Favorite settings for mystery novels?

[Jim Thomsen]

I realize this is totally subjective, and no opinion is more valid than another, but here goes:

— I'm sick of Florida.
— I'm sick of New Orleans.
— I'm sick of New York City.
— I'm sick of England.
— I'm sick of Scandinavia, much sooner than I expected.
— I'm not quite burned out on L.A., but I see the day coming.
— I'm sick of quaint villages populated by white people only.

— I like the Pacific Northwest.
— I like the West.
— I like small cities with realistic ethnic diversity and realistic problems.
— I like underused locations. How often do you read about mysteries set in Kansas City? Or Dallas? Or Cleveland? Or the Carolinas?

Sub-questions: Where are you from? What informs your taste in settings? Will you ignore an otherwise recommended book if you don't care for the setting?
 

[Jim Thomsen]

Right. You don't necessarily cater to them. You just try to understand them. And understand that good writing is not always going to get a chance on its own merits.

[Eric Christopherson]

Mmm, Rolling Rock ...

Dan's no crank. My brother is a crank. He once paid an airline extra to come back to the states early from his first trip to Paris.

[Susan]

I mostly agree. I'm a city person, any city in the world person, and I don't enjoy reading stories with country setting, especially in the South. The writer may be the best in the world, but I won't get past the first five pages.

[Jon Loomis]

Murder at the Chick-Fil-A? I'd actually be interested in a series set in south Atlanta with a black protagonist. I lived in Atlanta for a couple of years, and my experience was that all the interesting stuff was going on south of Memorial Drive.

[Dana King]

It's been a while since I lived in Hot-lanta, but Murder at the Varsity has a nice ring to it.

I lived in SW, and it was definitely interesting. Fun, too. Something different for a twenty-something boy who had only lived in rural Pennsylvania.

[I. J. Parker]

I live in Virginia Beach but pretty much hate anything set in the South. New York I love. Chicago is ok, especially if the book is by Chercover.
So Jon is right. For every person who hates a place, there are others who love it. This may have something to do with their own experiences, or temperature preferences (I prefer cold to muggy heat any day), or preconceptions about a country.

[minervaK]

I'm so glad to see so many of y'all wanting books set in Texas!

[Jon Loomis]

I could get interested in a series set in Austin. Do it as a down-and-dirty noir thing with one foot in the music business and the other at UT-Austin and I'd be all over it.

[minervaK]

Too late, Jon -- Jesse Sublett already did it with his Martin Fender series.

Austin's a big city now, though -- big enough for two mystery series(es? what's the plural of series?). If I can't get something going with my current setting, maybe I'll move it. God knows I've lived here long enough.

[D.R. MacMaster]

I don't tend to get sick of settings, even 'trendy' ones like the current crop from Scandinavia. That might be because my reading tastes are so all over the place.

I once wrote a short story set in Lichtenstein, because I hadn't seen it done before. However, I wasn't happy with it, because I wasn't able to work in a scene where someone says: "I'll take this straight to the Prince himself!" and then yells "Hey Prince!" out the window to a guy in the backyard.

The book I'm writing right now is set in Toronto. I used to live there so I figured it was a good setting, sadly, I wasn't able to include much local color* because I ended up spending 90% of the book inside a fictional hotel and convention center during a comic book convention, which is pretty colorful on its own.

*In Toronto the 'local color' is gray. (:p)

[Jim Thomsen]

I also like Canada as a setting, being Canadian-born and a dual citizen.

[Christopher Valen]

My homicide detective, John Santana, works in St. Paul, Minnesota, which is close to Canada:) Much of the back story in the first two books of the series takes place in Colombia, where he was born. Part of the third book due out next year is set in Bogotá, Colombia. I like the country and enjoy using different locales whenever possible. I believe it keeps the stories and the author fresh.