
In this one a small child has gone missing from a crowded beach - and naturally, Rose was on that crowded beach and saw the abductor. Despite Jack's efforts to stop her, Rose is soon inveigling her way into the lives of the child's mother, aunt, grandmother and estranged father, and indeed it is Rose who finally works out what did happen to Beth Jones.
I devoured this book on a long bus journey and was really quite put out when the driver turned off the lights, so the story had certainly gripped me. It was good to catch up with Rose's own family and friends and find out what was happening in their lives. There are five earlier books in this series, which I will now seek out at the library, and I feel genuinely sorry that there will be no more news from Newlyn.
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| Janie Bolitho |
Janie Bolitho's Cornish books are published by Allison & Busby.
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