Indigenous


ONE of the many pleasures gained from reading crime fiction is being plunged deep into places never previously visited. Or, if having been there only superficially as a mere transient, now getting down and dirty with the locals. No longer passing through but going well and truly off piste. The crime novel as a Baedecker. So much so that often the main character is not the sleuth but the location, or locus as many of them pompously refer to it. We thread our way along the calles and canals of Venice with Donna Leon or Michael Dibdin as our guides. Continue reading