Destination: Seville, Spain

Book: The Blind Man of Seville by Robert Wilson (2003)

Seville Plaza de Espana

How can such a distressing and dark mystery novel keep propelling me through its pages? Partly because it is set in the city of Seville, known for its joyous celebration of life. Robert Wilson captures the spirit of Seville throughout The Blind Man of Seville. Perhaps his best depiction comes in his description of Feria de Abril:

“…where everybody was beautiful and happy.  Where the girls flounced in their figure-hugging trajes de flamenca with flowers and tortoiseshell combs in their hair while their men struck poses in grey bolero jackets and flat-brimmed hats. … The air was full of incense of enjoyment–music, food and tobacco.”

But also because Wilson is a skilled story-teller. Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón, investigates the gruesome, tortured death of a prominent businessman as the man is forced to watch something on a video tape.  The “something” is so terrifying that he struggles to escape the images and ends up causing his own death.

Maria Luisa Parque, the Expo Park Lake

The 2001 investigation of this and a similar death leads Falcón back to a period when the powerful of Seville were jockeying to cash in on the World’s Fair, Expo ’92.  The inspector expects to find his father, a famous painter, involved with the victims in some way.  HIs detective work takes a double track–solving the murders and answering personal questions. The search for the truth about his father intensifies when he discovers a box of diaries the artist kept during the Spanish Civil War and then during their lives in Tangier during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Both detective and artist are involved with seeing–and making other people see.

“You can’t teach people to see,” his father had said.  ”They will only see what they want to.  The mind is always interfering with vision…If you can’t rely on your own eyes, whose can you?”  

As in A Small Death in Lisbon, the book that led me to add the four Seville-based Falcón novels to my TBR pile, Wilson zigzags between the present and the past. Eventually the time periods meet in Falcón’s home, where  his deceased father lived and painted in  Seville. Robert Wilson populates his novels with psychologically complex and unique characters and labyrinthine plot twists that gain veracity from the grounding in history.  Falcón, while definitely having his roots in the noir detectives of Dashiell Hamett and Raymond Chandler, stands out as a true original. While it is fashionable these days for detectives to be flawed but basically decent, you rarely come across the combination of courage and quirky neurosis that make up this Spanish detective. He even goes to a shrink, for goodness sakes. As in the Lisbon book, the city’s geography plays a major role. In an e-mail replying to a question I asked, Wilson wrote:  ”Place has always been important to me. It has always been the initial inspiration to write. It is only by seeing a place and feeling its atmosphere and breathing its air and smells and watching its people that a novel starts to germinate in my mind.” The carefully mapped out movements on real streets and across real parks, the bull fight, the activities of Semana Santa and Feria April, the meals described–all add verisimilitude and contribute to the enjoyment of a traveler and reader.

Virgin's gown Semana Santa Float

I have been told repeatedly that I will never understand Spain until I go to a bullfight, and Robert Wilson in The Blind Man of Seville  takes five pages to portray a bullfight in which Falcón’s young nephew Pepe is hoping to distinguish himself. Personally I will forever identify Spain with Semana Santa and one a.m. crowds packed along city streets to cheer for the adored La Macarena. When we visited Spain in 2002, I accidentally scheduled our stay in Seville over Easter week–during  parades and crowds simultaneously pious and rowdy who were cheer an image of the Virgin Mary like they cheer their soccer teams. For all its beauty, Seville, particularly at Semana Santa can make you doubt reality. Javier Falcón gets tangled in such a crowd.

The paso bore down on their awestruck faces, the Virgin towering above them, her whole body shuddering from right to left under the straining costaleros.  Earsplitting, discordant trumpets suddenly blasted out the passion.  The sound in the confines of the narrow street reverberated inside Falcón’s chest and seemed to open it up.  The crowd gasped at the glorious moment, at the weeping Virgin, at the height of ecstasy…and the blood drained rapidly from Falcón’s head.

We gave you an article using A Small Death in Lisbon as a guide to the Portugese City, and this book could do the same for Spanish Sevilla. BBC viewers will get to see a four-part series based on the Falcón novels in 2012 according to this Sky Atlantic site. (Fingers crossed that it will be picked up by PBS in the U.S.) And yes, I have added Wilson’s other three Falcón books to my travel library. Today’s prize to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+ is a copy of  Margaret Coel’s mystery The Perfect Suspect, set in Denver. I reviewed this Catherine McLeod Mystery here. (To win, you can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Tuesday, January 17, 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete rules here.) Disclaimers: The publisher gave me The Perfect Suspect to review. I purchased a used copy of Blind Man of Seville through Amazon, and you can do the same by following the links to titles. Although it costs you no more, it makes me a few cents to pay the postage when A Traveler’s Library mails prizes. Thanks.  All photos here, being 10 years old, are not terrific quality, but they are my own, so please do not use them without permission.

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Book: My Lady Judge: A Mystery of Medieval Ireland by Cora Harrison (2007)

The Burren

The Burren of Ireland fascinated me when we traveled through County Clare. Long, flat tables of gray stone stretch toward the sea. Cracks and ridges and deep fissures make walking across the limestone ground an adventure. Lovely little wild flowers poked up out of this seemingly hostile environment, adding to the oddness. It all looks very ancient, even before you come upon the frequent Ring Forts and Dolmens left behind by prehistoric settlers.  The spooky, otherworldly atmosphere of the Burren makes it a perfect locale for a mystery, and how appropriate that Cora Harrison has set her six Burren mysteries in the 16th Century.

My Lady Judge has been followed by five more Burren mysteries from this prolific writer, who has also turned out a mystery series set in London, and various other books, including young adult novels. Someone recommended these Irish mysteries to me some time ago, probably Kerry Dexter, who keeps me up to speed on all things Celtic–and I can certainly see the attraction for a lover of Ireland.

The author based the lady judge of the title on a real woman judge of that period, and the cases discussed are detailed in records copied out in the mid sixteenth century at the very real law school of Cahermacnaughten, the setting for the book. Without the author’s acknowledgement to those ancient scholars and the snippet from their work that heads each chapter, I certainly would have thought that she had a great imagination.  Women judges in medieval times? Actually Mara was called a Brehon, and her responsibilities were much broader than a judge today.  She not only judged cases, but also investigated them. And she ran a law school where children (all boys in this case) from  six to twenty years old lived and studied the law.

Laws that set fines according to the value of the person wronged? In other words, it is more egregious to kill a king than a common peasant. And the lessening of penalty for anyone who confesses? All of these things are laid out in the book.

Poulnabrone

In the rural areas of the Burren life centers around the Catholic churches, but ancient Celtic rituals die hard, and when the people gather for a bonfire on top of a mountain in celebration of May Day, one of the older law students is “secretly murdered.”  Mara uses a combination of Sherlock Holmes type logic, gathering of physical evidence and psychology to discover the killer and bring justice.

The regular assembly of court happens outdoors around the Poulnabrone dolman. I perked up when I read that name, because when Ken and I went to Ireland and drove through the Burrens, we made a special effort to go to Poulnabrone. It is an impressive and mysterious assemblage of enormous rock slabs.  And I can understand how such a place would lend the proper solemnity to the proceedings of the court in the Middle Ages.

This is not a mystery to read if you are looking for blood-soaked action and breathless chases–although Mara does have a few hairy moments which both take place in caves. It is rather, a study in history and psychology–a gentle, scholarly tale reflecting the lady judge herself.  Reading it, we learn not only about the legal system of Ireland in the Middle Ages, frequently compared unfavorably to the savagery of the British, but also we meet an assembly of fascinating individuals. They range from the sour village priest to the King who is smitten with Mara– providing a bit of gentle romance.

This (and I’m sure all the other books of the series) are a perfect addition to the Traveler’s Library–particularly if you are going to visit the moody and compelling Burren of Ireland.

Craggaunowen Castle

When you visit the Burren, besides stopping at Poulnabrone, you might want to include in your travel plans, a visit to the Craggaunowen Project. There we saw a 15th century castle, and a recreation of an earlier Iron Age settlement (5-12th century), as well as the boat of St. Brendan who supposedly discovered America before Columbus. The Craggaunowen Project is hidden away in a rural area and does not have its own web page. Nevertheless, as a living history site it was one of the most fascinating we ever visited.

All the photographs here are the property of Vera Marie Badertscher. All rights reserved. The link from My Lady Judge allows you to go directly to Amazon. If you buy anything there, even though it costs the same A Traveler’s Library will earn a few cents. Thank you.

Have you been to the Burren? Tell us what you saw there.

Recreated Iron Age artificial island settlement, Crannog

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And remember, there are still a few books to give away in the Giant 25-Book Giveaway. So subscribe, tell me in a comment you have subscribed, tweet a reference to @pen4hire, or leave a comment on any post. It would be frightening, if you did not win something. {THIS CONTEST OVER!]

Destination: Colorado

Book: The Perfect Suspect: A Catherine McLeod Mystery by Margaret Coel (NEW September 2011)

I will never look at Denver in the same way, and newspaper reporters who read Margaret Coel‘s Catherine McLeod books may reconsider their careers. I heard Coel speak about her Wind River Series–set on an Arapaho reservation–at the Tucson Festival of Books last year.  The fact that the author is an expert in the culture of the Arapaho fascinated me, and her crime-solving combo of Catholic priest and female American Indian lawyer sounded like a winner.  However, when I read The Spider’s Web, it did not hold my interest and I did not review it here. (In fairness, I should let you know that book won a Colorado Book Award for 2011.)

Downtown Denver Pedestrian Mall

Therefore, when the publisher sent me The Perfect Suspect it sat on my table for several months before I opened it.  The heroine here is part Arapaho, just discovering her heritage.  She works as a newspaper reporter in Denver and has a boyfriend who is a cop.  In the first book featuring Catherine McLeod, she was the victim of a stalker.  In The Perfect Suspect, she becomes the target of a tough but beautiful police woman who goes on a killing spree in an attempt to cover up her murder of a politician.

Don’t worry, I’m not throwing out a spoiler by telling you that the policewoman is a killer.  The Perfect Suspect is not a Who Done It? It’s a What Next? The reader works alongside Catherine as she investigates the story and with her, you wonder who else may be killed. Things get pretty tense as Catherine gets closer to the truth and Ryan, the female cop, gets more desperate. The suspense builds as the cop and the reporter get closer and closer and their paths finally intersect.

This novel makes a great Halloween Season suspenseful read. This was a better book in many ways than The Spider’s Web.  I cared about the characters. Even the warped Ryan never fails to fascinate. I believed the actions of the characters. They fit their psychology. If I have any complaints about the drawing of the characters it is that we are repeatedly told how attractive protaganist Catherine and antagonist Ryan are. Okay, we get it. And if I had not been involved in politics myself at one time, I might have thought Coel was laying it on a little thick about the gubernatorial candidate who could persuade anyone how much he cared, when the truth was that he cared only about getting ahead. And he, too, was beautiful handsome beyond all mortals.  But I’ve seen such people in politics and could totally believe this character and his character flaws.

Aspen Colorado

And of course I loved the reality of the settings–the neighborhoods of Denver, the wealthy ski towns of Breckenridge and Aspen, the magnificent mountain scenery. I can see someone visiting the pleasant downtown area of Denver and thinking–this must be where Catherine met the informer, this is the route she took to her office–it is all very real.

The Perfect Suspect gets high grades for being an exciting and compelling read and for the traveler’s library criteria of showing us a place we would like to visit. When you travel to Denver, climb to the top of the State Capitol dome, visit the Denver Art Museum, linger in a restaurant on the downtown pedestrian 16th Street Mall. But steer clear of a part-Arapaho newspaper reporter named Catherine. She draws danger like a magnet.

Photographs here come from Flickr.com, with a Creative Commons license.  Please click on each photo to learn about the photographer and see more of his or her work.

Links to book titles provide you with a convenient way to purchase the book, and when you buy anything at Amazon after clicking on links from A Traveler’s Library, I earn a few cents to help pay the rent on the site. Thanks.

Whether you’re reading appropriately scary mysteries for Halloween, or you are just building up your place-oriented mystery library, where in the world would you like a mystery to take you?

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Destination: England

Book: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (2003)

It’s a cozy, or is it?  A mystery novel that sidesteps blood and merciless beatings for a more measured and intellectual approach to solving crimes is called a cozy.  Maisie Dobbs, the first in a series of (so far) seven novels written by Jacqueline Winspear,  introduces us to the English woman whose business placard reads “psychologist and investigator.” Cozies generally feature women, but their content may not be quite as fraught with meaning as Maisie Dobbs.

Maisie tracks a criminal, but the leisurely pursuit occupies less than half of a fairly short book.  The rest provides us with most of Maisie’s unconventional life story. Winspear recreates the time preceding, during and after World War I and the effect that horrors of that war had on a whole generation.

End of World War I, 1918, London

The fledgling investigator sets up her office in 1929 London with the help of a wealthy woman she used to work for as a maid.   When a man asks Maisie to find out if his wife is cheating on him, she uncovers a scheme to take advantage of wounded veterans.  Working on discovering the truth draws her back through a lengthy flashback to her own growth from household servant to the grueling work as a battlefield nurse in France during the war. Winspear skillfully introduces the upstairs-downstairs world of Ladies and their servants and then the realities of World War I. In fact, all of her books are set in the period of the Great War, and in this first book, she acknowledges the stories of her Grandfather for setting her on that path.
With the exception of a bit of suspenseful action toward the end, the pace is slow and deliberate…fitting Maisie’s training by her mentor Maurice Blanc.  Some of his teachings–which always come to mind when she needs them, include meditation, although it is not called that. She also practices body mirroring to feel through another’s stance what they are feeling, and trusts her instincts along with logic.

The most unusual characteristic of Maisie in comparison to other sleuths you have known is her insistence that she has a duty to make people better–to help them heal.  Most fictional detectives have a deep understanding of human nature, but most are more focused on punishment and revenge than on healing.  And certainly the detectives we have talked about here at A Traveler’s Library view the world with a good deal more skepticism than Maisie. Take Phillip Marlowe and Spenser, for instance.

Sissinghurst in Kent, UK

So how does this mystery novel help the traveler?  Set in London and in the countryside of Sussex and Kent in the teens and twenties of the 20th century, it describes a bygone age.  And yet, please forgive me English friends, I tend to picture England and particularly London, in the early twentieth century anyhow.  This even though I’ve been there and know about the Millennium Bridge and the Eye and the bustles of the modern world. It is still the Mews and the Beefeaters and the venerable government buildings that come to mind. Furthermore, Winspear shows us a class system that is definitely altered by the advent of “The Great War,” but cannot be avoided even today in a country with a Queen and titled landowners.

Westminster Bridge over the Thames, London, early morning

Maisie likes to take walks, and as we follow her, we see London:

She entered Palace Road from Royal Street, and turned right to walk toward Westminster Bridge.  She loved to watch the Thames first thing in the morning.  Those Londoners who lived just South of the river always said they “were going over the water” when they crossed the Thames, never referring to the river by name unless they were speaking to a stranger.

And Winspear drops little tidbits that read like guidebook entries, like this about Mecklenburg Square which is very little changed since Maisie walked there in 1929, and Virginia Woolf lived there in 1939:

Named in honor of Charlotte of Mecklinburgh-Strelitz who became queen consort upon her marriage to George III of England, the gracious Georgian houses of the square were set around a garden protected by a wrought-iron fence secured with a locked gate.

As Maisie loves the countryside (out of the smoke, as her father says), we also are introduced to other areas of England.

In France, she had dreamed of Kent, of apple orchards in full blossom, primroses and bluebells carpeting the woodland, and the soft countryside stretching out before her.

Because of her skillful presentation of life as it was in the period of the war, and because the detailed descriptions allow the reader to see London and see the countryside, this is a fine book to add to the traveler’s Library.

Links to book titles provide you with a convenient way to purchase the book, and when you buy anything at Amazon after clicking on links from A Traveler’s Library, I earn a few cents to help pay the rent on the site. Thanks.

I would like to thank the photographers who share their pictures via Creative Commons License at Flickr for these amazingly appropriate pictures. You can thank them by clicking on the image to learn more. And a special thank you to regular readers Colleen Alley and Lorrie McCallum who both recommended that I read Winspear, and start with the first book, Maisie Dobbs.

Are you a reader of “cozies?”  Would you classify Maisie Dobbs as a cozy?

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Destination: Montreal area, Canada

Book: A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel  by Louise Penny (NEW 8/30/2011) from St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio

Thank you, Macmillan Audio, for sending me A Trick of the Light on CD just in time for my road trip to Santa Fe.  A mystery is just the thing for our road trips, because both Ken and I  generally like mysteries, and they keep our interest without demanding deep concentration.  I had a great experience with Back of Beyond by C. J. Box on my road trip in Nova Scotia.

However, I will tell you right up front that I would have enjoyed  A Trick of the Light more in print form… maybe.  Because it is set in Quebec Province of Canada — Montreal and the fictional village of Three Pines, most of the names are French and characters use French language expressions liberally.  Even though I know  a little French, I was uncomfortable not being able to visualize the words, particularly names, on the page.

Oldest House in Montreal

The second problem with an audio book like this–there are LOT of characters to keep track of. Had I been reading a physical book (or even an e-book), I would have been able to turn back and find a reminder of who was who. Third, I simply did not like the reader, Ralph Cosham.  The press release states that Ralph Cosham has read all Louise Penny‘s previous six audiobooks, and quotes AudioFile Magazine’s review, “My only quibble is that the Penny-Cosham team kept me listening past my bedtime.”

My problem was not  missing my bedtime  as we drove through the wide open spaces of southern Arizona and New Mexico. Rather, I had trouble staying awake. I found Cosham’s tone tedious and lacking the clear differentiation between characters that makes for an outstanding audio book experience.

A point in this book’s favor is its setting in Montreal, which we fell in love with when we visited in 2001. The old brick buildings, the gilded and gorgeous Church of Notre Dame, the amazing French restaurants, the pommes frites, the street musicians, the waterfront–Montreal is a prime travel destination.

The inside view of a cut-throat world of art, museums and critics should have been just my cup of tea.  In talking to Chief Inspector Gamache, one of the art dealers says “It’s a vicious place, full of greed and fear.” And that provides plenty of backstory and lots of people with motives to murder a former art critic in the garden of Clara Morrow, an artist celebrating her first showing at the Musée  Montreal. (Moan-ree-Al)

Angel on top of Chapel of Bons Secours, Montreal

The title refers to the chiaroscuro effect–light and dark contrasting in paintings, and by extension, the contrast between the dark side and the “light”, or good side, of people and between the truth and lies the policeman must sift through.

The cast of characters has gathered in the small village of  Three Pines, invited to a party to celebrate Clara’s success. The author lives in a similar small town near Montreal, and clearly understands the dynamics of village life. Reading about this village–despite the fact that it is the site of a murder–makes one want to wander the roads near Montreal in search of a similar little Eden.

All of this adds up to exciting potential for a police novel, but for me it fell flat. The story develops ever so slowly, and lacks any real excitement. Gamache solves the crime mainly by his  intellectual musings. He is an extraordinarily intelligent and well-informed policeman. But the classic “gather all the suspects in a room” ending drags on for several pages before wrapping up the case.

Louise Penny writes New York Times bestsellers, gobbled up by readers in The United States and Great Britain (and presumably Canada). However, her style is not for me–particularly not as read on this audio book.  Your mileage may vary, (after all she sells super amounts of books and gets great reviews) and if you disagree, please let me know.

Disclaimers: As I mentioned above, Macmillan Audio provided this book for review. The pictures are scans of print photos taken on our trip to Montreal in 2001, all rights reserved. I have provided a link to Amazon, and if you are inclined to order anything from Amazon, please use my link because I earn a few cents when you do. Thanks.

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Historic cafe in Left Bank

Destination: Paris

Book: Murder in the Latin Quarter(2009) by Cara Black

You can win this book by leaving a comment below (see end of post).

I often think of Alfred Hitchcok and the MacGuffin when I read a mystery.  To Hitchcok, the core of a mystery was the MacGuffin, a physical object that eludes the key characters and drives their frantic actions. “The papers”, “the key”, “the gun”, even the Holy Grail might be the MacGuffin. Once found, the characters believe the MacGuffin will answer all questions–in other words–solve the mystery–but it may be a false lead.

Cara Black‘s Murder in the Latin Quarter has the MacGuffin–a researcher’s report–but it has another x-factor that makes a murder mystery work.  Particularly in a series, the reader must love the main character.  The character must have enough quirks not to get boring.  He/she is ‘brighter than the average bear’ as Yogi the Bear said in those old cartoons. Flawed, but lovable like Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko. I’m also thinking of Sam Spade, Hercule Porot, Miss Marple, T.V.’s Adrian Monk–every one a character a traveler would choose to be shipwrecked with on a desert island. Well, maybe not Mr.  Monk, unless you had a lifetime supply of wipes along.

Reading Murder in the Latin Quarter made me think of  Cara Black‘s Parisian private eye, Aimèe as an interesting friend–a woman I’d call up to serve as my tour guide on my next trip to Paris. She is definitely younger than I am and hipper than I ever was, but she would know where to go to get a good cup of coffee (with or without absinthe) and she has a friend with entree to the party scene in the tunnels below Paris. Her clothing choices alone qualify her for the position of BFF.  Who wouldn’t want to swap clothes with someone who knows how to score second hand Givenchy’s and glamorous shoes from designers who don’t descend to selling in America?

Latin Quarter side street

Having heard Cara Black speak when she visited the Tucson Festival of Books, I know how important accuracy is to her.  She shared one of her trade secrets–take a flic (cop) out for a beer.  They know everything about the streets of Paris. Each of the Aimèe Leduc mysteries is set in a different arrondissement of Paris, making them perfect for the reading traveler who likes to get off the worn tourist trail.

Because Aimèe could not possibly know everything about every neighborhood, she has a wide circle of friends to inform her–and us–about hidden corners and forgotten history.  One of those auxilliary characters works on the police force, where Aimèe’s father once worked.

Morher is the rumpled older detective who gets out of favor with authority–the character who plays the lead role in so many detective novels–here delegated to supporting cast.

Latin Quarter street, Paris

This particular volume, Murder in the Latin Quarter, almost lost me in its dense plot about Haiti and Haitian immigrants in Paris, dirty politics and voodoo, but Aimèe and the tour of the Latin Quarter kept me going.  No question, if I had read this before going to Paris, I would have made it a point to see some of the places Black describes.  It would make a great guide for a walk in the Latin Quarter.

In researching Cara Black, I found this wonderful International mystery writer’s blog to which she contributes along with other writers who set their mysteries in various countries. What a find!

Several people recommended Cara Black to me back when I was exploring French reading. Her latest book, just out is Murder in Passy.

Who’s YOUR favorite fictional detective–in books, movies or TV? Leave a comment and I’ll enter you in a drawing to receive this paperback mystery. (U.S. Resident and over 18, please)

All of these travel pictures were taken by and are the property of VMB or Ken Badertscher. If you would like to reprint something, please ask. vmb@ atravelerslibrary.com

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Book Cover

The Great American Road Trip

An Author Interview

Destination: Minnesota

Book: Vermillion Drift by William Kent Krueger (NEW August 2010) Latest in the Corcoran O’Connor mystery series.

ATL: Tell us about the inspiration for the Corcoran O’Connor series.

WKK:

William Kent Krueger

Long before I wrote—or even thought about writing—Iron Lake, the first book in the series, I imagined a protagonist. I saw him as the kind of guy who was soresilient that no matter how far down life pushed him, he would always bob backto the surface. His name would be Cork.

When I began thinking about Iron Lake and how this protagonist might fit into the story, lots of possibilities suggested themselves. I’d decided to set the book in northern Minnesota, a fascinating and stunningly beautiful area that’s still largely wilderness. When I took a good look at the demographics of what we call the Arrowhead region— the northeast triangle of the state where it abuts Canada and Lake Superior—I realized that a very large percentage of the population was of mixed heritage, Ojibwe and white. These are two cultures who’ve been in conflict for generations. And I thought,wouldn’t it be interesting if I had a protagonist with a foot in both cultures. That way the conflict could be explored internally and externally. And Cork, more or less, was born.

ATL: You include quite a few characters who are American Indians.

WKK: For a brief period—before being kicked out for radical activities—I attended Sanford University with the intent of majoring in cultural anthropology, so my interest in native cultures goes way back. During the period in which I was looking for ideas for my first book, I stumbled onto Tony Hillerman, author of the iconic Leaphorn-Chee mystery series. His books are set in the Four Corners area of the Southwest and incorporate a good deal of information about the Navajo culture. They’re great books, and I realized no one was doing that here in Minnesota, and why couldn’t I? I knew nothing about the Ojibwe, so I began to read about them and then to meet them, and the more I knew, the more intriguing and admirable they became tome. The Ojibwe have become one of the three cornerstone elements in the series, along with Cork’s family, and the whole Arrowhead region. Information about the Ojibwe—or Anishinaabeg—is something readers now expect to find in mywork. And I try to deliver.
One of the interesting and unanticipated aspects of dealing with the Ojibwe is that most of my stories have as a undercurrent the whole question of racial prejudice.I didn’t start out thinking this would be the case, but the more I know and understand about the difficulties facing the Ojibwe—and most native cultures, for that matter—the more I admire their tenacity.

ATL:  Tell us a little about your new book,Vermilion Drift, particularly what we might learn about Minnesota when we read it.

WKK: I have, for a very long time now, wanted to write a story that would allow me to feature the rich culture and history of the area in northern Minnesota that we call the Iron Range. The ore extracted from the deep underground mines or enormous open pits there were tremendously important to the growth of the whole nation. But the resource came at a high cost, which was the destruction of a great deal of pristine wilderness. And now, as the demand for American steel has waned, the Iron Range and the people who’ve called it home for generations are struggling.Vermilion Drift ought to give readers a sense of the past and sense of the challenge of the future of this remarkable area.

ATL: What literature do you recommend that people read to learn about Minnesota?

WKK: Minnesota has such a varied history and rich potpourri of ethnic heritage and diverse landscape that it would be difficult for any single title to capture it all.Ole Rolvaag’s classic Giants in the Earth offers a good account of the early landscape and the struggle of the initial settlers in this part of the country. F.Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories set in St. Paul give a wonderful portrait of life in the early decades of the Twentieth Century. Kent Meyers’ phenomenal memoir
The Witness of Combines paints a stark and stunning portrait of modern rural life in southwest Minnesota. And if you want to be scared to death about living in the Twin Cities, read John Sanford’s Prey series.

One question I get a lot is why are there so many good mystery writers in Minnesota. Really, we have a remarkable number of them here. Pete Hautman, Mary Logue, David Housewright, Ellen Hart, Carl Brookins, Julie Kramer, P.J.Tracy, Jess Lourey, Brian Freeman, and the list goes on. Here’s my answer, and it’s a key to understanding the nature of the people who call Minnesota home: We value art in all its forms here. Dance, theatre, film, the visual arts, they all flourish in Minnesota, along with great literature, because the people of this state value and support them. The wealth of great mysteries that come out of Minnesota is just a subset of the wealth of great art being created here all the time. I love this state and its people. I’m so happy to call it home.

Thank You for a great look behind the scenes of a fascinating series. Readers, did you realize that Minnesota harbored so many mystery writers? Looks like we have a new reading list!

Kerry Dexter over at Music Road is introducing some Minnesota musicians, including a Native American .  Click on over because Kerry always provides a good sound track for the places we visit on the road trip.

(If my trip is on schedule, I’ll be visiting Mont St. Michel today as we make our way into Brittany from Normandy.)

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South Carolina Beach

Destination: South Carolina

Book: Bull’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank

With So What, Ya’ll? Dorothea Benton Frank does the South Carolina Cliché

A guest post by Margo Millure of The Travel Belles

Trouble looms big time in the opening pages of Dorothea Benton Frank‘s Bull’s Island   and Elizabeth “Betts” McGee, a southern transplant in New York City knows it. On direct order from her boss she is sent back to her native Charleston, South Carolina, on business, and into the past she hoped and believed she had left behind forever. There she will face the big things of life: her estranged family, the love of her life, along with her own very big secret. Readers love going where protagonists wouldn’t dare go on their own devices. This is where Frank takes us.

Bull Island Gator

Off the bat, I need to say that the part of the plot that has the real Bull Island, part of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, being potentially developed as a gated community isn’t going to happen in real life. As someone who lives in South Carolina, the concept was distracting as I read along. In my mind the idea is so ludicrous, it leaves me wondering why Frank didn’t make up a name instead of just adding an apostrophe “s”.

The hallmarks of Frank’s novels, which are well-known for their depictions of the South Carolina low country’s social and geographical landscapes are all here: We’ve got a certain shade of colorful characterizations and vernacular which seems peculiar to South Carolina. We’ve got sultry heat and humidity, briny air and violent late day thunderstorms, all described with such loving detail that you’ll be ready for sweet tea on the veranda and a shower after reading about them. We’ve got J.D. Langley, a handsome and unassuming ex-fiance in a seersucker suit. We’ve got a 20 foot alligator and lots of Labrador retrievers. There is even a repugnant blue blooded matriarch who says things like, “Dahlin, that is not such a good idea, if you are trying to conceive!,” to her daughter in-law who seems to have had too much vodka during the daylight hours. Last but not least, our protagonist, Betts, has a very big secret.

Great literature? Probably not, but Frank’s novels always seem to fulfill the promise set out on page one, and Bulls Island is no exception. What you see is what you get. Call it clichéd, stereotyped or melodramatic, but in this instance with Bull’s Island, the pitch of the dialogue and her characterizations are occasionally so dead-on that I’m tempted to say, “Well, so what ya’ll?”

Frank brings a world of extreme Southern family dynamics to life, where her characters pull off their secrets and lies with a dazzling panache. Betts reminds me of a few women I know who were raised in the South and have led interesting, complicated lives. She doesn’t demure. There’s a steeliness, a hint of cynicism and a groundedness. She’s conflicted, and more than a little affected. In this regard, Frank gets the modern southern woman right too. Plot wise, Bull’s Island feels a little front heavy on the prelude to the central action, with Betts not encountering her long lost love, J.D., in the present time, until around halfway into the book.

Anyone who has read one of “Dottie” Frank’s earlier novels, such as Sullivan’s Island or Land of the Mango Sunsets will know what to expect here. Calling Bull’s Island a perfect beach read, or just the book to put in your beach bag is even a cliché. But come to think of it, flip flops and sunscreen are too.

For some definitely NOT cliche music to go with your stop in South Carolina, be sure to visit Music Road. Each week, Kerry Dexter tells us what outstanding musicians come from the state we’re visiting, and this time its three musicians for two states.

Margo Millure

Margo Millure is a published journalist, essayist and fiction writer, and the founder and editor of The Travel Belles. She loves reading, writing and traveling, and can usually be found on any given day doing at least one of them.  In addition to all that serious stuff, she can also be found on Twitter: @travelbelles or @gomarwrites. She lives with her husband and two teenage daughters in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Starfish photo by Margo Millure, all rights reserved. Gator picture from Flickr with Creative Commons license. Click on the picture to see more by this photographer.

THANKS, Margo for sharing a great beach and a great beach read. I encourage everyone to take a look at The Travel Belles–a  travel web site that does not stay in the Southern U.S., although it may keep the Southern sensibility.

How about sharing your own experiences in South Carolina? Venture outside of Charleston? Please give Margo and A Traveler’s Library a boost by sharing this post on Stumble Upon and/or Twitter.

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

My pick for first, Jo Nesbo’s Nemesis did not make it. (What do I know? But I still am a great fan!)

I will be reviewing the novel chosen as Best Mystery Novel of 2010,

John Hart‘s The Last Child, on June 2 when the Great American Road Trip goes to North Carolina.

Now read on to take the mystery out of food and travel in the Dordogne.…..

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John Adams outside Quincy City Hall

We visited Quincy Massachusetts, and looked for clues to the lives of the family of John Adams. Any reader should travel there and see the John Quincy Adams library! But I wrote about John Adams’ biography, a kind of time-travel book, back in July. In the city of Boston, we booked rooms at the amazing Nine Zero hotel. Kimpton Hotels, the group that owns Nine Zero, likes to say the hotel is located across from the Boston Commons. I don’t suppose it is good P. R. to say you are across from a graveyard. Directly across the street, you can visit the 2nd oldest cemetery in Boston, the Granary, which holds the graves of Samuel Adams and Paul Revere and the unfortunates who were shot by the British soldiers in what the American Revolutionary’s P.R. agents called the “Boston Massacre.”

Tombstone of the vicitims of the Boston Massacre

I was beginning to suspect that nothing is quite as it seems in Boston, which makes for good stories. People still leave coins and stones on the  gravestone of Crispus Attucks and the others, although the stones may have moved far from the original burial location. Turns out, I could have been looking down from my hotel room on the home of a fictional character who makes a living doubting what he is told. Spenser, P.I. Robert B. Parker wrote the Spenser mystery series.  And mystery books, as my regular reader know, make the best books for travelers.  Spenser lives just two blocks from the Boston Commons. When I read several Spenser novels, and watched the old Spenser for Hire shows on T.V., I was not studying what they had to say about Boston, so I quickly grabbed an old Spenser that I had not read yet, The Godwulf Manuscript (1973). That mystery novel, or any other of the 37 Spenser novels, could have provided a tour book for Boston.  Had I thought to look at Robert Parker’s website, I could have eaten at Spenser’s favorite restaurants*. The hard-boiled detective Spenser distinguishes himself from other shamuses in that he is well-read and does not hesitate to quote literary passages from time to time. He also cooks. No canned hash for him–In Godwulf, after he rescues a damsel in distress, he cooks up a dinner for her of chicken breasts with a cream sauce with sherry and mushrooms over rice, accompanied by a salad with homemade dressing with lime juice, mint, olive oil, honey and wine vinegar.

Rooftops of Boston with Boston Commons. Charles River in background

Parker’s/Spenser’s sense of observation is keen, and you learn every detail of the look, smell and sound of his home town.  When Spenser drives to check a clue, you get a tour as good as a travel guidebook.  Here’s an example: We went down along the Charles on Memorial Drive and across the Mass Ave bridge.  Boston always looks great form there.  Especially at night, with the lights and the skyline against the starry sky and the sweep of the river in a a graceful curve down toward the harbor. Now if we ignore the murder and mayhem that precede and follow this excerpt, doesn’t that make you want to go to Boston? If you want more touring details, look for an out- of- print copy of Robert B. Parker’s coffee table book,  Spenser’s Boston (1994).

*Spenser’s Top 5 Restaurants In Boston [Note: These came from his website in 2009. Since Parker passed away in 2011, the website has been changed, and this list has been removed.]

• Agawam Diner — Rowley (Rt. 1 and 133, Rowley MA)
• Grill 23 — Boston (Steak house: 161 Berkley in Back Bay)
• Sorellina — Boston (Modern Italian, Copley Square, Back Bay)
• Excelsior — Boston (currently closed and being revamped re their web site)
• Rialto – Cambridge (Harvard Square in Cambridge)

If you are a Spenser fan, have you ever followed his escapades through Boston?

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