The best novels in which the setting is woven into the story

The abbey of St.-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups and its immediate surroundings is so much a part of this mystery novel that it almost becomes a character in its own right. Louise Penny has woven a complex plot in the tradition of Agatha Christie (isolated location, every inhabitant a suspect), and has infused the narrative with her own trademark attention to character development. Even those readers who are unfamiliar with Chief Inspector Gamache and his side-kick, Inspector Beauvoir will quickly come to care about their relationship and their futures. 

I am a great fan of Louise Penny’s Gamache series, and this book is one of my favourites. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve read it.

Human trafficking is the subject of this mystery/romance set on California’s spectacular Cypress Coast. 

Angelica McDowell is a struggling glass-blowing artist with a day job at the Monterey Aquarium. When she is offered a commission to design a major installation for a new resident of nearby Pebble Beach, the opportunity sounds too good to be true.

The action in this novel takes place up and down the coast from Monterey to Big Sur. While the story stands on its own merits, my enjoyment was greatly enhanced by Alison Henderson’s use of the Cypress Coast as the backdrop for this novel. By the time I had finished reading, I felt as though I had seen Carmel, Big Sur, and Monterey through the author’s eyes.

Keyes was a journalist (she died in 1970), and her background informed every novel she wrote. 

Joy Street is set primarily in Boston in the 1930s and 1940s. At the time I read this book, I had never been to Boston. When I finally visited that city several years later, her descriptions of the area in and around Beacon Hill still were so vivid in my mind that I felt as though I already knew the neighbourhood intimately.

Keyes had an equally deft hand with character development and plot. Joy Street is a book populated with characters that seem real and a story that moves forward at a satisfying pace.

It is a joy to read.

In Maisie Dobbs, the setting is one of time and class in addition to geography.

Set in London, England, in the first quarter of the 20th century, Maisie Dobbs transported me back to an era that Jacqueline Winspear described with vivid detail. 

I was able to feel the fear and isolation of Maisie as she set about to learn her duties as a chambermaid in an upper class household, then exult with her when her love of learning led her to become the protégé of a family friend.

Maisie Dobbs is a celebration of the ability of an individual to rise above her “station” even in a very class-conscious society and to succeed as a woman in a man’s world.

In this excellent historical novel, the setting is very much a major character in the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the very real American Library in Paris, its history, and its role in the French Resistance during World War II.

The author brought both the library and the main characters to life for me. This was a book that I found hard to put down.