Novel Crime Scenes: Twenty Deadly Landscapes

By Christina Hardyment

An exciting forensic trek through some of literature's deadliest settings, told through twenty of the genre's most famous tales.

How did a beautiful Georgian house inspire Agatha Christie's Dead Man's Folly? How did a stretch of the East Anglian coast become the place in which a murder victim is discovered in P.D. James's Devices and Desires?

Journeying through a selection of the genre's most beloved classics, Novel Crime Scenes explores the landscapes of twenty crime novels in forensic detail. As each chapter examines the immediate world in which the mysteries unfold, Christina Hardyment also delves into the author's background to discover what the setting of the book meant to them, often by following in the footsteps of Britain's best-known crime writers. Hardyment's investigative trail spans both miles and eras, setting readers down a detective's path of discovery from the Devon moorland of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles to London's Brick Lane as described in Ajay Chowdhury's The Waiter.

Whether you are an armchair detective or an intrepid investigator, Novel Crime Scenes will inspire you to appreciate old favorites with deeper insights and discover thrilling new literary destinations.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 185124641X
• ISBN13: 9781851246410
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Bodleian Library
• Length: 192 Pages