I may never get to Norway. I’d like to someday. There’s not much stopping me, frankly.

But as I get older, I realize that there are so many places I want to visit, so little time and that one has to sacrifice some places to enjoy others.

My father used to tell me you can’t do everything in this world. Took me a long time to believe him.

Instead, mysteries have given me the chance to vicariously visit the world. That’s why when I am asked to review a mystery set in a foreign country, I seldom turn it down.

So Jo Nesbo’s Nemesis gave me a view of Norway that was off the beaten path, showing the country and Oslo in particular as only an insider can. Amaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir have brought me to Iceland. Cara Black to Paris.  The list is endless.

I’ve been in London and England nearly a dozen times and for years I have relished novels written by authors from the United Kingdom about their countries. Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Peter Robinson, and Ian Rankin have given us insider’s views of England and Scotland. Declan Hughes’ The Wrong Kind of Blood opened up Ireland to me.

McDermid’s latest novel, A Darker Domain, not only showed me a part of Scotland that few know exist, but also took me on a side trip to Italy.

A few months ago while getting ready for a cruise that would go to England, France and Ireland, then trans-Atlantic to Canada, I packed the essentials. Oh, yeah, sure, clothes, make up and money were already in the suitcase.

I am talking about the real essentials of any trip – books. The cruise was 12 days and I worried that I was only packing 12 mysteries. (For the record, 12 novels taken, 12 read; had my suitcase been able to handle more I would have taken another five as I did run out of books. GASP!)

It wasn’t until I was in England that I realized that subconsciously every mystery I had chosen was written by a U.K. author. So while I was in London, I was reading Mark Billingham’s stand alone, In the Dark, Mo Hayder’s Ritual and Kate Atchinson’s When Will There Be Good News?

Aside from the thrilling plots and complex characters, mysteries sometimes act as travelogues.
So I wonder what foreign set novels have given you an unusual glimpse of a country or city?