Four reasons to write your crime novel in Kent from authors of The Whitstable Pearl, Salt Lane, Smile of the Stowaway and This Nowhere Place | Updated: 12:18, 24 February 2021 Crime novels have been moving south in recent years, depicting the beaches and towns of Kent as part of a mysterious underworld. But why? Sophie Bird spoke to four writers of novels set in the county to find out what makes Kent the new fictitious crime capital. Every setting a writer needs all in one county "I was looking for a place which would be as big a character in the story as the people," says William Shaw.