Janie Bolitho (1950–2002)

I bought this under the mistaken impression it was the first in the series. Anyway...

Rose hears a woman scream while she is out painting at the site of a former mill. She calls the police, but they can find nothing of concern. Then, a few days later, the former girlfriend of the man Rose is sort of dating goes missing.

I wanted to love this series - I love Cornwall. However, I found this novel slightly dated; I have described Jenny, the woman who goes missing, as Nick's girlfriend, but in the novel, she hopes to become his mistress, despite the fact neither are married. There is a lot of description/telling and far less dialogue/showing. I quite liked Rose, although the number of male admirers she seemed to attract was mystifying (but helpful to the plot).

I also found the plot very lacking in urgency or pace. The "whodunnit" is revealed at the end, in an encounter months after the event and was extremely underwhelming. Disappointing.… (mais)

Rose Trevelyan’s friend Etta is troubled: her teenage daughter Sarah is uncommunicative and Etta thinks she might be on drugs. Rose agrees to talk to the girl, but before she can Etta suffers an even more serious blow; her adult son is dead, having fallen off a cliff, and a packet of heroin has been found at his side. Could Joe have really been a drug dealer rather than the honest fisherman he always seemed to be? And is Sarah really acting in a way more serious than typical adolescents do? When Sarah disappears, Rose must decide whether to act, or to leave the case to her erstwhile lover, police detective Jack Pearce, who himself never seems to believe anything Rose tells him…. "Betrayed in Cornwall" is the middle book in Janie Bolitho’s 7-novel series; I have been reading them out of order, as I’ve found each book, and this is actually the final book in my reading. As with the others in the series, I enjoyed this one, particularly for its Cornish setting but also because Rose is an interesting character: a middle-aged widow who makes a living as an artist and whose natural curiosity always seems to lead her into trouble. Fans of Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series would likely enjoy these books too, as the lead characters have several points in common. Recommended - but probably it would be good to read the books in order!… (mais)