Book ReviewsAlmost everything you think you know about police work came from television, and most of it is wrong. Lofland, a veteran investigator with a teacher's clarity, corrects the myths and captures the texture of real police work, not just procedure.…
Book ReviewsA Howdunit reference for the amateur-sleuth mystery, strongest on the hardest believability problem in the subgenre: making it credible that an amateur, not the police, cracks the case. The mid-1990s procedural and forensic detail is dated and needs heavy updating.…
Book ReviewsA Howdunit reference that replaces the romanticized fictional PI with the real one: surveillance, records, patient legwork, on the insight that the reality is richer material than the myth. The early-1990s methods are dated by the digital era, but the…
Book ReviewsA Howdunit-series reference on how a crime scene is really processed and what it reveals, the foundation a credible investigation is built on. The 1992 specifics are significantly dated by the DNA revolution, but the principles of scene processing, evidence,…
Book ReviewsA PI's tour of con artists and confidence games, profiling the swindles, the swindlers, and above all the psychology of why victims fall for them, rich material for deception-driven crime fiction. The 1998 schemes are dated by internet fraud, but…
Book ReviewsA reference on how law enforcement operates, administration, detective-division structure, rules of evidence, so police characters ring true instead of following TV shortcuts. The 1993 specifics are dated by changes in technology and practice, but the institutional grounding and real…
Book ReviewsA crime reference narrowed to the genre's defining crime: homicide, its types, its means, and above all the cover-ups that form a mystery's puzzle. The mid-1990s specifics are dated by advances in forensics, and it pairs with a companion volume,…
Book ReviewsA working PI on the real craft of finding people, grounding both the method and the investigator's character so a missing-person plot rings true. The 1997 search methods are heavily dated by the digital era, but the fundamentals and the…
Book ReviewsA former PI walks crime writers through how detective work actually happens: less glamorous, more methodical than the screen version, with attention to professional and amateur sleuths alike. The fundamentals age well; the 1990s technological specifics are dated by the…
Book ReviewsA niche but useful crime-writer's reference, illuminating the rarely-portrayed work of forensic nursing through real case studies and the inner workings of a medical examiner's office. Good grounding for portraying these experts accurately, though its 2004 science is dated and…
CrimeSearching for the rational motive behind an insane act is a category error. Some acts have no reasons a sane mind can use.
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