Biggles Goes Alone
Sep. 3rd, 2023 07:25 pm
I picked this one up today on an impulse, and besides a few errors of transcription in the Very Legal ebook copy I used I really enjoyed it!
Biggles being forced to go on holiday harkens back to the WW1 stories in such an interesting way. Raymond noticing that he's been working too hard too long and he's on the verge of a breakdown is the sort of support I enjoy in this series, the fact that they care about each other's mental wellbeing as well as the physical. As someone who struggles with relaxing while on holiday I can very easily empathise with Biggles' first few days on holiday, wandering around feeling at loose ends and stressed out about not relaxing. And then suddenly it all eases, which must be lovely, and I can only imagine the relief in Mount Street when the postcard about his first truly peaceful day arrived.
( Plot Spoilers! )
Cornwall as a setting for a murder mystery is definitely a common conceit but this is my first Cornish mystery and it was nice to read! I imagined (probably somewhat justifiably) that Polstow is a stand-in for Padstow, geographically relocated so it's close to Truro, and since I've actually been there I could envision some parts of the setting, although I don't remember Padstow having massive cliffs, that was more Bude's line. I also liked the cast of characters, especially Captain Gower who is so perfectly characterised I can only imagine that Johns had met a few men in the same line.
I didn't miss the presence of the rest of & Co as much as I thought I would, although I'm pleased that this didn't become the norm for the series. It was fun when Biggles called Ginger and carried on the whole conversation one-sided in the narrative - I can only imagine Ginger's bemusement at being ordered to send a secondhand book on British Guiana to Truro for secret reasons.
Before I conclude this post I am honour bound to mention![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sholio 's fantastic sidequel to Goes Alone, Postcards from the Seaside. Reading this fic was the thing which brought Goes Alone up my reading list from 'probably not' to 'soon'!
EDIT: Just tried to log this on Goodreads and it redirects automatically to Biggles Goes to War. WHY
Biggles being forced to go on holiday harkens back to the WW1 stories in such an interesting way. Raymond noticing that he's been working too hard too long and he's on the verge of a breakdown is the sort of support I enjoy in this series, the fact that they care about each other's mental wellbeing as well as the physical. As someone who struggles with relaxing while on holiday I can very easily empathise with Biggles' first few days on holiday, wandering around feeling at loose ends and stressed out about not relaxing. And then suddenly it all eases, which must be lovely, and I can only imagine the relief in Mount Street when the postcard about his first truly peaceful day arrived.
( Plot Spoilers! )
Cornwall as a setting for a murder mystery is definitely a common conceit but this is my first Cornish mystery and it was nice to read! I imagined (probably somewhat justifiably) that Polstow is a stand-in for Padstow, geographically relocated so it's close to Truro, and since I've actually been there I could envision some parts of the setting, although I don't remember Padstow having massive cliffs, that was more Bude's line. I also liked the cast of characters, especially Captain Gower who is so perfectly characterised I can only imagine that Johns had met a few men in the same line.
I didn't miss the presence of the rest of & Co as much as I thought I would, although I'm pleased that this didn't become the norm for the series. It was fun when Biggles called Ginger and carried on the whole conversation one-sided in the narrative - I can only imagine Ginger's bemusement at being ordered to send a secondhand book on British Guiana to Truro for secret reasons.
Before I conclude this post I am honour bound to mention
sholio 's fantastic sidequel to Goes Alone, Postcards from the Seaside. Reading this fic was the thing which brought Goes Alone up my reading list from 'probably not' to 'soon'!EDIT: Just tried to log this on Goodreads and it redirects automatically to Biggles Goes to War. WHY
