‘Into the Badlands’ by John L. Williams

Published by Oldcastle Books,
16 April 2026.
ISBN: 978-0-85730626-5 (PB)

Back in 1991, as John L. Williams, writes in his introduction to this 2025 reissue, crime writing was seen as a disreputable backwater, ‘a lawless place where writers could do what they liked as long as they remembered to include a plot and a murder or two.’ As a huge fan of American crime, he decided to do a tour of the places used in the novels of writers like George V. Higgins, Ellmore Leonard and many others, and interview as many of them as he could. The result is this riotous, atmospheric snapshot of American crime writers and crime places. 

He  starts off the south-east, in Miami, where he stays in a crack-dealers hotel on South Beach, interviews Carl Hiaasen and James Hall, and eyeballs a ‘gator in the Everglades. Next up is Southern Louisiana, where he goes searching for zydeco music at an unpleasantly racist American fair and a downtown bar in Opelousas, and is treated with generous hospitality by James Lee Burke. He meets Tony Hillmore in Alburquerque, New Mexico, and is sent by him to Isleta Pueblo, authentic Indigenous American country. In Los Angeles he recalls meeting James Ellroy, drives down Sunset Boulevard and interviews Black writer Gar Haywood. Continuing up the Pacific coast to San Francisco, he asks genuine PI turned novelist Joe Gores about writing the script for Hammett and using real cases in his novels, and misses the up-and-coming Sue Grafton, still only at F is for Fugitive, who’s busy being photographed for People magazine. In Missoula, Montana, he gets very drunk with Joe Crumley and Police Officer Bob Reid and meets Denis Macmillan; in Chicago he’s driven round by Sara Paretsky and meets Eugene Izzi. Detroit is Elmore Leonard, Boston is George V Higgins, New York is Joseph Koenig, Nick Tosches and Andrew Vachss. This lightly-revised edition ends with an interview with John L. Williams by David Peace, reflecting on how things have changed.

My one gripe is that my American geography is hazy, and I’d really have loved a map. 

This fascinating book is a crime must-read. Williams is a sympathetic journalist who gets the best out of even the most interview-weary writer, his place descriptions are are so vivid you can see the mean streets he’s driving down (’Lock your car door,’ Andrew Vaschss insisted, as they visited the less salubrious parts of New York), and some of the antics he gets up to with the writers he’s in theory interviewing are downright hilarious. They come across as a great bunch. The book ends with a selection of the books of each of the authors he met, which is good for trying out new authors. Highly recommended – I loved it.
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Reviewer: Marsali Taylor 

John L Williams was born in Cardiff and now lives in London. He's written more than a dozen books, ranging from his Cardiff Trilogy of novels to biographies of characters as diverse as Michael X and Shirley Bassey. His latest book, Heatwave, is a history of the long, hot summer of 1976. He also writes crime fiction under the name John Lincoln. His journalism has appeared everywhere from the NME to the Financial Times. He co-organises the riotous Laugharne Weekend festival in West Wales. 

Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh and came to Shetland as a newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time teacher on Shetland's scenic west side, living with her husband and two Shetland ponies. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group.   

Click on the title to read a review of her recent book
Death in a Shetland Family

www.marsalitaylor.co.uk