Europe: No Longer Crime Free?

European crime fan Uriah Robinson recently started a blog called Crime Scraps, created to be “a personal blog discussing crime books in Europe, and by that I mean continental Europe not Britain and Ireland.”

Robinson explains that his blog’s name--Crime Scraps--has personal meaning, but it’s to be a mystery, at least for now. “The name Crime Scraps has some relevance to a criminal connection in my past, but you will have to wait until I post that story.”

The blog has only been up since the 12th of this month, but it’s a promising beginning. Thus far, reviews of Tonino Benacquista’s Holy Smoke, some thoughts on the south London Richardson gang of the 1960s as well as the bizarre Natascha Kampusch kidnapping case in Austria, and a review of The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri are all available.

Monday’s posting was one of my favorites: just a succinct note about Robinson’s next read. “I am about to start Blood from a Stone [by Donna Leon], and anticipating reading a Brunetti book is like waiting for the antipasto in an Italian restaurant.”

If Robinson can keep up the pace, Crime Scraps will make its mark, even if part of the blog’s mission statement seems--to this reporter, at any rate--to miss the mark. “We hear constantly about crime in the USA,” writes Robinson, “that many people imagine Europe is a crime free zone.”

The fact is, the demand for European crime fiction--written by Europeans in Europe--has never been higher in North America than it is today. Crime Scraps looks like it may well become a bright new window through which to view that world.

(Hat tip to Euro Crime.)