Back to the Badlands: Crime Writing in the USA - Softcover

'A vital mixture of literary criticism, personality profiles and imaginary geography? New Statesman 'An acute journey, alive with the stark and the surreal? GQ ?A gazetteer of American noir? Daily Telegraph ?Vital sociological and moral comment? Patricia Highsmith ?A powerful and personal portrait of America today? Big Issue

In the summer of 1989 John Williams donned a baseball cap and took off for the States to search out the mythical America of modern crime fiction ? to find James Ellroy?s LA, Elmore Leonard?s sleazy South Beach of Miami, Sara Paretsky?s Chicago, and many others on an unnerving tour of the American underbelly. The result was Into the Badlands, a riveting collection of interviews that introduced a generation of crime fans to now legendary writers. In 2005 Williams returned to discover that much had changed in the intervening years, both in crime writing and in America as a whole. As Williams crosses America in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he finds himself in a profoundly uneasy country. Whether their territory is inner-city DC, like George Pelecanos, or the rural white poverty of the Ozark Hills, like Daniel Woodrell, the best crime writers today are sending despatches from the edge. John Williams brings their visions together to construct a powerful, personal portrait of America today.