# Works of literature by a Brit set in the US (or vice versa) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472 "2009-09-01T12:49:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/21 "2009-09-01T17:22:43Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > **Chez** , glad to see another “Bird” fan! Don’t you [del]fear[/del] love Louis and Angel? They are quite moral in a strange kind of way. Fearsome and ferocious foes of the bad guys yet faithful friends to CP. They’ll kill anyone for him, which is nice. I read _Every Dead Thing_ first. It helps, of course, because then you know where Bird is coming from. From an American point of view, is there anything at all about the locations that don’t feel rightl? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/22 "2009-09-01T17:27:07Z")
Martha Grimes is an American and her Richard Jury/Melrose Plant, with one exception, take place in the U.K. The British SF author Eric Frank Russell set his novel \*Sinister Barriers \*in the U.S. Some of his other work, like “Legwork,” also employs American settings. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/23 "2009-09-01T17:31:22Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > I’m pretty sure that Dick Francis wrote at least one book which was set in America. I know one of his books took place in Canada (mostly on [The Canadian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canadian), in fact), but I can’t think of any that took place in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/24 "2009-09-01T17:46:43Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > They are quite moral in a strange kind of way. > > Fearsome and ferocious foes of the bad guys yet faithful friends to CP. They’ll kill anyone for him, which is nice. > > I read _Every Dead Thing_ first. It helps, of course, because then you know where Bird is coming from. From an American point of view, is there anything at all about the locations that don’t feel rightl? Not a damn thing. I don’t know how he does it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/25 "2009-09-03T03:09:18Z")
Elizabeth George has written a long series of detective novels (real doorstops!) about Inspector Lynley and his sidekick Barbara Havers, he is an English Lord who gave up the soft life for the police. Elizabeth George is an American, but you would never know it in a million years. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/26 "2009-09-03T14:51:18Z")
Zadie Smith’s _On Beauty_ is set in the US (and suffers for it, since she gets everything from American speech patterns to higher education distractingly wrong). ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/27 "2009-09-03T15:02:16Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > I know one of his books took place in Canada (mostly on [The Canadian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canadian), in fact), but I can’t think of any that took place in the U.S. Dick Francis’ \*Blood Sport \*is (mostly) set in the USA. I’ve a feeling there are others but I can’t think of them at the moment :smack: After all he lived in Florida for years. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/28 "2009-09-04T07:09:44Z")
Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series all set in the US. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/29 "2009-09-04T07:19:48Z")
William Thackeray wrote a couple of novels set entirely in the US: _The Newcomes_ and _The Virginian_ (the latter is not the book the later movie and TV series was based on, that’s one of the same title by the American author Owen Wister.) Much of Dickens’ _Martin Chuzzlewit_ takes place in America. (The Americans were far from happy with it as it satirises them mercilessly). ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/30 "2009-09-04T09:49:23Z")
> [@Yossarian](#): > > P.G. Wodehouse has a few of his “Jeeves” stories take place in America. Wodehouse also had several Mulliner stories set in Hollywood. There were a few golf stories set in the US. There was a Psmith novel, I think _Psmith, Journalist_, set in the US, possibly New York. IIRC, _Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin_ was also set in Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/31 "2009-09-04T09:59:18Z")
> [@MarcusF](#): > > Dick Francis’ \*Blood Sport \*is (mostly) set in the USA. I’ve a feeling there are others but I can’t think of them at the moment :smack: After all he lived in Florida for years. The book set on the Canadian is _The Edge_. The last section of _The Danger_ is set in America. Alistair Maclean had several novels set in America: \* Fear is the Key, The Golden Gate, Goodbye,California, Breakheart Pass, \*and _Seawitch_. Len Deighton had a novel set in Los Angeles: _Violent Ward_. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/32 "2009-09-04T10:12:15Z")
For American books set in Britain, there’s the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. The second half of the book has scenes set in both London and Midlothian, Scotland. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/33 "2009-09-04T11:19:32Z")
Jeffery Archers _Kane and Able_, _Prodigal Daughter_, _Shall we tell the President_ anjd a few others are set in the states. ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472/34 "2009-09-04T11:29:31Z")
[Elizabeth George](http://www.elizabethgeorgeonline.com/) sets her novels in the UK and does a pretty good job of it. But one sublime error was a UK police station where obviously, everyone is offered tea and biscuits. In her rendering, the person was offered tea and Oreos. These were not, at that time, available in the UK. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-of-literature-by-a-brit-set-in-the-us-or-vice-versa/508472.md?page=1)