Offering analysis of the fiction of 15 authors, this book focuses on the many ways that setting and place figure in modern crime and mystery novels. After an introductory chapter dealing with a general consideration of place in fiction, subsequent chapters consider the works of recent mystery writers for whom setting greatly contributes to overall literary style.From best-selling U.S. authors Walter Mosley, Carl Hiaasen, and James Lee Burke to international favorites Georges Simenon and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, the author ranges widely among the most acclaimed writers of recent mystery fiction. The topics explored include: The afro-centric urban Los Angeles environment in Walter Mosley’s
Devil in a Blue Dress , the small-town exoticism of James Lee Burke’s southern Louisiana in
The Neon Rain , and the gritty South African setting of James McClure’s
The Steam Pig .