Palestine in the Holly Land

More on places and placenames in "Pandora by Holly Hollander": OK, so when Holly is injured, she is taken to a hospital in a "Palestine", which she says is between "Barton" and Chicago. From the map, this would seem to be a reference to a place called Palatine, which is indeed between Barrington and Chicago. I mentioned earlier that there's a real place called South Barrington. Turns out in the book that Aladdin Blue lives in "South Barton". That figures! I've got to the place in the book where the thick-set policeman, Lt Sandoz, makes his appearance, ready to play Lestrade to Aladdin Blue's Holmes. Knowing Wolfe's fascination with the book and film of that name, I wondered at first whether there was a "Wizard of Oz" reference lurking here - perhaps something along the lines of the title of the film "Zardoz", which took it's name from a corruption of "The Wizard of Oz". But no, I think not. Then I wondered whether it was a reference to the chemical and pharmaceutical company. Wolfe was in production engineering, so must have known the company or used its products. Who knows - and does it matter? (No!) But I was having fun speculating... Anyone know about the names of the counties in the area around Barrington? In the book, "Barton" is in "Pool County", whereas "Palestine" is in "Cook County". My map doesn't show the names of counties. What would the corresponding counties be for Barrington and Palatine in the real Illinois? Nigel

Let me be the first to help you in your quest! (I'm looking at a map.) Chicago and Palatine are in Cook County. Barrington looks to be on the northern edge of Cook County (but it might well be in the next county), and the county north of Cook is Lake County. South of Palatine (Palatine is about in the middle of a rectangle leg of Cook) is Du Page County (Itasca is in Du Page). Aurora is in Kane County. So "Pool County" is likely to be Lake County. =mantis= Sirius Fiction Has Moved To http://www.siriusfiction.com/