Body Trauma
When a character is shot, stabbed, or thrown from a car, what happens to the body, and how long do they have? A surgeon answers, with the treatment window and realistic odds of survival. Stronger than most crime references for…
Tag: Writing Craft (Page 83)
Book ReviewsCause of Death
A physician's forensic reference on death, autopsy, and the procedures that follow, the companion to a wounding guide. Competent on the timeless basics, but its early-1990s detail is badly dated in a field transformed by DNA. A foundation to verify…
Book ReviewsArmed and Dangerous
Get a gun wrong in a thriller and you lose the knowledgeable half of your readers on the spot. Newton's reference is sound on how firearms work and which common mistakes betray a lack of research. The 1990 detail is…
Book ReviewsDeadly Doses
A Howdunit reference for depicting poisoning believably, a verisimilitude tool for the mystery writer who wants a plot that convinces genre-savvy readers. The 1990 science is significantly dated in a fast-moving field, so verify every specific against current sources.
Book ReviewsCharacters, Emotion & Viewpoint
Three linked skills, character, emotion, and viewpoint, built around the idea that fiction lets a reader live inside another mind. Kress is exceptional on point of view's close, middle, and distant distinctions, and smart on tying character to plot through…
Book ReviewsBook of Police Procedure and Investigation
Almost 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 ReviewsAmateur Detectives
A 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 ReviewsPrivate Eyes
A 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 ReviewsScene of the Crime
A 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 ReviewsRip-off
A 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 ReviewsPolice Procedural
A 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 ReviewsMurder One
A 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,…