Travel Crime: The Greek Edition

Further to my post on Saturday 23 April, I am now in Greece, having finished a wonderful 11-day trip through in Turkey. And just like I brought Istanbul-set THE JANISSARY TREE with me to read while I was in Turkey, I've also found myself a Greek-set crime novel for this leg of the journey; THE ATHENIAN MURDERS by Spanish author José Carlos Somoza. It is Somoza's first novel to be translated into English.

Here's a plot summary, courtesy of Wikipedia (I've cut out the bit about the ending, so no spoilers):

The novel interweaves two apparently disparate storylines: the first being an ancient Greek novel published in Athens just after the Peloponnesian War and the second contained within a modern-day scholar's notes on his translation. In the ancient novel (which is itself called The Athenian Murders) a young ephebe named Tramachus is discovered on the slopes of Mount Lycabettus, apparently attacked by wolves. His tutor at the Academy, Diagoras, enlists the help of a "Decipherer of Enigmas" (a detective named Heracles Pontor) to learn more about Tramachus's death. As Diagoras and Heracles investigate, more youths from the Academy are discovered brutally murdered. Their investigation takes them all over Athens, from mystery cult worship services to a symposium hosted by Plato

Meanwhile, the translator (who is never named) provides frequent commentary on the work, especially as it appears to him to be an example of a (fictional) ancient literary device called eidesis. "Eidesis" is supposedly the practice of repeating words or phrases so as to evoke a particular image or idea in the reader's mind, as it were a kind of literary steganography. As the translator works on the novel, he soon deduces that the "eidetic" secret concealed within the novel is The Twelve Labors of Heracles, one labor for each of the twelve chapters of the novel. The translator becomes obsessed with the imagery, going so far as to see himself depicted within the ancient work.

Partway through the novel, the translator is kidnapped and forced to continue the translation in a cell...

It sounds somewhat intriguing, and was the only Greek-set novel I had on hand for my trip, although I will see if I can find any others while I'm over here (in English). Have you read Somoza's novel? Any other Greek crime fiction? Do you have some recommendations?

The top 10 crime fiction locations?

In an interesting article in today's (NZT) The Guardian that could spark some fun and interesting debate, preeminent crime fiction critic, commentator and anthology editor Maxim Jakubowski, who was The Guardian's crime fiction critic for ten years, and has played a huge part in crime fiction worldwide, discusses the importance of place in writing. "I have always felt that one of literature's virtues and attractions is that it can powerfully evoke places and times and bring them to life alongside plot and characters," he says.

He then goes on to list the ten crime fiction locations, as evoked by specific novels and novelists, that he finds "most distinctive", being:

1. Los Angeles in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (1939)
2. London in Derek Raymond's I was Dora Suarez (1990)
3. New Orleans in James Lee Burke's The Neon Rain (1987)
4. Paris in Fred Vargas's Have Mercy On Us All (2001)
5. Bologna in Barbara Baraldi's The Girl With the Crystal Eyes (2008)
6. Brighton in Peter James's Dead Simple (2005)
7. Miami in Charles Willeford's Miami Blues (1984)
8. San Francisco in Joe Gores's Spade and Archer (2009)
9. Oxford in Colin Dexter's The Dead Of Jericho (1981)
10. New York in Lawrence Block's Small Town (2003)

You can read the full article, including Jakubowski's explanation for each choice, here.

How important is setting in crime writing? What other authors/locations do you particularly enjoy? Do you agree with Jakubowski's top ten? Who else should be there? Is Chandler's LA the best-evoked, or Connelly's? Or another LA writer? What about the original Sam Spade creator, Dashiell Hammett, for San Francisco? What are the other distinctive crime locations out there?