Authors, especially those writing a series featuring a continuing character, often feature a specific geographic location. Popular choices are Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston, and other large and small cities across the country. Some feature international locations such as Great Britain and southeast Asia. When travel is available, many readers like to take along a book that takes place around their destination. Make a list, far off places await.
James Lee Burke, a rare winner of two Edgar Awards, and named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels and two collections of short stories. He lives in Missoula, Montana.
David Mitchell was born in Southport, Merseyside, in England, raised in Malvern, Worcestershire, and educated at the University of Kent, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature. He lived for a year in Sicily, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England. After another stint in Japan, he currently lives in Ireland with his wife Keiko and their two children. In an essay for Random House, Mitchell wrote: “I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but until I came to Japan to live in 1994 I was too easily distracted to do much about it. I would probably have become a writer wherever I lived, but would I have become the same writer if I’d spent the last 6 years in London, or Cape Town, or Moose Jaw, on an oil rig or in the circus? This is my answer to myself.” Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten (1999), moves around the globe, from Okinawa to Mongolia to pre-Millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. The novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His two subsequent novels, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2003, he was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. In 2007, Mitchell was listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in The World. Mitchell’s American editor at Random House is novelist David Ebershoff. (Goodreads)
His latest novel (July 2020) Utopia Avenue tells the fictional story of a British band of the same name, who emerged from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, against the backdrop of real world characters and events.
Craig Allen Johnson is an American author who writes mystery novels. He is best known for his Sheriff Walt Longmire novel series. The books are set in northern Wyoming, where Longmire is sheriff of the fictional county of Absaroka. Wikipedia
is the author of the best-selling Rick Cahill crime novels. He knew he wanted to be a crime writer when he was fourteen and his father gave him the simple art of murder by Raymond Chandler. He graduated with a degree in English from University of California at Santa Barbara. His foray into crime fiction was delayed for thirty years as he spent time managing a restaurant, selling golf clubs for various golf companies, and in national sales for a sports licensing company.
is an American writer of non-fiction and detective fiction. He is known for his reference books on old-time radio and his series of mysteries featuring Denver bookseller and ex-policeman Cliff Janeway. Wikipedia
Grantchester created by James Runcie
DCI Banks created by Peter Robinson
Case Histories created by Kate Atkinson
Endeavour (Young Inspector Morse) created by Colin Dexter
Inspector Morse & Inspector Lewis created by Colin Dexter
is a Canadian novelist, poet, and screenwriter. His first novel, Cold Eye, was a psychological thriller set in the New York art world, which was made into the French movie Les Couleurs du diable. He is also the author of the John Cardinal novels, set in the small town of Algonquin Bay, in Northern Ontario. Wikipedia
Aaron Stander is an American novelist of mystery/thriller novels. He is the author of the Ray Elkins series. Before becoming a published author, Stander worked as an English teacher and training writing teachers in the Detroit area.
C.I. Dennis lives in Vermont with his family and dogs. He is the author of five novels featuring Vince Tanzi, a 50-something private investigator with a knack for finding trouble, both personal and professional. Tanzi’s quips, fast-paced action, witty dialogue and vivid characters propel his adventures across Vince’s native state (Vermont) and his adopted one (Florida).
Dennis has also published two novels under the name Zig Davidson: The Stick Season (2017) and Unglued (2014).
Laurence Shames is the author of more than twenty books. Four of them have been New York Times bestsellers; seven have been optioned for feature film. His comic crime fiction has earned him Great Britain’s prestigious Last Laugh Dagger and has been called “as enjoyable as a day at the beach” by USA Today.
Shames was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1951, and graduated from NYU in 1972. Before turning to writing full-time in 1976, he briefly and unhappily held jobs as a taxi driver, lounge singer, furniture mover, lifeguard, dishwasher, gym teacher, and shoe salesman.
