A recent survey done by market research company Harris Poll found that the crime genre makes up 28% of all book sales. 53% of women and 39% of men have read at least one crime novel in the past year. For an author, writing good crime novels is an art form, but it isn’t just about murder, death and intrigue. The characters are essential, but they don’t deliver that one important factor: an atmospheric setting.
Where would Where The Crawdad’s Sing be without the sprawling marshes of North Carolina? Graham Greene’s The Third Man would be very different without the backdrop of post-war Vienna. The location of a novel can make or break it, and these settings are as much stars as the characters and crimes that they portray. Let’s have a look at some of the most enigmatic of crime novel locations…
Photo, Julie Boulanger.
The Armand Gamache Series by Louise Penny
The Canadian author, Louise Penny, has hit the New York Bestseller lists many times, and her crime series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is incredibly popular. Louise Penny’s books celebrate Quebec, making the most of the forests and mountains that close in around the characters.
In an interview with Shots Mag, Louise Penny talks about how quickly the seasons can change in Quebec: “Sometimes filled with such beauty I feel weak at the knees. And at other times, often within moments, the weather will turn on you, kill you.” The settings in the Gamache series make the most of the isolating and vast locations in Quebec. This is perfectly in contrast with Penny’s fictional village of Three Pines, the idyllic hometown where the series begins.
Check out Still Life if you want to start at the beginning and experience the terrifying glory of Quebec.
Photo, José Pablo Iglesias.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle
There are many reasons why Sir Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series continues to endure and inspire new generations of readers. There are four novels and 56 stories in total featuring Sherlock and his trusty sidekick Watson, starting with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Set in Victorian London, the gothic streets give the novels a brooding and dark atmosphere that is full of intrigue. The smog in particular creates a threatening feeling of mystery that can’t be found in any other location. In the Sherlock Holmes books we spend time all over London, from the illustrious streets of Kensington to the down-trodden opium dens in the East End of the city. There is a wealth of incredible settings and Sir Conan Doyle brings them all to life.
Photo, Robert Witański.
The Shetland Series by Ann Cleeves
Ann Cleeves’ The Shetland series has become so popular that it is now a major TV series on the BBC. The first book won a CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel. There are currently eight books and a novella in the series, all featuring Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez and his police force.
The books are set on the isolated Shetland Isles, a subarctic archipelago located 100 km north of Scotland‘s mainland. The weather in Shetland can be extremely bleak, especially through the winter months, when the islands are hit by snow and fierce winds. In the depths of winter Shetland only has daylight between 9am and 3pm, but in the height of the summer, the islands bask in sunshine for 19 hours out of 24.
In reality, Shetland is a very safe place to live, with low levels of crime, but in Ann Cleeves’ novels Shetland provides the atmospheric setting to some very intriguing and violent crimes indeed.
Photo, Laurentiu Morariu.
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
In contrast to the bleakness of Shetland, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is set in the sprawling hustle and bustle of New Delhi and Bangalore. The story as told by our protagonist, Balram Halwai, is about corruption sweeping through the cities of modern India and how it can go seemingly unnoticed to the ordinary person going about their daily life.
The streets of New Delhi are colourful, noisy and almost overwhelming, providing the most incredible location for a very important crime novel.
The setting can turn a crime novel into an atmospheric classic that will last forever in the mind of a reader. Location is key and can transform an unsettling story into an epic novel about the dark complexities of human nature.
