Forensics for the Mystery Buff (Writer or Reader) What, why, how and even where matter.

Forensics, the what, why, how, and sometimes where, encompasses many avenues of investigation, both for the writer and the professional charged with ferreting out the nitty-gritty of a death or a crime and it is crucial for a reader to understand why they should care.

It becomes a valuable tool for the mystery writer when his/her accidental or professional sleuth is showing a reader what happened. For instance: a victim’s blood—how does it look? Yes, I know red…but even that – bright red indicates new blood pumping from the heart—dark red filled with the detritus of cleaning the system and removing impurities, calories or what have you, but it’s also a sign of old blood in terms of when it was spilled. I’m not a pathologist or forensic genius but find the investigation process intriguing. What can we learn from a victim’s corpse, specifically related to the blood. 

Do you know how blood looks when it hits glass?  Could you tell at what angle it came from? The type of surface it hits makes as much difference as the pattern it creates. It is also possible to decide whether the perpetrator would possibly have been spattered by the victim’s blood by closely examining surround areas.

Spatter patterns, spatter type: was it impact spatter; beating, stabbings, gunshots, foreign object impacts the victim. Projection spatter; arterial bleeding, cast-off blood, and expirated, or exhaled blood. Combination spatters; impact and projection spatters, stab wound in the chest or neck = impact spatters. 

These patterns can actually, by shape and pattern of the drops within a blood spatter, reveal how the spatter was produced. 

Velocity of spatters tells the investigator even more. Low-velocity; object moving less than 5 feet per second. Mid velocity; objects moving between 5 and 100 feet per second. (Think of your favorite baseball pitcher how fast does his curve ball travel?) High velocity; object faster than 100 feet per second.  At high velocity the appearance of the blood spatter produces almost mist-like stains. 

A blunt object will show the blood spatter close to the victim because of the relatively slow speed of the force. A bullet on the other hand will definitely have a different, high velocity spatter. There will be a difference in the entrance (blowback) wound and the exit (forward spatter) wound pattern. 

Blood on glass, concrete, smooth painted wallboard, wherever the mystery writer has written the scene, evidence will leave telltale clues and a path for the writer to follow. 

Tess Gerritsen, Lisa Gardner’s detectives stories of mystery suspense sometimes go into a great deal of forensic detail as they investigate crimes in their novels. Patricia Cornwell’s  sleuth, Scarpetta, is a forensic pathologist. The word, Pathologist, suggests she digs for cause of death by examining the victim’s body.  Was it natural, accidental or murder?  She walks the read through what the body tells her. The reader will be very aware what a doctor can glean from the physical examination of one of his/her patients. Perhaps, not quite as much as the pathologist does, but certainly more than a casual observer of human anatomy does. While Cornwell doesn’t overload the reader with details, she adeptly weaves the information into the tale of discovery so that the reader can understand how she came to her conclusions.

Investigators can accurately reconstruct the crime scene from blood stains. Technology is such that even attempts to clean an area of blood stain evidence can be revealed via certain lighting devices.

An interesting case in point, the Sam Sheppard case. The bludgeoning death of his wife, blood evidence convicted him and years later blood evidence, supposedly, proved his innocence. If you are going to give your reader information, be sure you let them know the what, where, how and why of your conclusive evidence. You will have a happy reader or at least a satisfied reader who may, or may not, agree with your solution. F. Lee Bailey used his evidence in two different ways, so too, could you.

Forensic For Dummies by D.P. Lyle, MD answers a myriad of questions for the mystery writer. Blood related information is only one of them. There are many more books out there to deliver accurate forensic information for the writer and the internet has made finding them that much easier. Don’t trust your imagination get the facts straight from a reliable source. Your reader will follow you, because they know they can trust you to give them accurate details in your story.

Make your reading time absorbing. Pit your wits against the accidental sleuth, who may be in a job like yours. Subscribe to my free e-zine Mystery Readers and Working Writers, the free e-zine for mystery lovers. Get a free e-booklet “ A Nice Quiet Family” a very short/flash mystery http://www.billiewilliams.com

http://www.billiewilliams.com

Tess Gerritsen, The Keepsake - Billie A Williams, Ancient Secrets

Tess Gerritsen – Keepsake; Billie Williams – Ancient Secrets
UnPuzzling The Past

What is it about our historical past that draws us in and holds us as we explore it especially the things we hold most dear—KEEPSAKES (released September 8) from that life we need to explore. In my book ANCIENT SECRETS (released September 1) I explore a necklace belonging to an African deity—the goddess Ebony. It is a keepsake. It has traveled from one owner to another all over the world, a troubled path after it was stolen from the goddess years before. Its powers are supernatural.
Tess Gerritsen’s riveting new book, The Keepsake, explores a supposed similar archeological treasure. You can feel the desert heat enveloping your body so you nearly are crushed by its intensity. You blink your eyes in the glare of the sun while the sandpaper-like grit of the desert sands scrap against your skin.
Ms. Gerritsen’s language puts you there. Her skill with phrase and image keep you there as she cranks up the heat, notches up the suspense. At the end of her first chapter, if a mosquito landed on your arm or someone’s footfalls echoed in your hall, you would bolt in terror at their presence. That is how a great writer hooks and drags you into a story.
My own story circles the wagons before the impending attack. I slide in with tourist-like curiosity. Emulating someone like Ms. G, excuse me , Tess will take some practice.
I can call her Tess now. She is real. I have an autographed bookmark from her and even more importantly a personal note. It’s a small sticky note like a post it™ note but it’s way larger then life to me because it is a hand written note —to me!
It made me remember that contact, human connection is why we research our past and cling to those KEEPSAKES and ANCIENT SECRETS we bring with us to the present.

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen – ISBN 978-0-345-49762-8
Ancient Secrets by Billie A Williams ISBN 978-1-599705-396-9

First Lines:
Tess Gerritsen “He is coming for me.”
Billie Williams “It looked like she had been sitting on the park bench we had bought for her birthday last summer.”

How it comes together: using setting
TG: “No longer am I standing in the desert gazing at a sky smeared by sunset the color of bruises.”
BW: “The cold, bright corridors of the hospital where shoes squeaked on the too polished, disinfected floors made you wince, shhhhh, the silence hissed like a librarian in his mind.”

Using Sound/weather
TG: “The wind moaned like a woman when it swept down the Wadi.”
BW: “She must have stood up and let them fall. She left them lay like wasted time, just there. No breeze to stir them, march them away, dance them off to some happier place.” (speaking of sheets of paper)

Using smells
TG: “I sniff the air, as recognizable as the scent of hot sand and savory spices and the sweat of a hundred working men toiling in the sun.”
BW:” “Live Mother,” he said as they shut her in the orange and white van that smelled of disinfectant. Had the last patient they transported died, he wondered at the smell.”

Using emotions – fear/apprehension
TG: “I lie on damp sheets, heart battering itself against my chest. I am afraid to get out of bed—afraid not to.”
BW: “Something about them as he touched them though, struck him with unanticipated grief. When he lifted the black stone, it was as though some invisible electric impulse traveled from his finger tips up his arm and to his heart. His heart ached with sorrow. Years worth of sadness flooded over him, washing him in blackest despair, creating nearly unbearable heart wrenching sorrow. He dropped the black stone he held back into the red velvet lined coffin it had come from as though it burned his fingers instead of his heart.”


I am struck by how few words she needs to make her point, ratcheting up her tension and bring the reader to her. My way is meandering and wordy. I see and I understand why we study other writers with a writer’s mind. They teach us by example – showing instead of telling.