20 Books of Summer: Betrayed in Cornwall by Jane Bolitho

Rose Trevelyan is about to hold her first solo exhibition at a gallery in Penzance. Her parents are coming to stay especially for the opening night, and she's invited all her friends, including Etta Chynoweth, who runs a guest house in the town. Like Rose, Etta is a widow, but unlike her, Etta has two children, Joe, the son of a French fisherman who never knew he had fathered a child, and Sarah, daughter of Etta's late husband Ed. Joe is himself a fisherman; he's honest, hard-working and good to his family, and now he's planning to propose to his girlfriend. 

When Rose meets up with Etta a few days before the show, Etta is worried about Sarah; she's become 'a teenage monster', and won't tell her mother where she goes or what is troubling her. Etta's afraid Sarah is taking drugs - but Rose feels there's more than just Sarah on Etta's mind. 

When the Chynoweth family fails to appear at Rose's exhibition, she thinks Etta's forgotten the time. She wonders why her on-off lover, Inspector Jack Pearce, dissuades her from calling the guest house to check, but she's too caught up in the success of the evening to give it much thought. The next day, however, Sarah turns up on Rose's doorstep in a distraught state; Joe has been found dead at the foot of a cliff path. And beside him was a bag of heroin. 

Janie Bolitho (c) Fantastic Fiction

In Betrayed in Cornwall, the fourth Rose Trevelyan novel, author Janie Bolitho explores parent-child relationships – not only Etta’s concerns for Sarah and Sarah’s feelings of rejection, but also Rose’s parents’ concerns for their fiercely independent daughter, Rose’s friend Maddy’s joy at being contacted by the child she had to give up for adoption, and the long-lasting effects of devastating grief on a couple who lost their baby. 

Meanwhile Rose’s relationship with Jack continues to smoulder - but two other admirers are keen to try their luck. 

 ***** 

Nobody who knew Joe Chynoweth can believe he was involved in drugs, but the local police conclude that if Joe wasn’t using (there were no illegal substances in his blood), he was probably supplying. There’s a suspicious trawler moored in the bay; was it ferrying drugs into Cornwall? And is there a connection between Sarah’s illicit (and elusive) older boyfriend Mark and Joe’s death? Sarah also tells Rose that Etta is involved with a mysterious married man; is this relevant? 

Then Sarah disappears. 

As usual Rose can’t resist trying to help Etta, find Sarah and clear Joe’s name – and as ever, this brings her into conflict with Jack, who wants her to keep out of his investigation, mainly for her own safety, but also because he wants to solve the case himself. Much as she annoys him, he still cares for her and wants her back; frustration does not improve his humour. Meanwhile wealthy businessman Roger Hammond and his wife Melanie return from holiday to find their luxurious home has been burgled. The only things taken are paintings from Roger’s valuable art collection. Who knew the Hammonds were away? And how did the thieves know what to look for? And what, if anything, connects the burglary, Joe’s death and Sarah’s disappearance? 

Rose’s refusal to leave things well alone, coupled with Jack’s hot-headedness, end up putting one of them literally in the firing line as they try to find out who did kill Joe, and why. 

I enjoyed Betrayed in Cornwall, and felt it was one of Janie Bolitho’s better efforts; the characters seemed more developed than they had been in some of the earlier books, and the presence of Rose’s parents, with their gentle bickering and evidently happy marriage, filled out the story well. It was good to catch up with Rose’s best friend Laura and her fisherman husband Trevor too. The chemistry between Rose and Jack felt real, as did the enduring hope of Barry, her friend-who’d-like-to-be-more-than-a-friend. 

Newlyn Harbour (c) Newlyn Pier & Harbour Commissioners

Janie Bolitho’s descriptions of the South Cornwall scenery bring the locations alive; I could imagine the view from Rose’s cottage over Newlyn Bay;

‘the bay was a blue so rich it seemed false, as if a child had attempted to depict it with poster paints. Sailing boats moved slowly in the distance and St Michael’s Mount was outlined clearly against the shoreline behind it…the rich scent of geraniums…and honeysuckle filled the air.’

Image (c) https://www.dobies.co.uk/

And by contrast the sterility of Jack’s flat;

‘The grate in the…fireplace stood empty. Jack never lit a fire, neither did he fill the gaping fireplace with logs or dried flowers. There was a cobweb in the corner of the high ceiling…he had no desire to improve his surroundings…the suite and the carpet matched but the curtains did not…the furniture was old but not antique…..he considered the place as somewhere to sleep and, occasionally, to eat.’

This is a series that has grown on me, and I'll be interested to see how Rose and Jack's relationship eventually pans out. 

Janie Bolitho, who was born in Falmouth, wrote seven Rose Trevelyan books, eleven in her Ian Roper series and several stand-alone novels before her early death at the age of 52 in 2002. The Rose Trevelyan series is published by Allison & Busby.

A fan blog about the author can be found here.