Last week, the neon lights and constant buzz of the Las Vegas Strip surrounded me during a business conference. Las Vegas served as the landscape for my latest Fenway Stevenson mystery, but it wasn't the glitz of the Strip that captured my imagination, but the raw, unfiltered world just beyond the city limits.

In The Digital Coroner, Fenway finds herself 60 miles northeast of Vegas, at a casino and a museum where the setting is as much a character as any person walking through its doors. It's a reminder that some of the most powerful stories aren't just told through dialogue or action, but through the very ground they inhabit.

Think of the great mystery writers who understood this magic. Agatha Christie didn't just set Death on the Nile in Egypt—she made the river itself pulse with tension. Hilary Rose Berwick's Lavender & Foxglove series isn't just set in the French countryside, but rather the claustrophobic world suspended between war and religion. Faith Martin's Oxford (from her DI Hillary Greene series) isn't merely a location; it's a living, breathing entity that shapes every investigative step.

I'm fascinated by this alchemy of place and story. How does a setting breathe life into a narrative? When does a location transcend being a mere backdrop and become a character with its own heartbeat, its own secrets?

I want to hear from you: Share the novels or series where the setting is so powerful, so integral, that you can't imagine the story existing anywhere else. What book transports you completely into its world? What location has become as memorable as any character you've encountered?

Comment below with your recommendations. Let's explore those magical worlds where place is more than just geography—it's the very soul of the story.

(Oh, and if you're curious, The Digital Coroner is available now—with a setting that might just make you feel the desert's oppressive heat and the casino's stale air.)