"I have never read such a comprehensive, well-documented, focused look at the geography of a genre of literature. It is absolutely arresting (no pun really intended) to see what Hausladen has done in his search for place, for ethnic identity, for locale, for regional characteristics. You stop again and again in the flow of the text, captured by the detail of his analysis."

—Christopher L. Salter, Director, Geographic Resources Center, University of Missouri, Columbia

From Tony Hillerman's Navajo Southwest to Martin Cruz Smith's Moscow, an exotic, vividly described locale is one of the great pleasures of many murder mysteries. Indeed, the sense of place, no less than the compelling character of the detective, is often what keeps authors writing and readers reading a particular series of mystery novels.

This book investigates how "police procedural" murder mysteries have been used to convey a sense of place. Gary Hausladen delves into the work of more than thirty authors, including Tony Hillerman, Martin Cruz Smith, James Lee Burke, David Lindsey, P. D. James, and many others. Arranging the authors by their region of choice, he discusses police procedurals set in America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Europe, Moscow, Asia, and selected locales in other parts of the world, as well as in historical places ranging from the Roman Empire to turn-of-the-century Cairo.