Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: The Evolution of the Place-Based Police Procedural -- The Police Procedural Genre -- Place-Based Police Procedurals -- Why Do We Read This Stuff, Anyway? -- Chapter 3: Murder in America -- The Navajo Country of Tony Hillerman -- The Cherokee Country of Jean Hager -- The New Orleans of James Lee Burke -- The New Orleans of Julie Smith -- The Houston and Latin America of David Lindsey -- The American Midwest of P. M. Carlson -- The American Northwest of J. A. Jance -- Susan Dunlap's Berkeley -- The Canadian North of Scott Young -- The Mexico of Paco Taibo II -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4: Murder in the United Kingdom and Ireland -- The London of P. D. James -- Colin Dexter's Oxford -- Rural England: The Yorkshire of Peter Robinson -- Glasgow and the Scotland of Peter Turnbull -- Dublin and the Ireland of Bartholomew Gill -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5: Murder on the European Continent -- The Italy of Michael Dibdin -- The Provincial France of Nicolas Freeling -- The Amsterdam of Janwillem van de Wetering -- The Stockholm of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall -- Conclusion -- Chapter 6: From Moscow with Murder -- Martin Cruz Smith -- Stuart Kaminsky -- Conclusion -- Chapter 7: Murder in the Orient Expressly -- The Japan of Seicho Matsumoto -- The Japan of James Melville -- The Hong Kong of William Marshall -- The Beijing of Christopher West -- Conclusion -- Chapter 8: Other Places for Murder -- The Israel of Batya Gur -- The Indian Subcontinent of H. R. F. Keating -- The South Africa of James McClure -- The Australian Outback of Arthur Upfield -- Conclusion -- Chapter 9: Murder in Historical Context -- The Roman Empire of Lindsey Davis -- The Seventh-Century China of Robert Van Gulik -- The Victorian England of Anne Perry -- The Turn-of-the-Century Cairo of Michael Pearce -- Conclusion.

Chapter 10: More Placesfor Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem -- The Police Procedural as an Effective Conveyor of Place -- Subplots and Secondary Agenda -- What Happens When Authors Get Their Places Wrong? -- Socially Contingent Places -- The Police Procedural as a Source of Sense or Place -- Appendix: Selected Series -- Fictional Works Cited -- Notes -- Index.