Location Discrimination

[Sandra Ruttan]

The crime in Canadian fiction far outweighs the reality and this country is just too ‘polite and civilized’ to be noir.

That’s what was stated in a recent post on a discussion list, and this is an expansion of my response to the statement there. In my opinion, for all the bellyaching we do about ‘realism’ in our crime fiction, when it comes to location we dispense with that concern. Time and again the tried and true locations of popular US cities are the settings of new novels, and Europe isn’t much better. In fact, I must respectfully disagree that it is hard to do noir realistically in Canada, and I strongly doubt the number of murders in Canadian fiction is coming close to the real number. The issue is only in perception – we’re such a “nice” country – and the tired mantra authors face is ‘set your book south of the border’.

Let us consider Scotland for a moment, birthplace of Tartan Noir. Scotland has given us a number of leading hard-boiled noir crime fiction authors. Ian Rankin remains if not the top seller in the UK, one of the highest sellers. Other Scottish authors include Allan Guthrie, Stuart MacBride, Carol Anne Davis, Denise Mina, and we’re just scratching the surface.

Yet look at the statistics. “Figures published today by the ScottishExecutive reveal that Scott...

93 victims of homicide... And probably outnumbering that in crime f...

By comparison, the city of Edmonton alone almost doubles that: “That number was s...

Not one Canadian city cited on that list was under the entire rate for Scotland. But let’s be fair and consider the national statistics: “The national homicide rate increased for the second consecutive y...

To be fair, our national average comes out lower than Scotland’s, but we’re comparing a population of just over 5 million Scots to 30+ million Canadians. Our actual body count due to homicide is more than 7 times that of Scotland.

Canada is as rife with murder and crime as any so-called ‘civilized’ country out there. Karla Homolka. Pickton. Wayne Clifford Boden. John Martin Crawford. William Patrick Fyfe. Clifford Olson... The girl arrested for murdering her parents and sibling in Medicine Hat last year. Today in the news, “Winnipeg police have taken the rare step of identifying a teenage murder suspect, in their quest to arrest him.” We could be here all day. Val McDermid’s ‘Wire in the Blood’ could have been moved to Ontario with the name changed to Bernardo.

Getting back to Scotland, the population of the UK is over 60 million, while the population of Scotland is just over 5 million. By those numbers Scottish-based crime fiction should only be a fraction of the total produced, yet my bookshelves suggest the dominance in Scottish crime fiction. I have more titles set there. Okay, exclude all the individual Rankin’s, and you’ll still find that by percentages I read more Scottish authors than anything else.

Can you imagine someone telling Ian Rankin he needs to consider the population dynamics and move his setting to London? Right.

The reality is, I’m tired of seeing the same old locations come up on television programs and books. I’m sure NYC is interesting enough to visit, but I’m tired of seeing every other show on TV set there, and the other half set in LA. This is part of the reason I don’t watch much TV anymore, and why I love David Simon – he made Baltimore come alive. I desperately want to go there some day, just because of what he’s done with the setting, and it was part of the reason I was drawn to Laura Lippman’s books as well.

The reality is, there are all these great locations that are almost completely untapped. I want to read more European-based crime fiction, work set in Australia, New Zealand. I recently read some real African noir – African Psycho – and that was brilliant. I’m hungry for something fresh.

I’ve always believed a book is a journey. Books can take you to another place, another time, and open up a new way of thinking for you. I don’t see any reason at all why Canadian noir can’t sell, other than outdated prejudices and misguided notions that start with the ridiculous idea that there’s no crime in Canada, and get summed up with statements that we’re too polite and civilized for noir.

I maintain anyone who thinks we don’t have the right disposition for noir hasn’t met me.

Rankin is one of the biggest sellers in Canada, so there’s no reason to think murder – and noir - can’t move books here. The real problem is that the Canadian industry relies heavily on grants to stay afloat. We need them, we appreciate them… But to some degree they keep the industry from fully focusing on producing books that will sell. We have this outdated notion that being a successful author is a sin. If the industry here focused on books that are marketable I guarantee you’d see a rise in the publication of Canadian noir.

And may I live to see the day.

[Sandra Ruttan]

I would love to go to NY at some point and visit. A great friend of mine lives in Queens.

It really goes to the idea that you can have too much of a good thing, I guess. I feel the same way about Edinburgh. Love it as I do - and I do love that city, enjoy every trip there immensely and love to read about it - I'm delighted authors such as MacBride are writing Aberdeen. Variety is nice. I don't blame anyone for writing about where they live, but if you're chosing a location foreign to you why not something outside LA and NYC?

[Dee Savoy]

I see your point Sandra, but as a New Yorker, I wouln't mind if all crime stories were set here. I love my city, which may seem a contradiction since I want more murders. Ha.

Actually, I'm from "Da Bronx" and set most of my stories here. Most people don't know how great my neck of the woods is, how diverse. All they know of the city is Manhattan and all they know of the Bronx is bombed out buildings from the South Bronx of the 1970s. I enjoy setting them straight.

[Patricia]

I have always been led to believe that Canadian authors almost always try to be ambiguous about Canadain locale as it doesn't sell well in the US market....to some extent I can believe this or maybe the time is slowly approaching that Canada can and will hold its own in the crime country thing....Louise Penny, Giles Blunt are 2 that are well known outside of Canada...the others not so much.

[Sandra Ruttan]

Brian, my husband is currently working on a manuscript set in Milwaukee. If you want to try something Canadian I recommend John McFetridge's Dirty Sweet, which I can finally say will be out in mmpb from Harcourt next year. It's presently out in hardcover from ECW Press.

And I owe you an email...

[BrianLindenmuth]

My sarcastic response is somethimg along the lines of "Wow look at those SINGLE DIGIT crime stats."

But seriously though. I complety agree. I very much want to read about new locations because certain ones have been tapped pretty dry at this point. Remember that list that came out of the Safest & Most Dangerous cities in America -- http://www.morganquitno.com/cit07pop.htm#METRO. Take a look at some of those cities. There has to be some tales to there, like St. Louis, MO or Reading, PA.

African Psycho -- Never heard of it but I'm intrigued.

"I maintain anyone who thinks we don’t have the right disposition for noir hasn’t met me." -- Great line.

[Sandra Ruttan]

I don't think the cold is hurting Henning Mankell or... the Icelandic guy, whose name I can't spell this early in the morning.

[LC Fraser]

You are preaching to the choir here! We have loved the (very rare) show that is actually set in Toronto or Vancouver and ADMITS it. So often we recognize a street here but according to the script it is in NYC. I know our crime level is not always as dramatic as some other places but that does not mean it does not exist. I wish it did mean that. My brother-in-law was a prison guard here and he can tell you a lot of tales of murders and the like who are released too soon and of the horrid results. Where there are humans, there pretty much is crime. As for books - I am loving finding ones set in new places, including the ones in my homeland. Loved that Louise Penny had her series just outside Montreal. Love that Linwood Barclay and Lyn Hamilton are local and that I can almost find the houses in the Barclay books (his first one I swear was set in my suburb). On the other hand - maybe the publisher just like to avoid cold - how many series are set in Alaska? Okay - so I am over tired and rambling but yeah- we need to see some nice (?) noir set here.