Here’s a tip for the normies from all us mystery nerds: If you want to get to know a place, there’s no better guide in literature than a good detective. While everyone else tends to their gardens, the detective knocks on doors and asks questions. With money in his pocket and an inexorable drive to go after the truth, he can cross a city in a matter of paragraphs, cutting through neighborhoods and social strata with knife-through-hot-butter narrative ease.