Jazz and crime fiction mix well

I’m a sucker for a good mystery. I’ve pretty much devoured the outpouring of crime-related  fictional works by Sue Grafton, J. A. Jance, and Tony Hillerman, as well as Nora Roberts’ J.D. Robb series about homicide detective Eve Dallas, who solves crimes set about 40 years in the future and is married to the richest man on the planet. Once I get my hands on a new one, it’s pretty much uninterrupted read time. That goes for the jazz-related mysteries as well, which got me to thinking this week about why jazz and fictional crime blend so well together.