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Janie
Bolitho's Buried in Cornwall, 1991, one of several novels the
author sets in Cornwall, is not entirely satisfactory as a mystery, but her
writing about the artists in the art colony at St. Ives is fascinating. As
for the setting:
Rose had
to admit that [the village of St. Ives] was a beautiful place. The sand was
fine, the color of clotted cream, and the sea, beloved by surfers, was bluer
than the Aegean. If you arrived by train the breathtaking view was framed by
a fringe of palm trees.
My
favorite mystery set in Cornwall is Elizabeth George's A Suitable
Vengeance, 1991:
It was a
wild part of the country, comprising desolate moors, stony hillsides, sandy
coves whose hidden caves had long been used as smuggler's caches, sudden
lush woodlands where the countryside dipped into a combe, and everywhere
tangles of celandine, poppy and periwinkle that dominated the narrow lanes.
Other
mysteries set in Cornwall that I like include Robert Goddard's
Days Without Number, 2003, which contains enough surprises, twists, and
suspense to keep the most blasé mystery reader guessing, as well as expert
uses of location and atmosphere to heighten the sense of impending doom.
Goddard's use of the weather as a constant presence is especially well-done.
Ngaio Marsh's Dead Water, 1963, is a grim story about the
exploitation of a local beauty spot, and the conflict between those who want
to preserve its beauty, and those who're willing to sacrifice it for money.
Those who journey to Cornwall can see the impact of tourism on once
beautiful settings, as well as read about it in Dead Water.
The
plot of Graham Thomas's Malice in Cornwall, 1998, is gruesome,
but the setting is cheerful and bright. A gloomy and forbidding setting
might have been expected, but skillful writers sometimes use this type of
contrast for its shock value, and in this book, it works.
Notwithstanding her success at describing Cornwall (and London), Elizabeth
George is an American. She explains in her book Writing Away, 2004:
One piece
of advice that neophyte writers are always given is 'write about your own
backyard'. Loosely translated, this means to write about an environment with
which you are familiar. Broadly translated, it means to write what you know.
To this I say balderdash. If I had believed that, I'd have spent years
attempting to write about Huntington Beach, California, a place that could
not interest me less as a setting.
George's is an unusual point of view, but anyone reading her book on writing
will understand how she can write so well about foreign locations. Few of us
will be willing or able to go to the extremes George does to familiarize
herself with a country, a city, a neighborhood. But her efforts certainly
pay off in establishing authenticity.
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