Crimes of the Scene provides a different kind of resource for traveling mystery readers. To use this book, the reader selects a destination from among the more than 20 countries and regions (the U.S. and Great Britain are not included) covered in the book's essays. The authors provide an annotated reading list—brief reviews of crime novels set in that area—and, often, a short essay on how the region's culture and history has influenced those works. These days, many travelers are turning to alternate sources of information in an effort to familiarize themselves with the culture and customs, the attitudes and ethos, of lands they've never before visited. A country's fiction, even its mystery fiction, seems as worthy a portal as any to such insights.