As most readers of the Constable Molly Smith series know, the town of Trafaglar, B.C. is closely based on Nelson, B.C. I love Nelson. It's a small, quirky, friendly town, smack dab in the centre of the BC wilderness. It's located in a valley, alongside a river, surrounded by mountains on all sides. There is a certain Brigadoon quality to Nelson. It is literally on the way to no where. You have to be wanting to go there, to go there.
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| Outside Big Eddies |
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| Street scene, with Fleures Des Menthe Restaurant patio on the right |
A perfect setting, I thought, for a series of crime novels. And thus, Trafalgar was born. Others seem to agree with me, as there are now several mystery novels set in some fictional version of Nelson.
I visited Nelson recently, and decided it would be fun to take pictures of the real places that feature in my fictional town. I posted some last week, and here are a few more.
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| The French Bakery introduced in IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLACIER, and featured in all the other books when Molly Smith moves into the apartment above. |
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| Bar of the Hudson House Hotel. Where Smith meets her childhood friend Nicky in AMONG THE DEPARTED |
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| The " Big Black Bridge " |
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| Big Eddie's Coffee Emporium, site of many meetings. |
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| The police station (of course) |
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| A street scene. Picture taken from inside "George's Restaurant" (hard to see, but what makes this "Nelson" is the kids band playing across the street) |
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| Yup, Castlegar really is known as Cancel-gar, as Smith tells Winters taking him to meet a flight in WINTER OF SECRETS |
