Where is Bill Reading?

Since I began blogging I believe I have been reading more varied crime fiction. In particular, I think I think I have been going more outside North America in terms of authors and the setting of books. Yet “believing” and “thinking” can be wrong. Consequently, I took a look through my reading to date in 2012 to see if my beliefs and thoughts are backed up by a review of my actual reading this year. In this post I will list the countries in which I have read mysteries, the locations within the countries and how many books per country. The list goes in a descending order by the number of books per country. As always, no list fits all categories. At the end are a couple of books that did not have a primary country for their setting. My list is based on setting not residence of author.

Thankfully, Canada was first on the list. I do not say it will be so every year. This year I read 13 books with Canadian settings. Leading the way was Ontario which was the setting for 5 books. Tied for second with 3 books each was my home province of Saskatchewan and British Columbia. I read 1 book from each of Quebec and the Northwest Territories.

The United States with 10 books was the country with the second largest number of books read. Settings were California (3), Chicago (2), Wyoming (2), Florida (2) and Boston (1).

Three countries tied for third with 3 books per country.

From England I read one book set primarily in London, a second book split between London and rural England and a third was set in Yorkshire.

I read 3 books set in Australia. One took place in rural Victoria, another was in a distant suburb of Melbourne and the last was set in the vastness of Northwest Australia.

The third country with 3 books was South Africa. I read two set in and around Capetown. The third took place near Durban.

There were a pair of countries with 2 books.

I read books from Italy that were set in Sicily and Naples.

My reading included two books from Sweden. One took place in northern Sweden and the other was in Goteberg.

There were 6 countries with one book set in that country.

I read a book set in Shanghai, China.

There was a book set primarily in Auckland, New Zealand with a secondary setting in Brisbane, Australia.

I read a book set in Moscow during the time of the U.S.S.R.

My reading had a book set in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

One book took place in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The sixth country was Norway with the book set in Bergen.

Two books could not be tied to a single nation. One moved from Northern Africa to northern Europe during the book. The other had the characters almost equally spending their time in Germany, France and Italy.

I also read some non-fiction. Two were set in the United States, one in Saskatchewan, one in England, one in Germany and the last one in several European countries.

As you were reading this post were you trying to figure out the characters and authors by the settings? I was not making this post like one of the wonderful quizzes of Margot Kinberg at her excellent blog, Confessions of a Mystery Novelist. It would be impossible to know all of the books be the limited information but some should be easy. If you think you identified any of the books feel free to list in a comment or an email the books you have determined.

By my count I read 44 mysteries so far this year set in 12 specific countries. With Canada and the U.S. accounting for 23 books just under half of the books were set outside North America. Having completed the post I realized it does not really tell me if my horizons have broadened unless I go back to looking at the settings of the books I have read before blogging. I will check out the settings of my 2010 reading and make that the subject of my next post.