Return to the Scene of the Crime

In 1989, Brit John Williams flew to the United States and spent two months exploring the landscape and talking to crime writers. The result of that pilgrimage was Into the Badlands, a collection of profiles and interviews that explored the relationship between crime, fiction, and location. In his introduction, Williams told us:

“I figured that if James Ellroy gives you a good sense of Los Angeles, and Tony Hillerman of Navajo country, then maybe if you put a selection of writers together, they’ll give you a sense of America ... So I decided to find out.”

And find out he did. He met George V. Higgins in an out-of-the-way café, “only in the old money understated way that allows ‘a little place in the country’ to mean Blenheim Palace.” He bopped around Miami with Carl Hiaasen and James W. Hall, and discovered the beauty of Missoula, Montana, taverns in the company of James Crumley.

Into the Badlands became--well, there’s simply no other word for it, is there?--a classic.

So, I was particularly pleased to learn that Williams had returned to America in 2005 to do research for a new edition of his book, titled Back to the Badlands: Crime Writing in the USA. The revamped work contains encounters with some predictable crime-fiction luminaries such as George Pelecanos and Daniel Woodrell, but Williams also hung out with the underrated Kem Nunn and the always interesting Vicki Hendricks.

Back to the Badlands will be released in the United States next February. However, it’s available in the UK even as you read this. My copy is already on order.

(Hat tip to Rara-Avis.)