IT has been estimated that some 2,000 crime novelswill be published this year in the US alone. The figure is staggering – especially if you happen to be a first-time writer who's trying to break into the murder mainstream.
So how do you go about it? The international bestseller lists are still dominated by big Stateside names, some of whom use a strong sense of place to create a recognisable "brand"; Boston for Dennis Lehane(right) or Louisiana for James Lee Burke. Others, notably Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton, add a large helping of humour to lighten the gory proceedings.
On this side of the Atlantic, the trend seems to be for detectives to be based in more and more unlikely locations – from Botswana, in the case of Alexander McCall's Number One Ladies DetectiveAgency series, to Iceland with Arnaldur Indridason's Inspector Erlendur. There have also been moves to put detectives from Turkey (Barbara Nadel's Cetin Ikmen), Shanghai (Qui Xiaolong's Inspector Chen), Palestine (Mat Rees's Omar Yussef) and the Dordogne (Martin Walker's Bruno) on the map.
Italy has always been fertile ground for criminal success. First there was Michael Dibdin; then the Venice-based American writer Donna Leon hit the jackpot with her amiable, world-weary investigator Guido Brunetti.
It has taken Leon 17 years and 18 novels to get to where she is today. The good-humoured Sicilian adventures of Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano are also beginning to make big inroads – and not a minute too late, as their author is almost 80.
This summer will see another Italian wannabe, Tobias Jones, take to the stage with The Salati Case.
It will be interesting to see whether Jones has the stomach for the long haul to crime fame – especially since he must compete, not just with Leon and Camilleri, but with his own stablemates. His publisher, Faber & Faber, is bringing out a crime novel a month between now and late summer.