I love to travel, but let’s get real: have you seen the price of plane tickets these days? Much cheaper, in my opinion, to spend a week on the Nile for thirty bucks or make the trip free by visiting your local library. For years, I have used books to travel. I was maybe ten when I realized, through reading, I could trade my dull, suburban, happy childhood for the exciting world of spy craft in Malaga or carnivals in Rio. I still use books—all of them: fiction, non-fiction, memoir, academic—to vacation. I love the giddy feeling of exploring parts unknown on the page, of trekking across an unfamiliar narrative and landscape. If some readers choose books based on their covers, I choose them (almost exclusively) based on their settings. I’m also a slow reader, so if I’m going to spend hours in a book, I want to spend those hours somewhere fun (or interesting/terrifying, but we’ll get to that).
As a writer, I am equally drawn to the way a setting can shape a story. Moreover, I know that when I commit to a novel, I will spend months (often years) in my chosen locale. It is for these reasons that I decided to set my sophomore novel, Saltwater, on the island of Capri. A place where performances (of wealth, of celebrity, of excess) are common, Capri was the perfect backdrop for a story about a family obsessed with managing its public persona, even as cracks in its façade began to surface. Without the island—sultry, luxurious, claustrophobic—the family drama in the novel wouldn’t have been as vicious nor the results as killer. Which is why I’ve rounded up seven cheap vacations here, all of which have fatal consequences.
South Pacific:
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkin
My favorite book in Rachel Hawkin’s enviable oeuvre of perfectly paced thrillers, Reckless Girls unfurls on the fictional South Pacific Island of Meroe where a young woman and her boyfriend have sailed their sailboat, The Susannah, for some much-needed rest and relaxation. It’s all aboard suntans and light beers until another vessel shows up one morning, anchored in their private cove. The ensuing resentments (and murder, naturally) fracture the serene atmosphere and transform the dreamy tropical island into a nightmare.
Morocco:
Who is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews
If you haven’t read Who is Maud Dixon stop everything, grab a copy, and thank me later. The story of a young woman who takes a job as an assistant to a critically acclaimed and commercially successful writer—Maud Dixon—and discovers the pseudonymous author is not who she seems, Who is Maud Dixon takes a dark turn when the two women travel to a Moroccan riad so that Maud can finish her next (overdue) novel. But Maud has bigger plans than writing and research. Luckily, so, too, does her assistant. Come for the publishing inside baseball, stay for the coasts of Morocco.
Baja:
Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Everyone knows Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the queen of atmosphere, and while both Mexican Gothic and the Seventh Veil of Salome get a lot of (well earned!) attention it’s Untamed Shore that has long had my heart. A dreamy, sun-drenched noir set in Baja, Untamed Shore is the story of a local girl, Viridiana, who finds herself entangled in the lives of a wealthy couple vacationing on the coast. When one of the vacationers is found murdered, it quickly becomes clear that the hard glitter of the Pacific isn’t the only thing creating mirages on the beach!
Greece:
The Destroyers by Christopher Bollen
Talk to me for five minutes about suspense fiction and I’ll try to get you to read Christopher Bollen. The Destroyers (my favorite of Bollen’s oeuvre) is set on the Greek island of Patmos where, legend has it, the Book of Revelation was written. Broke and desperate, Ian Bledsoe arrives on Patmos hoping to talk his childhood friend, Charlie, into offering him a financial lifeline. But when Charlie disappears, everyone on the island is a suspect. And I mean everyone. The Book of Revelation may have predicted the end times, but I guarantee this will be the beginning of your love affair with Bollen’s writing. (Bonus picks from Bollen include: A Beautiful Crime, set in Venice and Havoc, set along the Nile).
Germany:
Other People’s Clothes by Calla Henkel
I am obsessed with Calla Henkel. So obsessed I don’t even care if she learns about it by reading this listicle. In her stunning, intricately plotted debut, Henkel takes us to early 2000s Berlin where art student, Zoe, finds herself partnered up with a pop culture and fame obsessed roommate. Together, they rent an impossibly chic apartment from a secretive thriller writer for their year abroad in Berlin, only to discover the city, its nightlife, and residents, have darker plans. Heady and intoxicating (with some great Amanda Knox salvos), not everyone in this apartment will survive their year in the Grey City.
Algeria, Serbia, and Turkey:
The Continental Affair by Christine Mangan
Christine Mangan has made a career out of crafting perfect historical noirs and her latest, The Continental Affair, is no exception. In the gardens of the Alhambra, Henri, a desultory gopher for a criminal organization, watches Louise, the beneficiary of a modest inheritance, “accidentally” pick up the bag of money Henri was sent to collect. What follows is a game of cat and mouse across Europe as Louise searches for excitement and Henri searches for her. Glamorous, claustrophobic, and haunting, The Continental Affair updates Agatha Christie’s locked room mysteries with dramatic results.
Italy:
Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith
What kind of list would this be without Patricia Highsmith? The truth is, very little happens in this novel. The set up is: a young woman commits suicide and her father arrives in Venice to exact his revenge on his daughter’s husband who he blames for her death. The father proceeds to stalk the widower, Ray, through the narrow alleys of Venice, down the canals, and across the Lagoon. A master class in atmosphere, tension, and letting the setting do the work for you, Those Who Walk Away is a slow but stunning work of fiction by one of the best suspense novelists to ever ply the trade.
