Five trips for crime fiction lovers

[Shadow]

CNN) -- It used to be safe to say that most of us don't go looking for crime on our vacations, but that's not true anymore. Crime fiction travel, a juicier version of the well-worn literary pilgrimage, is a popular way for people to see the world.
"A lot of people read crime fiction in advance of visiting a new city. Once there, I think it's natural to see how the real place aligns with the one on the page," says best-selling crime novelist Laura Lippman, whose main character Tess Monaghan is a reporter turned private investigator living and working in Baltimore.

A sense of place is vital to creating realistic crime fiction, but writing about a place people know and can visit presents challenges, notes Lippman, a former Baltimore Sun reporter. "If you want to write about a real place, you better get it right, or you'll hear about it," she says. When authors succeed, their books and characters can become forever linked with the locations in which the books are set. Here are five destinations whose local authors get it right.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/07/travel/trips-crime-fiction-lovers/index.html?hpt=hp_bn10

[cadet]

What the hay? Gary Indiana isn't on there?!?!?

[Shadow]

What the hay? Gary Indiana isn't on there?!?!?

What is Gary Indiana best known for? Besides being home to the Jackson 5? ;)

[Gaffer]

What is Gary Indiana best known for? Besides being home to the Jackson 5? ;)

Aside from The Music Man. The smell.

[mundame]

Nice thread! I put the book "Chat" up for next fiction reading from that newspaper piece. I have some relatives who have a house near Brattleboro, where the police chief sees a body floating by as he gazes out his window at the river.......

I live in Maryland, but don't watch or read fiction about Baltimore; or go there if I can avoid it --- too dangerous and generally yucky. I can actually remember when people went downtown to shop --- no more of course, all the stores are boarded up or knocked down now.

As for the Scandinavian fiction, it's usually hard to get into! They write differently -- colder, spare prose. Actually, they were warmer when they were writing sagas, IMO. But that's been awhile. Same material, though; illicit sex, murders, violence, occult. I guess nothing has much changed in a thousand years.

I did read a Norwegian author, Karin Fossum, who is can't-put-it-down compelling.

As for exploring an area via fiction, I do it all the time using Google Maps on the iPad (the best way to access Google Maps, IMO). I follow the characters right along as far as I can; a LOT of times you can actually walk down the streets using the Street-Level function. It's amazing how much geography one can pick up that way. Did you know that the Island of Monte Cristo is REAL??? I had no idea. And it looks exactly like described in the book. Well, I'm not sure if the treasure cave is there (I looked, couldn't get the resolution...).

Authors usually use a lot of real places and roads, I find. I followed the characters in Michael McDowell's great "The Elementals" all over southern Alabama town by town with Maps and Gulf Shores is there, all the beaches by the Gulf, and the only place I couldn't find was Beldame itself with its three Victorian haunted houses; but then, the whole spit of land was swept away after Something covered one of the houses with a perfect cone of sugar sand and horrific small monsters killed a surprising number of the house owners before the rest sold it to an oil company and a hurricane fortunately made it part of the Gulf again.

[mundame]

What is Gary Indiana best known for? Besides being home to the Jackson 5? ;)


Gary, Indiana is featured in Stephen King's "The Stand" --- mostly, it burns down. The character "Trashman," who is a firebug crazy, manages to set an oil storage vat on fire and it takes down the whole city, which doesn't matter, because pretty much everybody there is dead already.

[Gaffer]

Gary, Indiana is featured in Stephen King's "The Stand" --- mostly, it burns down. The character "Trashman," who is a firebug crazy, manages to set an oil storage vat on fire and it takes down the whole city, which doesn't matter, because pretty much everybody there is dead already.

I forgot about that one. Thanks for the reminder.

I think it was the refineries that caused the smell around Gary. I don't know if it's still as bad as it was but you could tell you were in Gary with your nose. Like driving out of fresh air onto a pig farm.

[aboutime]

Aside from The Music Man. The smell.


Absolutely, the smell. I remember when the STEEL MILLS were all running at top level. The smells came from the COKE (coal) and the gases used in the Besimer process of making steel.
And, following that process. Several times a day, they used to POUR, or SPILL the SLAG from the huge pots that mixed the ore with the coke, and oxygen.
That's your History lesson for the day about Gary.

[Shadow]

Nice thread! I put the book "Chat" up for next fiction reading from that newspaper piece. I have some relatives who have a house near Brattleboro, where the police chief sees a body floating by as he gazes out his window at the river.......

I live in Maryland, but don't watch or read fiction about Baltimore; or go there if I can avoid it --- too dangerous and generally yucky. I can actually remember when people went downtown to shop --- no more of course, all the stores are boarded up or knocked down now.

As for the Scandinavian fiction, it's usually hard to get into! They write differently -- colder, spare prose. Actually, they were warmer when they were writing sagas, IMO. But that's been awhile. Same material, though; illicit sex, murders, violence, occult. I guess nothing has much changed in a thousand years.

I did read a Norwegian author, Karin Fossum, who is can't-put-it-down compelling.

As for exploring an area via fiction, I do it all the time using Google Maps on the iPad (the best way to access Google Maps, IMO). I follow the characters right along as far as I can; a LOT of times you can actually walk down the streets using the Street-Level function. It's amazing how much geography one can pick up that way. Did you know that the Island of Monte Cristo is REAL??? I had no idea. And it looks exactly like described in the book. Well, I'm not sure if the treasure cave is there (I looked, couldn't get the resolution...).

Authors usually use a lot of real places and roads, I find. I followed the characters in Michael McDowell's great "The Elementals" all over southern Alabama town by town with Maps and Gulf Shores is there, all the beaches by the Gulf, and the only place I couldn't find was Beldame itself with its three Victorian haunted houses; but then, the whole spit of land was swept away after Something covered one of the houses with a perfect cone of sugar sand and horrific small monsters killed a surprising number of the house owners before the rest sold it to an oil company and a hurricane fortunately made it part of the Gulf again.

My favorite fictional mysteries are the Jesse Stone books by Robert B. Parker. Jesse Stone is an LA cop who moved to a small town (Paradise Mass) and is now their police chief. Paradise...is of course a fictional place...so can't visit. I have never seen the made for TV episodes of this series, so what I think I know of Paradise is just in my imagination.

Never thought of googling areas in books I've read...might have to try that...could be interesting.

[mundame]

I'm really enjoying the murder mystery "Chat." Police procedural, and good characters. Light reading, just what I needed.

[Shadow]

I'm really enjoying the murder mystery "Chat." Police procedural, and good characters. Light reading, just what I needed.

I ordered a book recently because the storyline sounded very unique. I plan on reading it some this weekend,It is called "Play Dead". It is about a dog therapist who lives in Boulder CO who is hired to help a despondent dog deal with it's owner committing suicide. Turns out...could have been a murder....and the dog was the only witness. I will let you know if it's any good. ;)