Portal Arizona

Destination: Southern Arizona

Book: White Heat by Brenda Novak (NEW August 2010)

What fun to read a novel set in a place I am very familiar with. White Heat, the first in a triology of romance mysteries by the prolific Brenda Novak, takes place in the far southeastern corner of Arizona.  The towns of Portal and Paradise really do exist on the edge of the Chiricahua Mountains, not far west of the New Mexico-Arizona border.

Paradise, nearly deserted, once was a mining town.I  wrote an essay for Arizona Highways about the Paradise Cemetery and how it is just about as hard to get buried in Paradise as to get into that other Paradise.  Since the mines petered out, the area attracts scientists who study the sky-island bio system, birders who hope to spot the rare elegant trogan, or even rarer Mexican parrots who migrate up from Central American. Some people who live around here  just want to get away from civilization.

Because some serious science goes on in the Cave Creek Canyon through the cleft in the mountains where birds and animals migrate north in winter, and lush growth along steep ridges makes the area beautiful, many of the scientists stick around after they retire, and the I.Q. level here is probably higher than in just about any ghost town you’ve ever visited. Professors  strap tiny transmitters to rattlesnakes bellies to learn about their wandering, intrepid biologists poke around in caves looking for bats, and interns spend the summer counting toads. You can learn more about the fauna of the area at the site of the George Walker B & B where we stayed for a few idyllic days many years ago. (The two towns are surrounded by national forest service and you will not have a problem finding a place to sleep outdoors if you prefer.)

Although the population of Cave Creek consists more of scientists at the American Museum of Natural History’s Southwestern Research Station than oddballs, Novak spices up the scene by importing the camp of an armed cult and sets up the private investigators’ disguise as a wildlife photographer and his wife living in a trailer near Portal and dining at the general store, reataurant–all good choices.

The investigators playing married couple start out like Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey–she proving she’s tough and not interested in him–he vaguely amused but concerned about her. And, without giving away too much–after all, this is a mystery/romance–they wind up like Hepburn and Tracey, too. The author leads them into increasingly serious trouble, which they make their way out of–no cavalry riding to the rescue from nearby Fort Bowie.

Since she grew up in central Arizona, Novak knows a bit about the geography, but since I’ve spent lazy days swinging on a cabin porch swing or listening to Cave Creek rush alongside a trail, I occasionally took exception to her transplanting the hot desert climate out to Portal and Paradise.  After all, the area would not be a famous wildlife corridor, known for the incredible variety of species if its climate did not differ from the lower desert around I-10 through eastern Arizona.

These climatic details, however, don’t detract from the skillfull spinning of a suspenseful yarn (leading to climactic details) that I zipped through in a bet-you-can’t-read-just-one-chapter mode.

Just one question though, with all the research up there in Cave Creek about rattlesnakes, bats and lizards, wouldn’t a witches coven have been a logical enemy for the bad guys?

You can follow Brenda Novak on Twitter @Brenda_Novak.  Her book was supplied to me by the publisher for review.  The photo of the dramatic entrance to Portal comes from the portal web site kept by Pat Bennett (and I hope she will remember me and give me permission, since I could not locate contact info for her). Check out her web site for information on how you can enjoy Paradise and Portal at a much calmer pace than the heroes of White Heat.

When you read a mystery set in a familiar place, are you tempted to pick at the details, or luxuriate in the familiarity? What’s a favorite mystery set near a place YOU have vacationed?

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A walk in the woods in U.P. Michigan

Destination: Paradise, (Upper Peninsula) Michigan

Book: Blood is the Sky by Steve Hamilton

Anyone who has read more than a few of my posts knows that I firmly believe that the traveler can find no better guide to a city or region than a good mystery.  I’ve talked about a policeman in Venice, a Park Ranger who stumbles over dead bodies in Yosemite, a hard-boiled P.I. in Boston, and a TV mystery set in Sweden, among other dark guides to lovely places.

Photo by Vera Marie Badertscher. All rights reserved.

It should be no surprise, then, that when I was heading for northern Michigan, I looked for a mystery writer who specialized in that area. I hit pay dirt with the Alex McKnight series by Steve Hamilton. Being in a hurry, I took the first McKnight story that my public library offered me, Blood is the Sky–an eerie enough sounding title.

When I read a bit about Steve Hamilton, I learned that the first book in this series,  A Cold Day in Paradise, took just about every award for mystery novels that anybody is dishing out.  Since the first one, he has written six more. Recently he has written two standalone books, the 2nd of those will be released this coming January,The Lock Artist.   Hamilton may be attempting to move toward literature of a more serious purpose, but I’m sure the many fans of Alex McKnight wish that he would get back to business in Paradise.

Paradise, by the way, is a real, actual, small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I know. I drove through it.  Mostly I remember some little aging motels and one big impressive Best Western Motel, all surrounded by forest.  It may not be my idea of Paradise in the winter time–since I do not clomp around in snowshoes or poke holes in the frozen lake for ice fishing, but the tiny town sits in the midst of some gorgeous scenery that just begs to be explored on two feet in warmer weather.

Blood is the Sky takes its name from an Ojibwa Indian name meaning sunset, and an unlucky name at that.  In this episode, Alex, a retired police officer tries to help his best friend, an Ojibwa named Vinnie who lives in a cabin near his, and they get involved in a nasty circle of people as they search for Vinnie’s brother. I could not believe all of the circumstances, and regretted some weak exposition. But I never doubted for a moment the reality of the characters and the beauty of the locale.  This was just the book to prepare me for the heavenly surroundings of Paradise. Fortunately, in real life I was insulated from the possibilities of violence lurking in a woods full of bears, tough-minded moose, and in fiction, some nasty humans as well.

Disclaimer time. I was in the Upper Peninsula (along with a couple dozen other travel writers) as a guest of the state of Michigan’s promoters of tourism . And no matter how hard they try, those nice folks from Michigan will never convince me that ice fishing is anything more than an excuse for a bunch of guys to get away from home and chores and drink beer all day. Okay? All clear?

I am always open to learning about new mystery writers and particularly those who will help me see and understand a new territory. Any suggestions??

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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