cover image Back to the Badlands: Crime Writing in the USA

Back to the Badlands: Crime Writing in the USA

John Williams. Serpent's Tail, $14.95 (273pp) ISBN 978-1-85242-921-8

British author/provocateur/former rocker Williams revisits an earlier collection of interviews focusing on crime writers and the locales they haunt, stirring up a casserole of crime, coolness and casualties, the latter being the cities memorialized by the writers. The first part of the book contains a selection of interviews conducted in 1989 for the original volume, and the rest is material gathered during a visit in 2005. Miami-based Carl Hiassen says of his city, ""Is this the drug capital of America? Of course it is, because it's the entry point for most of the drugs. It's not that it's an evil city, it's just geographic."" James Lee Burke reveals, ""I was a social worker on skid row in Los Angeles, I worked on the pipeline, I was a land surveyor...I've been a truck driver, worked for the U.S. Fire Service, taught at five colleges and I've been unemployed a lot too."" The stories continue in that vein, as most of the authors exhibit remarkable candor. Elmore Leonard says of having his books adapted to film, ""I'm very optimistic about each film. All along the way I'll think 'This could be a good picture, who knows?' And I'll do what the director says even though I think he's wrong."" The evocation of place-Austin, the Ozarks, gulf coast Louisiana-is superbly rendered. If you enjoy crime fiction, if you live in a city, if you listen to music, there's something here for you.