UK crime readers

[david boggis]

Why is it that UK publishers believe that UK crime readers are not interested in detective stories based in continental Europe? Reason I ask: not long back, I wrote two detective stories set in present-day eastern Germany (with its Communist and its Nazi past). My London agent sent them everywhere in London. The consensus was that the publishers liked the writing, characters and plotting, but didn't think they would sell. Could this be because UK readers are believed not to want anything set in Germany unless it's got Nazis in?