I can't think of any specific details or books - but many novels take place in the Westchester County and Hudson Valley areas of NY. They are usually correct and detailed enough for those familiar with the area to be be able to visualize them, but not 100% accurate. One finds oneself saying "Wait a minute, there's no park there!"

One book I read about 25 years ago had terrorists using a toxin to poison food, and their final target was a nearby reservoir. That author had it correct to the small country like Catholic Church just down the hill from access to the reservoir. A reservoir about 2 miles from my house. That was chilling - being able to actually visualize the terrorists wending their way up the hill to the top of the dam.

Another I read, readable in about 3 hours, used the name of a nearby town, named a couple of the roads correctly, but had it all wrong beyond that. I think if the author is going to use the area, they need to be somewhat accurate, or not use it.

Lake of Dreams does a nice job with the Finger Lakes area of NY. It was a nice visit home to my childhood region. The author created a town, but the ambiance and regional details were accurate enough that I felt like I was visiting.

And then, there was The Drowning Tree, a novel about stained glass that took place in the Poughkeepsie area. Without naming streets, the author described settings that allowed me to take the turn to the stained glass shop, and take myself to the cafe where lunch was served. Even if we weren't thinking of the same place...it worked for both of us.

Despite my disavowal for details, as I started to write, I did remember! Odd how that happens. I think, after writing this, that getting the sense of the place is more important than geographical correctness. My knowing the small arty, industrial area along the river, and the author's capture of the setting was more important than that I think she switched north and south of the city at one point. Exact location is not as important as nailing the setting visually.

Accuracy in details of place are very important to me. I don't really like this author, but I have to say that Ann Rivers Siddons' "Peachtree Road" really was outstanding in this. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and entire neighborhoods were recognizable to me, even architectural details of unique houses that I recalled from girlhood. But it was also a roman a clef.

I remember when I read Gail Godwin's "Father Melancholy's Daughter" years ago, I was so sure that the little town with the Victorian houses and cemetary was Lexington, Virginia, where I had spent a lot of time.

I think Alexander McCall Smith in his Isabel Dalhousie series set in Edinburgh, and parts of Scotland does a terrific job with his descriptions of actual streets, villages, and scenery, in terms of what I remember.

Ann Tyler is accurate in her depictions of Baltimore and environs. Laura Lippman, likewise. Don't authors frequently make up places that are only thinly disguised real communities?

Jefferson Bass charmed me initially with the recognizable locales in East Tennessee, but the details eventually burdened the narrative.

I've forgotten the name of a forgettable mystery that I read several years which was set in Kentucky. More than once, the author wrote about "the politicians down in Louisville." It's true that Louisville is our largest city, but the capital of Kentucky is Frankfort. No research and poor editing!

I think it is important for a writer to get the flavor of an area accurately. Unless they actually spend time there it is difficult to get all the details right. It should be good enough that only the local residents can pick out flaws. I remember once reading one of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone mysteries in which Kinsey consulted a professor of horticulture at San Jose State. Having taken classes at San Jose State myself, and having taken horticulture classes (elsewhere), I knew for a fact that there is no horticulture department at SJSU. However I forgave her ;-)

Rosefolly

I was asking more specifically about all the roads, routes, streets, public buildings and neighborhoods that some authors, like Cornwell, include on almost every page.
Nancy

Anne Rivers Siddons certainly did this extremely well in "Peachtree Road", Nancy. It added greatly to the depth of my enjoyment of that novel.

I would think if writing a contemporary it would be hard to keep up with how quickly cities and places change. It can also date a book.

I recently re-read Gone with the Wind. I live in the County, so it was interesting to follow how the land was described and look for placenames I recognized.

I think I read somewhere that F. Scott Fitzgerald had a few errors in The Great Gatsby, but he was writing during a time when we didn't have information at our fingertips.

"I was asking more specifically about all the roads, routes, streets, public buildings and neighborhoods..." One writer who does this is Robert Parker in his Spenser series. He writes in tremendous detail about Boston and other places where Spenser goes. As I like to know about the settings of stories and also love maps, I pulled out a Rand-McNally map of the area, and Parker is pretty accurate. In The Judas Goat, Spenser goes overseas, and I thought that Parker was meticulous in his description of London.

Another writer, a favorite, is J.A. Jance, who writes most beautifully about southern Arizona - the Tucson to Bisbee area and beyond. We lived down there for many years and I love revisiting the places that she so accurately describes. You could locate and dine at the lovely Arizona Inn based on Jance's description of its location and appearance. She also writes about a homicide detective, J.P. Beaumont, in Seattle, and uses the same technique. A relative of ours lives in Seattle, and when we went up last year I asked him if he could take me on a Beaumont tour. He said sure, send a list of places. So we had a good time doing that. I especially liked the troll-under-the-bridge, which has a poignant task in one of her books, and had my picture taken being "protected" by him!

One more is Kate Wilhelm, who has a lengthy series about a female attorney in Eugene OR. Another relative took us on a Wilhelm tour, and that was especially fun as he works in the CIty Hall building where much of Wilhelm's action occurs. She nailed her description down to the corridors, snack bar, underground tunnel and parking lot.

Am now plowing through Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, am in book six, The October Horse. From what I know of the area, which is, except for the Levant, not all that much, and from the maps CMC has drawn, and from comparing those maps to online ones, she's done incredible research and knows the regions well. You could easily find your way around the Roman Forum and the city of Alexandria, e.g., just using her descriptions. Now if only I could find a personal guide around the Mediterranean, as I had in Eugene and Seattle!

Sable, nice to see you on this forum!

Sable-DD and DSiL are moving to Eugene in three weeks-I will have to get her the first book in the series-or maybe I will just recommend them, as the packing has already reached critical mass....

Rita Mae Brown writes about the Charlottesville, VA area in great detail and is meticulously accurate.

If an author wants to tinker with streets, buildings, etc., then it is far better to invent a place, draw the map, and go from there. I think if you are going to set a novel in a real place, you risk alienating readers if you do not do your research and stick to the facts. One reason I do not read Jodi Pichoult is the inaccurate place description of Lancaster County in her book Plain Truth. We read it for book club thinking it would be interesting to read a book set where we live-but the glaring mistakes put us off terribly. And she lives in a neighboring state-take a drive!

Simon Brett's "Fethering Mysteries" are set in a mix of West Sussex English towns and villages. I grew up in the area and have fun identifying where he is placing the scenes. The names have been changed with some subtle humour!

Thanks, Woodnymph! I hardly ever post here because you all write primarily about fiction and, except for a couple of mystery series, I usually read non-fiction. I do read here often, though, because it's fun, and keeps me au currant with the literary world. And people treat each other so well on this forum :). I found all of my current favorite writers here - Parker, Jance, Wilhelm and Dana Stabenow. I never make it through a longer thread without going to Amazon a few times, and my TBR file is full to the brim. And BTW, I hope that you are settling into your new life well and that you are happy.

Ccrdmrbks - Good luck to your DD and DSiL with their move. Eugene is a very nice city; it has a very human scale, has so many services available, and is very green (in both respects). And if one needs a getaway, the ocean beaches and Portland are not far. You could always send a Wilhelm book after they've moved. My favorite in the series is Desperate Measures. The heroine is Barbara Holloway, a defense attorney, and the highlight of every story is her dismantling of witnesses during the trials. She also has a great relationship with her father and with their friends, they share some mouth-watering meals. Good stuff!

Sable, thanks for your good wishes. I am, indeed, settling in with contentment in my new city.

I've always found the descriptions of the English countryside in Laurie Lee's works ("Cider with Rosie") to be accurate in terms of what I saw and loved in a previous visit to the rural areas and small villages there.

Sable, thanks for your good wishes. I am, indeed, settling in with contentment in my new city.

I've always found the descriptions of the English countryside in Laurie Lee's works ("Cider with Rosie") to be accurate in terms of what I saw and loved in a previous visit to the rural areas and small villages there.

I was so disgusted by Dan Brown's description of the CERN building in Geneva early in his book Angels and Demons. The book was bad and the fact that Brown obviously had never visited the building made it worse for me. I went on a tour years ago but I don't think it could have changed that much. It is a very ordinary office building with no mystery about it and while the basements with the hadron colliders are fascinating they have an everyday quality about them. Normal but brilliant people are hard at work there.

Sable: DD and DSiL are moving from the outskirts of DC to Eugene-they are looking forward to the different pace of life very much-he will be bike commuting to work! Other high points-their house is only 1.5 miles from the public library (along a bike path-DD is estatic!)and being able to be at the ocean or in the mountains in less than an hour. And the cost of living is so much friendlier.

Mariannese:
Others have said they barely recognize their hometown when Dan Brown gets done with it. So I am not surprised to hear that he manipulated this as well.

Thomas Perry uses loactions in Western NY that I recognized like Mendon Ponds (a lovely park outside of Rochester) as well as roads and airports in the region in his Jane Whitfield series. although I'm not as familiar with the area, his descriptions of old, abandoned factory sites in Buffalo sound accurate; I've driven by places that look like they could be what he was describing.

rouan...that's how Richard Russo charms and delights me. I grew up in the Albany area of NY and visit Maine often. I am constantly "recognizing" places as we drive through as being from one book or another.

Veronicae, It is fun to recognize places from books. :)

I do have to apologize about the spelling in my original post; I guess I didn't use the preview message box as carefully as I'd meant to...sigh.

Glad to hear it, Woodnymph!

Ccrdmrbks - I smiled at your description of your children's new lives in Eugene. My DS bike-commutes to work. There are many bike paths throughout the city. And the Willamette River has a lot of park land along its banks. And DS called me a few hours ago - they had just returned from a weekend at the seashore with friends. The sun shone and the tides were very low, so they had a great time.

Your kids will love it!

In thinking about this question, I wonder if authors should go into so much detail that we notice mistakes. Describing in detail isn't actually creative, is it? Wouldn't it be merely filler? As I noted earlier, Ann Tyler nails Baltimore, but she does it with few descriptors.