Overview

In the summer of 1989 John Williams donned a baseball cap and took off for the States to search out the mythical America of modern crime fiction to find James Ellroy s LA, Elmore Leonard s sleazy South Beach of Miami, Sara Paretsky s Chicago, and many others on an unnerving tour of the American underbelly. The result was Into the Badlands, a riveting collection of interviews that introduced a generation of crime fans to now legendary writers. In 2005 Williams returned to discover that much had changed in the intervening years, both in crime writing and in America as a whole. As Williams crosses America in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he finds himself in a profoundly uneasy country. Whether their territory is inner-city DC, like George Pelecanos, or the rural white poverty of the Ozark Hills, like Daniel Woodrell, the best crime writers today are sending despatches from the edge. John Williams brings their visions together to construct a powerful, personal portrait of America today.

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9781852429218

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Reviews

'A vital mixture of literary criticism, personality profiles and imaginary geography? New Statesman 'An acute journey, alive with the stark and the surreal? GQ ?A gazetteer of American noir? Daily Telegraph ?Vital sociological and moral comment? Patricia Highsmith ?A powerful and personal portrait of America today? Big Issue

'A vital mixture of literary criticism, personality profiles and imaginary geography' New Statesman 'An acute journey, alive with the stark and the surreal' GQ 'A gazetteer of American noir' Daily Telegraph

Author Information

John Williams was born in Cardiff in 1961. He wrote a punk fanzine and played in bands before moving to London and becoming a journalist, writing for everyone from The Face to the Financial Times. Following Into the Badlands, his book Bloody Valentine, about the Lynette White murder case in the Cardiff docks, provoked a libel action from the police. His novels include the London-set Faithless, and The Cardiff Trilogy. He now lives in Cardiff with his family.

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