Sherlock the dreamcatcher

The minute I got home, I buried myself in my sofa with my latest Russell&Holmes-mystery, "Locked Rooms" by Laurie R King. This time, by way of India ("The Game"), Japan and Hawaii, our couple arrives in San Francisco, Russell´s childhood home.

After her family´s death in an automobile accident that she barely survived, Russell still owns a couple of houses and has business interests in San Francisco, but she has been reluctant to return. Already on the boat she stops eating and becomes ridden by nightmares and Holmes feels that she is no longer herself. Clearly, this is a great trauma in Russell´s life and she dreads her home-coming.

While she submerges herself in grief and stumbles about in the debris of her past, Holmes starts an investigation into Russell´s dreams by himself, concealing this from Russell. He finds himself a couple of Irregulars, among them the future writer of detective stories, Dashiell Hammett. Now, I have only seen "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man" on screen, but that´s enough to realize that this book is probably littered with references to Hammett´s work.

Anyway, as per usual, I will not spoil anyone´s fun by telling you what happens, but it´s suspense all the way through. And for the first time in the series, King divides the narrative into the two perspectives of Russell and Holmes, something that didn´t feel entirely comfortable at first (to me, at least) but it´s made necessary by the story, really. And it works.

From the Sherlock Holmes Museum, visited a week ago, haha!

Best holiday ever

Not much reading done lately, I have been on holiday with my husband, to beautiful Cornwall. Of course I brought my entire electronic library, in case of bad weather, but we were incredibly lucky and during our two week stay, it only rained on us once. Once to make us wet, that is. There were a few more drops, and a bit cloudy and windy, but that is perfect weather for excursions. Umbrellas are worthless in Cornwall, I learned, and I had to emergency-buy a rainjacket (found a good one on sale for 9 pounds!). This jacket was also great to have on top of the open double-decker bus, the Cornwall Explorer 300 (yes, it sounds like a high tech gadget, doesn´t it?) that took us around to the places we wanted to see.

Some places we saw (a selection from the thousands (yes!) of pictures that we have):

Poldhu Cove, where Marconi sent his first radio signals in 1901, to Newfoundland.

Porthcurno, a great beach and...

... the worlds greatest hub of telegraph cables.

St Michael´s Mount, that becomes an island at high tide.

Fabulous Land´s End.

The incredible Minack Theatre, where they rehearsed Hamlet.

The Garrison Walk, on the Island of St Mary, Scilly.

Such a nice tradition with donated benches, and I like that I got the blackbird in the frame.

The scarf is for my sun rashes, and I managed to get burned THROUGH my shirt!

Leaving the Isles of Scilly.

 

The Cornish Alps - tips from the clay mines.

Pretty port of Charlestown, St Austell.

The fabulous Eden Project, St Austell.

The Steamtrain from Paignton to Kingswear, the British Riviera Line.

Kingswear from a boat on the river Dart (which means oak in cornish).

Exeter in the evening light.

A white horse on a mountainside, from the train to London.

We stayed in the most wonderful B&B imaginable, the Elmsdale, operated by our wonderful hosts Richard and Glynis Cliffe. We stayed two nights in London before we went home, at the SAS Radisson Portmann, and I tell you, we had nothing at the Portmann that we didn´t also have at the Elmsdale. And stepping out the front door, London is nothing to Penzance, a great little big town. A bit like Luleå, in some respects, being the entrance gate to a quirky land´s end. A bit eljest (=otherly), as we´d say up here.

And despite of the cloudy weather, I managed to get sun rashes and burns. One couple we shared a breakfast table with in St Austell, didn´t think we looked Swedish: Swedes are supposed to be blonde and very, very tan. We were just too pale.

If you go to England, I can really, wholeheartedly, recommend that you get out of London and go somewhere else. You´ll get more for your money and experience real Englishness, in a way that London just can´t offer. Penzance is one place I will definitely return to. I never did get to see the tin mines...