Literary crime novels that take place in a pretty location

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Life has been particularly hectic lately, so I'm looking for a compilation of good short stories/long essays that are okay to read even weeks in between. Maybe something along the lines of Curtis Sittenfeld You think it, I say it. I tend to read more non-fiction psychology books (personal and professional), but I would like to delve more into fiction. Thank you very much!

I have three recommendations for you: one funny, one stunning and one beautiful.

Firstly, Samantha Irby is probably one of the funniest people alive right now. Like a wiser, more scatologically inclined David Sedaris, she can best express her particular brand of hilarity through collections of essays, four of which she has written.

I have a particular fondness for Wow, no thankswhich came out in 2020 and seemed tailor-made for these pandemic days. (Irby prefers to stay inside anyway, pointing out that her friend the TV lives there.) Here she explores what it's like to somehow make ends meet after a very poor childhood, the joys of Target, the humiliations of IBS, and the surprisingly rich territory of lesbian bed death.

Secondly, there is a collection of stories by Ted Chiang, the science fiction author who wrote the novella about it Arrival based. Chiang is the kind of writer who stumbles upon a single scientific idea or paradox and then finds a deceptively simple way to dramatize it in such a way that all of the idea's complexities become radiantly, shockingly clear. In his collection exhalationHe imagines how technology that perfectly records past events would transform our ability to forgive one another our sins; what we owe to sentient robots designed to be a cross between children and pets; how Einstein's theory of relativity influences the fairytale idea of ​​fate.

After all, George Saunders is the most famous American short story writer of the last 20 years or so. What sets Saunders apart is his ability to combine absurd satire with an almost utopian love and belief in people, even at their worst. His characters tend to speak in naive, downplayed sentences; having a fondness for various crazy brands and trends that Saunders invented; experiencing surprising moments of compassion when you least expect it. I would recommend giving it a try The tenth of DecemberSaunders' masterpiece.

Stardew Valley is my consolation game and I would love to find it in book form. A story about starting over in a small town and building relationships with the locals while working on an old homestead to get it back in tip-top shape!

My friend, what you want is All creatures great and small by James Herriot. Herriot was a veterinarian in Yorkshire in the 1930s and wrote a series of deeply enchanting memoirs about his time there: the culture shock that came with moving to rural farmland, the respect he developed for the relationships between farmers and their animals, the The way he got to know and love the animals himself. (The books also inspired a very cozy PBS series of the same title.) If you want stories about winning over the residents of a small clan town and finding ways to make the farms healthier and stronger than before, go for it You can't achieve anything better.

I enjoy reading mysteries and mysteries or police procedurals in other countries. I don't like crime stories with a bloodthirsty number of characters. This means I can also travel in an armchair. I have read crime novels in Greece, India, England and Italy. I'm currently reading a series about the Shetland Islands (Ann Cleeves). I like stories that provide a sense of place and a well-rounded character study. The inclusion of history and geography are important components. I also love science fiction that incorporates these elements and a sense of adventure and discovery.

Have you read Sarah Caudwell? She was a very popular crime novelist in the 1980s who died around 2000 and I think she might be up your alley. She wrote a series of novels centered around amateur detective Hilary Tamar (age and gender are never specified), a professor of medieval law who, with the help of her clever band of lawyer friends, is always solving a new murder in an exotic location.

Caudwell's fame fits your tastes perfectly: her books are heavily local and extremely funny. Hilary seems uninterested in solving a murder unless it happened somewhere that is described lovingly and in detail. (The first, This is how Adonis was murderedis set in Venice, there are others in Corfu, on the Norman island of Sark and in a small English village.) Hilary also seems to have no interest in solving a murder if it means taking life seriously at all. They approach solving their crime with a cool, ironic joy that is endlessly infectious.