In this Book
- Places for Dead Bodies
- Book
- 2000
- Published by: University of Texas Press
summary
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. In fact, 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, Russia, 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.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xii
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- pp. 1-10
- The Police Procedural Genre
- pp. 16-20
- Place-Based Police Procedurals
- pp. 21-27
- Why Do We Read This Stuff, Anyway?
- pp. 28-31
- Chapter 3: Murder in America
- pp. 33-37
- The Navajo Country of Tony Hillerman
- pp. 38-42
- The Cherokee Country of Jean Hager
- pp. 43-45
- The New Orleans of James Lee Burke
- pp. 46-48
- The New Orleans of Julie Smith
- pp. 49-50
- Susan Dunlap’s Berkeley
- pp. 62-63
- The Canadian North of Scott Young
- pp. 64-65
- Conclusion
- pp. 67-68
- The London of P. D. James
- pp. 72-75
- Colin Dexter’s Oxford
- pp. 76-79
- Conclusion
- p. 90
- The Italy of Michael Dibdin
- pp. 94-97
- The Amsterdam of Janwillem van de Wetering
- pp. 101-104
- The Stockholm of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall
- pp. 105-109
- Conclusion
- p. 110
- Chapter 6: From Moscow with Murder
- pp. 111-113
- Martin Cruz Smith
- pp. 114-118
- Stuart Kaminsky
- pp. 119-125
- Conclusion
- p. 126
- Chapter 7: Murder in the Orient Expressly
- pp. 127-129
- The Japan of Seicho Matsumoto
- pp. 130-131
- The Japan of James Melville
- pp. 132-133
- The Hong Kong of William Marshall
- pp. 134-137
- The Beijing of Christopher West
- pp. 138-139
- Conclusion
- pp. 140-141
- Chapter 8: Other Places for Murder
- pp. 141-143
- The Israel of Batya Gur
- pp. 144-146
- The Indian Subcontinent of H. R. F. Keating
- pp. 147-150
- The South Africa of James McClure
- pp. 151-154
- The Australian Outback of Arthur Upfield
- pp. 155-159
- Conclusion
- p. 160
- Chapter 9: Murder in Historical Context
- pp. 161-163
- The Roman Empire of Lindsey Davis
- pp. 164-167
- The Victorian England of Anne Perry
- pp. 171-173
- Conclusion
- p. 177
- Appendix: Selected Series
- pp. 187-196
- Fictional Works Cited
- pp. 197-202
Additional Information
ISBN
9780292798328
Related ISBN(s)
9780292731271
MARC Record
OCLC
55890282
Pages
224
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No