The last stop on my summer adventures was Nice – and what a treat for a Golden Age mystery fan! The Côte d’Azur was a favorite destination for many of the wealthy class in the Golden Age. There’s a wealth of mysteries that take place in and around that favorite summer playground.

While we only spent a few days in France, every possible moment was spent in a beach chair. And so I was able to read not just one, but two mysteries set on the the French Riviera! I’ve always had a soft spot for The Mystery of the Blue Train – it involves so much travel and absolutely absurd luxury. Jewel thieves and murder and romance may for the perfect escapist beach read. And to expand my Golden Age horizons, I also tried John Bude’s Death on the Riviera, which follows a police inspector as he tracks a gang of counterfeiters through France. Like the other books I’ve read as I traveled, I found that these referenced a world gone by, a different layer. But unlike those prior reads, these references served to highlight just how much has changed.

A trip to the past

While I was fortunate enough to visit Nice, I did not do it as glamorously as a Golden Age cast. The characters in Golden Age novels are denizens of private villas, instead of hotels. They tend to spend their time shopping, gambling, or at lavish parties – I spent my days on the beach and my nights wandering the Promenade des Anglais. Golden Age characters didn’t need beachside clubs, as they appreciated the water from afar; instead, I spent as much time with the bright blue sea as I could manage.

Reading these two mystery novels, then, was a reminder of how much the world has changed since the Golden Age. While it was a thrill to see the place-names on signs, to see the my hotel referenced by Agatha Christie, it threw into stark contrast how different my world is. I could not imagine Poirot or Katherine Grey or Ruth Kettering wandering the alleys of Nice in search of the best socca, or browsing the gourd lamp stall at the night market. Nor could I imagine knowing anyone to have a casual affair with a dancer, or casually funding a truly terrible artist. Much of these two mysteries rests on the casual unknowability of others at the time, and that feels almost foreign today.

A question of genre

I was struck by my own reactions to these novels, especially to The Mystery of the Blue Train. I love Golden Age mystery, and I fully expected these reads would bring me closer to their settings. Yet I ended up feeling the passage of time more strongly than with my other reads…

I’ve spent quite a bit of time puzzling this one through. Why should some of my favorite stories make me feel the passage of time more keenly than stories that were both set farther away and more fantastical? (The contrast is part of why I’ve put off writing this for so long – I was anticipating an easy conclusion and got, instead, a conundrum.) I’ve come to the tentative conclusion that it relates to the cross-product of the timing and the genre. Were these stories not mysteries, and not set in a modern timeline, I might better appreciate those differences.

When reading a novel that feels distinctly foreign, I find it easier to suspend my disbelief. The Familiar‘s distance in time and a magical flair make it easier to simply ride with the premise. And The Shadow of the Wind describes such a different Barcelona that reading feels like a journey of discovery.

But Golden Age mysteries thrive on realism, and so reading mysteries set in a recent time can feel uncanny valley. You can recognize the sights and sounds and smells, but everything feels distinctly off. Not only that – because Golden Age mysteries follow the richest of the rich, they’re generally not the most relatable. That’s easier to suppress curled up on the couch at home; harder when I’m walking the same streets as a millionaire heiress.

Of course, the setting exacerbates matters here. Choosing a setting that was almost exclusively a tourist destination for the ultra-rich seems almost destined t generate this outcome. I’m not sure I would have had the same reaction to, say, Death in the Air. (Technically, I suppose there’s only one way to find out…)

Reading on the road

I had expected, when I started this experiment, to have unambiguously positive things to say about the whole experience. I imagined that reading books set in each of my destinations would enrich my travel, and that I would love the books for that enrichment.

The truth is… a little more complicated. In my first two destinations, I read books that greatly enriched my journey. These reads added layers of emotional depth to the cities I visited, bringing their history to life. I was reminded how many humans had walked before me and would walk after me – they made me feel connected to the human story of each city. And yet, I never fell in love with the books themselves. I’m happy to leave each of those reads behind, with only photos for memories.

And then – my mysteries, which I so anticipated, fell a bit flat on the enrichment front! Instead of the depth of connection, I experienced a heightened sense of distance, a sharp sense of time passing. Yet I still love The Mystery of the Blue Train (for entirely sentimental reasons, it doesn’t make much sense as a mystery) and will, in all likelihood, read it many times more. And each time I read it, it will be tinged with my memories of that bright blue ocean, the pebbled beach, the warm sun…

So of course I will keep reading while traveling – and sharing my thoughts with you all. But now I’m pondering what makes for the best travel reads… (And I would love to hear your thoughts, please share!)

Until next time, stay cozy, and stay curious!

*This will count for my “locked room mystery” and my “revenge story” for this year’s 52 Book Club Challenge!