Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 13, 1994 TAG: 9402060197
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO Book page editor
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I wrote this book because reading Elmore Leonard made me want to go to Miami Beach, reading James Crumley made me want to go to Montana, reading Sara Paretsky made me want to go to Chicago. And so on. Not that they portrayed these places as necessarily lovely, but because they portrayed them always as alive. And I wanted to write a book that would convey something of why I liked these writers."
That's what John Williams states in the introduction to "Into the Badlands." It's an ambitious goal and he achieves it. Williams is a London writer. His primary subjects are music and crime fiction, and in the summer of 1989, he indulged both interests. After flying to Miami, he spent two months on a cross- country journey to meet and interview American crime writers in the places where they live and write about.
He started with James Hall and Carl Hiassen in Miami. Then it was up to Louisiana to see James Lee Burke, and farther west to Tony Hillerman. In Los Angeles, he talked to James Ellroy and Gar Haywood, and he found Joe Gores working on scripts at Universal Studios. Heading up the coast, he wasn't able to arrange a place in Sue Grafton's schedule - she was meeting with People magazine that day - but he did talk to a "real" detective in San Francisco.
He spent several boozy days in Missoula, Montana, with James Crumley and his pals, and arrived hung over and dirty for his first meeting with Sara Paretsky in Chicago. Eugene Izzi showed him another part of that town. He talked to Elmore Leonard in Detroit and flew from there to Boston for lunch with George Higgins.
The trip ended in New York with Joseph Koenig's tour of Coney Island, Nick Tosche showing him Little Italy and then a nightmare drive with Andrew Vachss through Times Square and the South Bronx.
At each stop he discussed the writer's background and the importance of place in his or her work. While he's generally complimentary, he's not uncritical, giving his views the proper spice and bite.
As it happens, I have read and interviewed almost all of those writers, and I've been to most of the places Williams visited. In matters of fact and appearance, he got them right (though he doesn't mention how much Andrew Vachss smokes). More importantly, he knows his subjects well enough to ask the right questions. And he approaches crime writing correctly. It's an interesting field and the people who work in it deserve to be judged by the same standards that apply to any literature.
Williams says sensibly, "a good writer is one you want to read." These are good writers. As an outsider, in geographic terms, Williams brings a fresh perspective to the books and to the social landscape they grow from.
He also does a fair job as a travel writer, capturing the sounds and tastes of the places he visited. When he ventures into social commentary, particularly on racial matters, he's less reliable. He recognizes the racial lines that still divide this country, but his ideas about them can be simplistic, and when he writes, "The [Los Angeles] Lakers have taken over the space once occupied by the Harlem Globetrotters," he's flat wrong.
But that's a quibble. "Into the Badlands" is a terrific book. Anyone who reads contemporary crime fiction will find it a lively, fast-paced read. Finding it, though, is a bit of a problem. My copy is a gift from family who recently traveled in England. In this country, it's available by mail from Mystery Books at 1715 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. (800-955-2279).
by CNB