List of mystery, crime, thriller, spy and suspense novels set in locations all over the world

Anything by Donna Leon (Venice)
Anything by Andrea Camilleri (Sicily)
Anything by Michael Dibdin (many set in Italy, some in the UK)
Anything by Elizabeth George (UK)
Anything by Robert Barnard (UK)
Anything by Peter Robinson (north of England)
Anything by Ann Cleeves (Hebrides)
Anything by Henning Mankell (Sweden)
Anything by Martin Walker (Perigord)

Those are some of my favorites. If I think of more, I'll add to the list.

Thank you Lo. I was looking for something like this. My three favorites are Arnaldur Indridason (Iceland); Mark Billingham (London); Philip Kerr (WWII Germany). Also Tara French (Dublin). I really enjoy this genre, because you get a flavor of the country and culture along with the mystery.

Author Cara Black, set in various Paris neighborhoods. Seconds for Martin Walker, Andrea Camilleri, and Donna Leon.

Thanks, Lo, for these interesting links. Thanks, Rosalyn and Stan, for your fun lists!

And thanks to Carol in Martinez, too.

Add to the list, "A Small Death in Lisbon." Author's name escapes me. Also, Ian Pears' art history mysteries., set in Italy.

The Kurt Wallander books, by Henning Mankell. Most of the stories (and the TV shows based on the books) take place in Ystad, Sweden.

• Frazer's Dame Frevisse books--medieval England
• Candace Robb's Owen Archer series also medieval England
• Micheal Jecks' Knight Templar series in west country of Medieval England
• Sharon Penman--England
• Sharan Newman's wonderful mysteries set in Medieval France
• Bruce Alexander's books--also England but later on and in London
• Dorothy Dunnett--the Lymond Chronicles go from Scotland to France to Constantinople in the 16th century
• Quentin Jardine--a couple of contemporary series set in Scotland
• Ian Rankin--contemporary Scotland
• Nigel Tranter--historical Scotland
• George Mackay Brown--viking times in Orkney and others.
  
• Paul Johnstone--he writes contemporary and futuristic Scotland based stories and at least one in Greece.
• Mary Renault--speaking of Greece!
• Mary Stewart--contemporary (well when written in the 60's!) for England and Greece.
• Helen MacInnes--Austria, France, Germany--WWII and cold war
• John LeCarre--Cold War Europe I could go on for hours.... :)

Pam

There are a large number of British mysteries, both novel and TV, that are shown in the US. This has something to do with the fact that they're in English. They don't tend to show too many crime dramas in French on PBS here.

Victorian London - Anne Perry
Modern London - Deborah Crombie
Period English country - Carola Dunn

Regarding the lack of French detectives on US TV, I wanted to check out Spiral--the show that Gregory Fitoussi is in, and unfortunately it's not on Netflix.

Thanks for sharing the link!

For those who like Urban fantasy with their mystery, I'll throw in a huge rec for Ben Aaronovich's River's of London series.

Rivers of London (published in the USA as Midnight Riot)
Moon Over Soho
Whispers Under Ground
Broken Homes

This is an ongoing series and Broken Homes ended with a big cliffhanger. Our Protagonist, Peter Grant is a Metropolitan Police officer just finishing up his probationary period who finds himself apprenticed to the remaining wizard on the force as magical crimes suddenly start to appear in the city again. The book is set in modern day multicultural London in all its glory (Peter is described as looking like Barack Obama if you squint quite a bit) and Aaronovich's love of the city, ugly 1960s housing estate architecture and all, comes through strongly enough to make me want to jump a plane and go there tomorrow.

I think I've got just about enough Delta miles it only cost LHR departure fees....

How about M. C. Beaton's Hamish MacBeth mysteries all in Scotland. Love them.

Great link! I just started reading the C.C. Benison mystery series about a Vicar in Devon.

Pam, I had totally forgotten about Helen MacInnes! I read all of those years ago and they were so great. Probably time for a run back thru. Thanks for the reminder.

Wonderful suggestions all around. I am very fond of the M.C. Beaton Hamish MacBeth books, not quite so fond of her Agatha Raisin books.

They are very simple and easy to read books, but I just love the Charles Todd books (with Ian Rutledge) set in England during WW1.

Joan, I completely agree with you! Somehow, I love Hamish, but not Agatha. I tried several books, but I just don't like her and don't want to read about her.

Pam

I got hooked on murder mysteries a few ago after a friend gave me several books. The librarian at the terrific Columbus Metropolitan Library introduced me to the Cozy genre of murder mysteries. No blood and guts and sex and bullets, just a "cozy little murder". Think body under the tea table at weekend house party. A google search of cozy murders can turn up a lot of good info. I am very grateful to my librarian and share this if it's news to other readers, as it was to me.
I find I spend all my travel time reading guides and histories, and enjoy reading novels set in places I have just visited.

Lindsey Davis. The Marcus Didius Falco series, set in ancient Rome
Gary Corby. Set in ancient Greece.
Tracy Chevalier.
The Davis and Corby series are as light as it gets and pretty funny.

And she ought to be Agatha Prune, not Raisin. We're done with her too! Thanks for this great thread!

Thanks everyone so much for participating in this thread. I am really enjoying the comments and the recommendations for authors and their work.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should admit that I am a retired librarian, and I love tidy lists like the link to Stop, You're Killing Me!

My husband and I read most of the same books. He's now finishing up Dibdin's Zen stories and I'm on to the other Dibdin books. We are also Mankell and Stieg Larsson fans and have read all those.

Big thanks to Lucinda and Stan for creating this great resource. This is a link to their contact info and pictures of them -- http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/contact.html. It looks like they welcome input and corrections.

Well, did you know that the genre of the crime/mystery novel was invented by German authors? It's called "Krimi" in German. One of the classics is Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's "Die Judenbuche" (The Jew's Birch) of 1842. There is a brand-new English translation available here!

This is a selection of modern German crime novels:

Bernhard Schlink who is best known for "The Reader" also wrote a trilogy of crime novels which are set in Germany. Very interesting detective and suspenseful cases that weave together German history and today's society. Do read them in order:

1. Self's Punishment
2. Self's Deception
3. Self's Murder

Jakob Arjouni is another German crime novelist I like a lot and is available in translation. His private detective is Kayankaya, born of Turkish decent but raised in Frankfurt by German foster parents. My favourite ones include:
* Happy Birthday, Turk
* Kismet
* Brother Kemal - his last book, written while he was dying of cancer, with a NYT review here that also gives a wonderful overview of his (literary) life, cut too short at the age of 48.

Most recently I discovered Ferdinand von Schirach who is a very prominent German criminal defense lawyer. He published a number of short story collections based on real cases. Brutally honest!
* Crime and Guilt

Scandinavian countries have quite a tradition of crime novels. Here are a few more Nordic authors:

Jussi Adler-Olsen (Denmark)
Mons Kallentoft (Sweden)
Arnaldur Indridason (Iceland)
Stieg Larsson (Sweden)

Another great Scandinavian mystery writer - Jo Nesbø. His books take place in Norway.

Stuart Macbride places his thrillers in Aberdeen, Scotland. His first book Cold Granite has a LOT of grey rainy day scenes. He subsequently wrote a quite humorous apology to the Aberdeen tourism board in the foreword to his next thriller ;-)

correction : the Ann Cleeves "quartet" is set in Shetland, not the Hebrides. They are wonderful. (And they have expanded beyond her originally intended quartet: the sixth book will be released this fall, hooray!) She also has a set of mysteries featuring detective Vera Stanhope that take place in Northumberland, England.

And if you're ever headed to Istanbul, *My Name is Red * by Orhan Pamuk is an absolutely fantastic foray into the world of calligraphers and illustrators. Heck, a wonderful book even if you're only armchair traveling there (as has sadly been the case for me so far in re Istanbul).

This one is in German, a bit dated but was a very popular novel in the summer of 1971, fits the description of a thriller, suspense, etc, set in Germany, Vienna prior to and during the war...."Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen" by Johannes Mario Simmel.

The English translation for "Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen" was published under the title "The Caesar Code".

Fred Vargas sets her very popular mystery novels in Paris. Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is described as peripatetic police chief, with Zen research methods. The first one in the series is called:
The Chalk Circle Man

We haven't had the Netherlands yet. I can highly recommend the psychological thriller "The Dinner" by Herman Koch.

Anything by Alan Furst - pre-WWll Europe and during WWII Europe. From Greece to the Baltic Sea, from Bulgaria to Portugal and everything in between. Some common characters and locations run through them all.

The book "Pompeii" by Robert Harris

We read this before going to Pompeii and it so helped us to picture what life was like there. We went around Pompeii and found some of the buildings and settings in the book. The main cistern where the water came into the town and was seperated into the different pipes was very interesting. If going to Italy and plan to go to Pompeii, you will enjoy this book!

I have to agree with any novel by Elizabeth George, in fact I am in the middle of her latest and can't put it down. I also have to add the Richard Jury series by Martha Grimes....love them! They would fall under the "cozy" category mentioned above, have some funny characters, take place in England and are utterly charming.

I don't believe anyone has mentioned PD James (England) or Stuart Kaminsky (Russia).

I forgot to mention Peter Robinson (England).
I have read most of the authors listed but am grateful for the other authors I have missed,

Would it be a valid response to your question to suggest that sometimes real life can be as good as a novel?

1. The Forbidden Sky: Inside the Hungarian Revolution by Endre Marton – Cold War Historical Account
2. The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World by Kati Marton – WWII Historical Account
3. Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America by Kati Marton – Cold War Historical Account
4. When Angels Fooled the World by Charles Fenyvesi – WWII Historical Account
5. Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire by Victor Sebestyen (Hungarian) – Cold War Historical Account
6. Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors by Lonnie Johnson – Cold War Historical Account
7. The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer – WWII Historical Novel
8. Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer – Cold War Historical Novel
9. The Smell of Humans: A Memoir of the Holocaust in Hungary by Ernö Szép – WWII Historical Account
10. The Budapest Protocol by Adam LeBor – WWII Historical Novel Bridge at Andau by James A. Michener – Cold War Historical Account
11. The Envoy: The Epic Rescue of the Last Jews of Europe in the Desperate Closing Months of World War II by Alex Kershaw – WWII Historic Account
12. Kasztner's Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust by Anna Porter – WWII Historic Account

Well, if we're going to include non-fiction then two come immediately to mind.

John Berendt's City of Falling Angels on Venice.

Iain Banks, Raw Spirit: The Search for the Perfect Dram on Scotland.

Pam

Just finished reading every one of these that are in our local library. A lot occur in Paris, in areas I'm particularly familiar with so they are fun. Easy and quick to read murder mysteries. Love Maigret... from the 30's on.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/67800-maigret

Marek Krajewski
Death in Breslau
The End of the World in Breslau
Phantoms in Breslau

A short background: these suspense novels are set in Breslau before WW2. Until 1945 Breslau was a German city. At the end of the war Breslau was given to Poland, the German population was completely expelled and the city resettled with Poles. For the next 40 years the Communists did everything imaginable to turn German Breslau into Polish Wroclaw. All cemeteries were leveled (except the Jewish ones), all monuments were taken down (and new ones, sometimes of Poles who stayed there for just one night, were erected), the inventory of almost all museums was moved to Warsaw, a ersatz history was created (based on the medieval Piast dynasty) and so on. Only after the end of Communism people slowly began to discover the long history of Breslau after the medieval Piasts and before the end of WW2. But it's a very slow and painful process. Marek Krajewski is a Polish author and part of this process. His novels are about a forgotten world. Forgotten both in Poland and in Germany, where only right-wing extremists and the expellees remembered the "old east".

And those merely interested in the old Prussian East are labelled as right-wing extremists? Maybe "they" can't imagine, historically, why anyone not an expellee nor a right wing extremist per se could possibily be interested in this "forgotten" history? After all, it's so non-pc . Those Vertriebenen have even more justification in finding out this history. In the end they're looking for their "roots." Isn't that what people are praised for....looking for their historical and geographic "roots?"

@Martin I've read the three Breslau novels- hoping there are more coming. Very interesting perspective.

Christine Falls, among others, by Benjamin Black. Benjamin Black is the pen name of John Banville. Christine Falls is set largely in 1950's Dublin.
Saturday, among others, by Ian McEwan. Saturday is a post-9/11 thriller set in London. Ian McEwan is an incredible writer.

Not a specific author, rather a publisher: Europa Editions publishes some of the best fiction these days. Everything from noir to between the wars to present day. Expertly edited and (for those of us who read in English) translated.

Other authors:
Denise Mina - Scotland
Lynda LaPlante - England
Camilla Lackberg - Scandanavia

@Fred
It's simply a fact that the average German knows nothing about these former German territories. it was a political necessity not to remember them. The Poles, understandibly, treated these territories very badly, but as a German you couldn't criticize Poland for it, after all the horror the country experienced in WW2. Instead the German society decided to look to the west, concentrated on becoming good Western Europeans, and forgot everything to the east of the Elbe. Adenauer, the first chancellor, is the best example.
And it's really a forgotten and culturally uprooted world, where names are forgotten, traditions are lost, and history is distorted. That's why these books are so interesting.

@ Martin ...totally agree with your historical assessment. Still, it is unfortunate although quite understable. Adenauer was, if not, anti-Prussian, certainly less sympathetic to the "lost territories" (what they called "die verlorenen Ostgebieten") given his background as a Rhinelander, Catholic, . The Prussian East are a forgotten area as Countess Dönhoff points out.

Just read "The Hare with the Amber Eyes" by Edmund de Waal, set mostly in Paris and Vienna.

I am a major fan of historical fiction. World War II being my favorite. And my favorite series does not take place in one country but multiple in Europe during WWII: Bodie and Brock Thoene's "Zion Covenant" series which focuses on the persecution of the Jewish Race during this time period. I feel when reading that I am There. It is at times hopeful, devastatingly sad, suspenseful and I can't put them down. I took one on my last trip to Israel so I could identify with what I was reading.

I know this thread is long over, but I wanted to contribute. As I was waiting for my kindle to load the reply form over a weak wireless connection, I cruised back over the wonderful entries and finally found one of my favorites mentioned: P.D. James. But I still didn't see another favorite, Ruth Rendell. She also writes under the name of Barbara Vine. All are contemporary cozy murder mysteries.

Recently I have been reading Pat Macintosh's Gill Cunningham series. It's based in Glasgow Scotland toward the end of the 15th century. Great stuff! The first few were in Glasgow, but now he and his wife (daughter of a French mason) is the Trossachs and Perthshire. And yes, one of them had Gil and his then future father-in-law at Roslyn Chapel.

Recently I have been reading Pat Macintosh's Gill Cunningham series. It's based in Glasgow Scotland toward the end of the 15th century. Great stuff! The first few were in Glasgow, but now he and his wife (daughter of a French mason) is the Trossachs and Perthshire. And yes, one of them had Gil and his then future father-in-law at Roslyn Chapel.

Ellis Peters. Mysteries set in mediaeval England and Wales. Brother Cadfael...I like the books way more than the TV series.

Hello -
An earlier poster (Rosalyn) suggested A Small Death in Lisbon, but couldn't recall the author. That was written by Robert Wilson, who has written several other novels with a crime theme and a locale in Europe. Among them were three excellent stories featuring a police detective in Sevilla.
Jack

I really enjoyed resding these posts and have made notes, thanks everyone.

I agree with many here. Another writer I live for "cozy" genre is Hazel Holt. And my all time top of the list favorite... Agatha Christie.

I really enjoyed reading these posts and have made notes, thanks everyone.

I agree with many here. Another writer I really enjoy for "cozy" mysteries is Hazel Holt. And my all time top of the list favorite... Agatha Christie.