The whole world loves a mystery. But if you look at the shelves of the average bookstore, you'll soon find that almost all mystery novels are set in either the United States or Great Britain. Detectives like Sam Spade, Travis McGee, or Lew Archer ply their trade in America, while the UK retains the services of talents such as Poirot, Inspector Wexford, and Sherlock Holmes.

But a closer look finds greater diversity. There are some very fine mysteries out there (many from SoHo Press, a contemporary mystery publisher with excellent taste and a unique design), which take place in such far-flung locales as China, New Guinea, Amsterdam, Cuba, and Pakistan.

Here are some first-rate mysteries with a more international flavor.

Death of a Red Heroine
by Qiu Xiaolong
There are ordinary citizens in Red China, and then there are super-citizens like Quan Hongying -- a beautiful young woman and a model worker, a kind of poster child for the Communist regime. Yet something has gone wrong in Quan's model life, for she somehow turns up dead, and Inspector Chen must battle the political climate of Shanghai to uncover the danger and depravity that underscored this perfect young communist's life. The author, Qiu Xiaolong, is a professor of Chinese literature at the University of Washington, and his novel is a riveting examination of crime and punishment in modern China.

Outcast
by Jose Latour
Having grown content with a boring, numb, but bearable life in Castro's Cuba, our hero Elliot Steil is suddenly offered a chance proposition for escaping Havana. He trusts his fate to a mysterious man who claims to be a friend of his exiled father, and who abandons him almost immediately to the waters of the Florida straits. Rescued against all probability, Steil finds himself given a second chance. He fights the odds and American immigration officials to find out what forces have conspired against him. Author Latour resides in Havana with his family. An award-winning author in Cuba since he was 13, Latour is the vice president of the Latin American division of the International Association of Crime Writers.

Beat Not the Bones
by Charlotte Jay
When Australian writer Charlotte Jay wrote this compelling mystery novel set in Marapai, New Guinea, in 1952, it won the first ever Edgar Award for Best Novel. That's not a surprise -- this is a complex, gripping thriller set in the far reaches of an empire, and it subtly blends love and death in a very foreign landscape. When a distinguished anthropologist turns up dead, the official ruling is suicide. His disbelieving wife soon arrives on the tropical island to uncover what -- if anything -- could have driven her happy, fulfilled husband to this end.

The Laughing Policeman
by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
In the United States, where crime is a daily reality, we sometimes look to the less crime-plagued nations like Sweden and wonder why our society can't be like theirs. One (fictional) answer is that Sweden is home to Superintendent Martin Beck, star of 10 novels by the wife-and-husband team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. One of the great characters in the world of mystery, Beck of the Stockholm Homicide Squad confronts perhaps his greatest challenge in The Laughing Policeman. Here, he seeks the murderer of nine passengers on a city bus, one of whom was his finest officer.

The Amsterdam Cops
by Janwillem van de Wetering
Crime is almost incidental to Janwillem van de Wetering, creator of the Amsterdam Cops series. His characters Grijpstra and de Gier are portrayed as dedicated police officers, but these stories spend as much time detailing the quirky aspects of the Amsterdam detectives' evolving relationship and inner thoughts as they do recounting the chase of any perpetrators. As a result, a thoroughly European and existentialist concern for daily life is mixed into the standard mystery formula. The Amsterdam Cops is a book of 13 short stories and is fun reading on its own -- or, required reading for anyone who has encountered the enchanting de Wetering novels.

For more great reads from around the world, visit our expanding World Lit @ BookSense.com area!