Setting has to be an integral part of the book. If I come across a couple of pages of descriptive prose in a book, I tend to skip it. But if setting is part of the plot… and characters grow naturally from it, then the reader has an experience that’s almost like travel. Fiction can help us understand another community’s culture and preoccupations. That’s why I enjoy translated European crime fiction so much. The books are terrific — as scary and quirky and interesting as anything written in English — but I also feel as if I’ve visited another country without having to pay for a plane.
Literary Spotlight [Vol 12 Issue 34, 12 February 2008]
Use the link below to visit the website of British crime novelist ANN CLEEVES:
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