Scene of the Crime - A unique illustrated guide to the landscapes of British detective fiction
A Guide to the Landscapes of British Detective Fiction
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“Here is a book to send the pulse of any crime fan racing.” Sunday Times ‘Books of the Week’, 20 October 2002
- References more than 270 authors of crime fiction through two centuries
- Entries for more than 500 locations around Britain
- 320 illustrations of authors and their landscapes
- Superb colour plates of Britain’s ‘scenes of the crime’
- Foreword by P D James
- Listed in The Times ‘Books of the Week’ October 2002 and The Sunday Telegraph ‘Books of the Year 2002’
Great crime
writers..
not only create memorable detectives, they also firmly establish them in distinctive and convincing settings: imagine Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse without the ‘dreaming spires’ of Oxford, or Reginald Hill’s Dalziel and Pascoe without ‘Mid-Yorkshire’. Scene of the Crime is the first comprehensive guide to the locations and landmarks that have inspired the very best of British detective fiction. Lavishly illustrated throughout with colour and black and white photographs, this unique companion brings to life the places that millions of readers have visited in their imaginations.
Based on interviews with leading crime writers and extensive research, fuelled by the authors’ enthusiasm for Britain’s most popular literary form, Scene of the Crime weaves an intriguing trail around the cliffs and coves of Agatha Christie’s Devon and the brooding marshes of Margery Allingham’s Essex; inside the claustrophobic communities of Minette Walters’ south-west and urban grit of Val McDermid’s Manchester; through the shadowy cloisters of Ellis Peters’ medieval Shrewsbury and the lost alleyways of Anne Perry’s Victorian London; behind the respectable façade of Ruth Rendell’s ‘Kingsmarkham’ and into the dark heart of Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh. Following in the footsteps of Britain’s best-loved fictional detectives, this engaging ‘wheredunnit’ is essential reading for crime fans everywhere.
“An exhaustive trek around the landscape of British crime fiction… Terrific photos, and a mine of information.” Ian Rankin, The Sunday Telegraph, 1 December 2002
Detective fiction has come a long way from the Victorian ‘detective fever’ of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone. Private eyes, amateur sleuths and police detectives are now more firmly rooted in place than ever. Over 250 of Britain’s finest authors of crime fiction books feature in Scene of the Crime, with emphasis given to detective fiction writers whose sense of place is strongest, and whose series detectives provide a continuity and deeper attachment to particular locations.
It is appropriate that P D James, creator of Commander Adam Dalgliesh and author of Unnatural Causes, Devices and Desires, and Death in Holy Orders' provides the foreword to Scene of the Crime. She is one of the finest exponents of place in detective fiction and finds the genesis of her crime novels in the landscapes around her. She describes why setting is so important to the crime novelist: ‘Firstly, it sets the mood of the work, whether suspense, horror, mystery, psychological darkness, or the excitement of vicarious danger. We see the effectiveness of setting in Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles; the gloomy mansion and the eerie horror of the fog-shrouded moor. The Hound of Wimbledon Common would hardly provide such a frisson of terror. Setting both influences and reveals character… can profoundly influence plot and can have a symbolic importance, as does the black tower in my own novel of that name, or the church of Fenchurch St Paul’s in Dorothy L Sayers’ The Nine Tailors.’
Scene of the Crime provides a new perspective on a favourite literary form, capturing the essence of the landscapes and settings of authors and their detectives, blending specific locations with broader backdrops. Through the pages of this absorbing guide, Sherlock Holmes rubs shoulders with Inspector Wexford, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple swap notes with Inspector Rebus, and Brother Cadfael ruminates with Lord Peter Wimsey and Albert Campion. Whether read on the road, or in the comfort of your armchair, all the evidence points in one direction - to the scene of the crime.
‘Highly commended’ in the 2002 Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Dagger Awards for Non-Fiction.
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