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  Bulls 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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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

• 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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Destination: Venice

Gondola Traffic Jam in Venice, Italy Photo by VMB

Books: Any mystery byDonna Leon

Donna Leon has made a career out of killing off many people in just one city. But with all the romance and mystery of Venice, Italy, why not?

Unlike the many writers who have plumbed the rich history of Venice, Donna Leon goes after the gritty underbelly of today’s Italy. Grubbing around in police works and political corruption she exposes plenty of things that the tourist board will not be telling you about. I gobbled the books  down like potato chips before, during and after my Italian trip.

In 2008 the yearly high tides in Venice reached exceptionally high marks, making Leon’s 1996 (reprinted in 2005) Acqua Alta , timely all over again. Leon’s  police procedural mysteries (16 so far) about the personable family man, Comissario Brunetti, come across as a love letter to Venice. But not a love letter from a smitten teen. Her books strike me as a mature kind of love letter that says I know all your warts and I love you still.

When I went to Venice, the romantic decay all seemed just a little too seedy. And the city that once built an empire on commerce, now trades in made-in-China copies of Venetian masks. Talk about tacky souvenirs–I thought that if I saw one more pair of men’s underwear sporting a bit of David’s anatomy (that’s David by Michelangelo)—I would jump in a canal.

Leon (and Brunetti) also led me to hidden treasures of Venice, and explained the little cultural secrets that sometimes elude a tourist. I went on a Comissario Brunetti alert, recognizing street and plaza names and remembering the crime that took place in a particular canal. The British fan site for the author emphasizes the way that place dominates her novels with a wonderful graphic map

You may want to start with her latest book,  The Girl of His Dreams , but once you add Leon to your travel library, I’ll bet you can’t read just one.

Thrillers from Baldacci in Washington D.C. , mysteries from Donna Leon in Venice.  Why does this kind of book make such a satisfactory travel read?  And what other mystery writers have you read that add spice to your travel? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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