Ian Rankin and other crime fiction authors have said that if one wants to really understand a country look to its crime fiction. That’s certainly true as far as I am concerned. I feel I know Edinburgh from Scottish writer Rankin’s novels about John Rebus. The same is true of Michael Connelly’s and Denise Hamilton’s visions of Los Angeles; or John Lescroart’s San Francisco; or James W. Hall’s South Florida. The list goes on and on and on…So it seems logical to me that crime fiction would inspire tours of locales mentioned in the novels. Of course, these tours would have to be tied to authors whose novels are so representative of a region. Like Ian Rankin. If you visit Edinburgh, you can find a walking tour has been set up to prowl the streets of Edinburgh mentioned in Rankin’s novels. “They take different routes each time, depending on how the guy feels,” Rankin told me during an interview last year for Mystery Scene. But usually each tour includes a stop at the Oxford Bar, where Rebus (and Rankin) has been known to frequent. Donna Leon's novels are so closely tied to Venice that she also has inspired many a tour of this lovely Italian city. Toni Sepeda is a professor of literature and art history in Northern Italy. For years she has conducted tours of Venetian sites visited by Leon’s hero Commissario Guido Brunetti. The next stop is a tour book. Brunetti’s Venice: Walks With the City’s Best-Loved Detective, written by Sepeda with an introduction by Leon, has now been published by Grove Press. It’s $16.95 with 256 pages. Its publication coincides with that of Leon’s 18th novel, About Face. Brunetti’s Venice features description and history of the actual place mentioned in excerpts from Leon’s novels. The guide book looks rich in Venetian lore. My friend, Doreen, and her family are going to Venice this summer and are taking the guide Brunetti’s Venice with them. Maybe they will at least send me a postcard.

This article was originally published on the Mystery Scene Blog, May 2009.