British obsession with class an issue for crime writers

Inspector Morse may have scoured the streets of Oxford, while Poirot boarded the Orient Express and Sherlock solved the mysteries of Baker Street.

But the crime authors of today may be wise to consider their options carefully while selecting the location of their next murder.

The British obsession with class has left writers inventing their own, fictional settings, in order to escape judgments about their characters' background and social standing, it has been claimed.