title: Back to the Badlands: Crime Writing in the USA
author:  John Williams 
description: 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. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: ALSO BY PAUL WILLIAMS
  Almost the Perfect Murder
  Murder Inc.
  Badfellas
  Crime Wars
  The Untouchables
  Crimelords
  Evil Empire
  Gangland
  Secret Love (ghostwriter)
  The General
  
  In memory of Lawrence ‘Larry’ Williams
  10 August 1937–8 June 2019
  First published in Great Britain and Ireland in 2020 by Allen & Unwin
  Copyright © Paul Williams, 2020
  The moral right of Paul Williams to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in
  accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
  means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
  retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
  Picture credits: images 1, 2, 10 and 15 © Derek Speirs; 6, 17 and 36 © Charlie Collins/Collins
  Photographic Agency; 8, 11 and 39 © Irish Independent. The remaining photographs have been
  sourced by the author.
  Every effort 