Marc's A-Z of Crime Fiction

Crime -

Not all crimes can be written about as they would not make very interesting crime fiction books or programmes, lets have a look at some crimes that i personally have never seen written about (as a single topic):

Burglary Dwelling or Burglary Other Building

Criminal Damage (in any form e.g. car or building)

Anti-social Behaviour

Robbery

All the above would not make interesting reading/watching for most people due to the lack of gripping behaviour involved in the crimes, they are slow and meticulous crimes that need lots of legwork involved or can be solved very quickly if the person has left enough to identify them. Also these are very personal crimes, and with singular victims involved and usually single offenders, so therefore no story can be made around them.



Some crime categories that are used consistently are:

Sexual offencesRape, sexual activity, exploitation of prostitution; abuse of children through prostitution and pornography; trafficking for sexual exploitation; abuse of trust; sexual grooming.

Unfortunately all these are gripping to the audience as they involve many peoples stories can these are found on a regular basis in the news. The sad nature of the people involved as they are exploited for the cause of others greed is one that people find interesting.

Theft and handling stolen goodsProceeds of crime; theft from the person; theft by an employee; abstracting electricity; theft from a shop; handling stolen goods; vehicle interference and tampering.
Theft from a motor vehicle
Theft from a vehicle.
Theft of a motor vehicleTheft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle; aggravated vehicle taking.

Handling of stolen goods is a common theme in many crime books as they involve gangs and this is way that these gangs can make their fortunes, along with the other theft categories all these in some way can be related to gangs or people involved with crime. Theft of/from motor vehicles can be seen as usual way for the 'badperson' to get away from the scene of the crime.

Violence against the personMurder; attempted murder; threat or conspiracy to murder; manslaughter; infanticide; child destruction; wounding or other act endangering life; possession of weapons; harassment; racially or religiously aggravated other wounding; racially or religiously aggravated harassment; common assault; racially or religiously aggravated common assault.

This is the most common reason for people picking up a book is murder; lets be honest here! We all want to know how can the persons involve kill others and how can the detectives involve catch the killer from the clues left. The others are less common but I have some recollection of them being in some books I have read.

Patricia Cornwell -

Patricia Cornwell is an author that I had a personal dislike for many years, I heard a rumour that she exposed the 'BODY FARM' at University of Tennessee unit and this being a secret research facility she caused havoc to the facility.
I have since found out that this was a load of rubbish! I made a pre-New Year Resolution to forgot about all my previous mis-conceptions on people and make my own mind up about them.
I have therefore began to read Patricia Cornwell for the first time and this was very handy as SCARPETTA MOVIE is not long off!

CAUSE OF DEATH



Synopsis:
New Year's Eve and an investigative reporter is found dead in Elizabeth River..the final murder scene of Virginia's bloodiest year takes Scarpetta thirty feet below the rivers icy surface. A diver, Ted Eddings, is dead, an investigative reporter who was a favourite at the Medical Examiner's office. Why was Eddings in the frigid depths of the Inactive Shipyard for a story, or simply diving for sunken trinkets? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified?

Review:
This is my second Cornwell novel as I read the much loved BODY FARM firstly, I found this edition to be less gripping than the previous book and was happy to sleep or do something else than read for hours on end. For me personally,I felt that the plot lines were a little rushed and could do with some more building up until the climax was reached and the characters that are the bad guys, the fascist group are introduced but never developed to a suitable standard.

Climax - 



Climax in a book or programme usual involves the heroine having that eureka moment and then the scene explodes into a fast pace, quick moving story line leading to the arrest of the offender. This is the main climax but throughout the story there will be a few climaxes that are resolved.

Definition: A climax is the high point, the turning point of a story.

The climaxes that are used and when they are used are vital to any storyline, if you placed them too early the reader will lose interest and get bored early. Putting them to late, in a way is good because you have hooked the reader but this can also be bad as you will have to wrap other plot lines up quickly and disturb your flow.

To write a good climax to the story, the way to do it is to back way up to the original conflict. Make the original conflict strong. Then as the story builds, you need two or three good attempts at resolving it.

Remember that a story is a "situation" - you are putting your characters in a situation and then having them work their way out of it. Unless the situation is strong, the climax will be weak. Generally a climax is some kind of a confrontation. Make it strong. Be very careful that it is realistic.

Make it realistic. You want as little detail as possible. In a good climax, it's like the air is suddenly sucked out of a room. Nobody breathes. There are very few sounds. Maybe the ticking of a clock. But nothing that is going to divert attention.