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.

Public Inquiries

I had followed Stephen Lawrence in the News of the past few months and one thing that kept standing out for me, the words 'MacPherson Report'. I began to think is there going to be another Review Board to find the new holes in the case, we all wait for this.

MacPherson along with other reviews have been called in recent years to improve the way Police and other services respond to cases in the future.

I did a little research about these reviews and how the Police, Social Services and others have failed in their roles in the past and how procedures have been put in place to stop these failings happening again.

MacPherson



Stephen Lawrence had his life tragically ended in April 1993 and the report was released almost six years later in February 1999. The main points raised was the 'INSTITUTIONAL RACISM' within the Met Police and policing in general, and improving British race relations that had been difficult for many years.

The report made 70 recommendations, here are few:

• Many were specifically aimed at improving police attitudes to racism and stressed the importance of a rapid increase in the numbers of black and Asian police officers.
• The government pledged to increase the number of officers from minority ethnic groups from around 2,500 to 8,000 by 2009.
• It also recommended that the double jeopardy rule should be abrogated in murder cases to allow a retrial upon new and compelling evidence; this became law in 2005. If there was no change then Dobson and Norris would not now be convicted.
•  The Met will review its scene-of-crime procedures, the way it records crimes, its internal inspections and liaison between uniformed officers and the CID.
•  Dedicated Family Liaison Officers must exist in every police force at local level. Any complaints or requests from a victim's family must be recorded.
• Revised first aid training for police officers. It was found that the first officers at the scene did not know adequate first aid and this is now vital for the ethos of Policing 'Save life and limb'.
• No change in the stop-and-search powers of the police. Records of all stop-and-search operations to be published, and a copy of the record given to the person involved.

A lot of trust had been lost or probably never gained in the Police Forces in the days where racism was almost common place. Police forces had to work hard over the following years to break down the barriers to understand further the religions and respects that our communities have.

I know that Police Forces now incorporate the Scarman, Laming and MacPherson Reports into the training and from experience I know that this is the first thing that is taught to many of the employees to make them understand the consequences.

Laming Report

 

In 2000, 8 year old Victoria Climbie who lived in London was tortured and murdered by her guardians.  Marie-Thérèse Kouao, who moved with Victoria from Ivory Coast, it is not knowing if the abuse was happening before Kouao met Carl Manning.
During the abuse, Climbié was burnt with cigarettes, tied up for periods of longer than 24 hours, and hit with bike chains, hammers and wires.

Before her death, many partners were involved with Victoria. The Police, Social Services from four authorities, NHS and NSPCC.

Due to the partners not identifying the abuse that was taking place, an inquiry was set up led by Lord Laming.

It was initially discovered numerous instances where Climbié could have been saved, noted that many of the organisations involved in her care were badly run, and discussed the racial aspects surrounding the case, as many of the participants were black.

Recommendations:

• Front Line NHS staff to get basic details from all children that come in, any details missing passed to relevant department.
• Notes of all injuries to be recorded and if concerns a second opinion is to found.
• Training should be undertaken to ensure inter-agency working practises are in place.
• Government to issue guidelines on impact of Data Protection Act and the Human Rights Act on data sharing.
• Government to investigate creation of a national children’s database.
• A single electronic database must be used by all agencies that work with children.
• Before visiting a child, a social worker must check the information known about the child by other protection agencies. This implies the existence of a central case file.

 I could pick from a number of cases, above are two cases that affected the agencies involved the most.

Links to some more inquiries:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarman_report. Riots in the 1980s led to reform of the police. PC Blakelock lost his life in the Tottenham Riots 1985 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riot-broadwater-farm
2. Baby P - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Baby_P
3. Cullen Inquiry (Dunblane Shooting) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_Massacre
4. Phone Hacking - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leveson_Inquiry

Aberdovey Bike Ride Part 2

I have just finished my first week of training from the Aberdovey Charity Bike Ride.


Stats:


Weight: 13 Stone 01/01/2012       This week 06/01/2012 12 stone 9


Eating Habits:


Last week were awful as it was Christmas the week before!! 


This week I have been watching what I eat and drink:

Lots of Water has been consumed, replacing the cups of teas that I consume at work


- Breakfast: Porridge
Lunch: Tin of Tuna and Fruit
Dinner: Tuesday: Pasta Bake (lots of carbs)
Wednesday: Baked Potatoes and Baked Beans




Training


As i said in the last Aberdovey Blog, I did a 3.7 circular mile walk on 2nd January round the Hay Head Wood from the Nature Centre car park. Here is the AA map of the walk:





I also have an active job that means I am walking between 10-15 miles a day on top of the 4 mile cycle journey to and from work.


6th January 2012:


This is the start of my training sessions as I need to get to work in the afternoon, it was only 13 miles but these was a good start as on my days off I will do some more

Marc's A-Z of Crime Fiction

BACKGROUND

As we read through our novels, engrossed in our TV shows or films.
The writers keep us gripped with not only the crimes as they unfold but also the love lifes, relationships, family problems that come with our beloved detectives.
We need to know what has happened to our characters in the past, this makes them seem more real to us, we can relate to them more if they have suffered heartaches, marriage break ups or even the occassional drink problem. Also the backgrounds of the characters make us understand more why they react the way they do.
In Crime Fiction, characters history may fuel the plotline, other characters, dialogue, location so this is critical to a crime writer to know their characters back to front, top to bottom. Whenever I start a new book I create a character profile.
Questions I ask myself about a character:
Basic Statistics
Name:
Age:
Nationality:
Hometown:
Current Residence:
Occupation:
Talents/Skills:
Siblings (describe relationship):
Spouse (describe relationship):
Children (describe relationship):
Grandparents (describe relationship):
Grandchildren (describe relationship):
Significant Others (describe relationship):
Relationship skills:
Physical Characteristics:
Height:
Weight:
Race:
Eye Color:
Hair Color:
Glasses or contact lenses?
Skin color:
Shape of Face:
Distinguishing features:
How does he/she dress?
Mannerisms:
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.)
Health:
Hobbies:
Favorite Sayings:
Speech patterns:
Disabilities:
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.):
Greatest flaw:
Best quality:
Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes
Educational Background:
Intelligence Level:
Any Mental Illnesses?
Learning Experiences:
Character's short-term goals in life:
Character's long-term goals in life:
How does Character see himself/herself?
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?
How self-confident is the character?
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?
What would most embarass this character?


Emotional Characteristics
Strengths/Weaknesses:
Introvert or Extrovert?
How does the character deal with anger?
With sadness?
With conflict?
With change?
With loss?
What does the character want out of life?
What would the character like to change in his/her life?
What motivates this character?
What frightens this character?
What makes this character happy?
Is the character judgmental of others?
Is the character generous or stingy?
Is the character generally polite or rude?

BILLINGHAM, MARK - http://www.markbillingham.com/
Author from Birmingham so had to include him!! Mark Billingham is a genius of tension, suspense, crime thriller novels in my opinion. BEST THING ABOUT MARK BILLINGHAM IS: HE IS A COMIC ASWELL!

My first book from him was Sleepyhead, all those years ago...I brought this in a 3 for 2 deal, I needed another book for the deal and thought WHY NOT?? And what a fantastic choice it was!

Now Tom Thorne is coming to our TV screens, GET IN THERE.
I loved the Rebus series, Taggart and I think that DI Tom Thorne as a book character is right up the same street so if he portrayed as in the book and lives up the REBUS/TAGGART TV series, we will have a cracker on our hands.



BLOOD

When I think of blood in Crime Fiction, two ideas come to mind: 1st - Blood analysing (type, splatter etc) and 2nd- lots spilt at crime scenes. I am going to cover both!

1st - When a crime scene examiner goes to a scene in the present day, they collect a sample then off it goes to DNA. What a fantastic finding but in previous years to this, the blood evidence was from the Blood Type and this was used to trace victims or suspects. A/B/O/AB and +/-.



Blood pattern analysis:

This used for a number of things at a crime scene:

• Movement and direction of persons or objects while they were shedding blood.
• Position of persons or objects during bloodshed.
• Movement of persons or weapons after bloodshed.
• Weapon used to create a specific pattern.
• The direction a stain was traveling when it was deposited.
• The area of origin of an impact pattern.
• The minimum number of impacts during an incident.
• The sequence of events.

2nd -Crime writing and Horror novels were very closely linked at one point in the context of their narrative. When a crime writer thought about their ideas, the idea was to be better than the last one. In the case of crime, this meant how many people could be killed and how can you disguist the reader the most by having the most bloody scene possible.
Blood as in gore, no not really anymore. Crime Writing used to be all about how much blood, murderers evil tactics of death and good old gore.
Nowadays, crime writing has come to be more about suspense and being a page turner.

Aberdovey Bike Ride

Well, this is my first blog in hopefully a long line of blogs recording my training and efforts to get fit for the Aberdovey Charity Bike Ride on the 22nd June 2012.

I signed up to the riders list a few weeks ago and that was the final commitment that I needed.

On this blog, I will be adding my training schedule, weight loss, mapping my journeys covered and my eating habits over the period.

As this is my first blog on the subject, I will inform you all about the Bike Ride:

Above is the map of the cycle ride, it covers 100 miles from Wolverhampton (Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton Football Club) to Aberdovey Sailing Club.

Intro from Aberdovey Bike Ride Website: http://www.aberdoveybikeride.co.uk/

"This is a Police-organised charity bike ride which has developed into an annual feature in many peoples social or sporting diary. Riders start 'en mass' from Molineux Football Ground, Wolverhampton [Start point to be confirmed for 2012], under escort, to cycle one of two routes to the beautiful seaside resort of Aberdovey on the Welsh coast."

All riders are requested to raise a minimum of £75 which assists carefully selected local charities.
The charities that are chosen are done so on a yearly basis from suggestions passed to the organisers. Last years charities raised £31,263 and were:

• Motor Neurone disease
• National Autistic Society.
• Special Friends On Line (Follow Your Dreams).
• Newport Cottage Care Home.
• Compton Hospice.
• Aberdovey Yacht Club
• Aberdovey Mountain Rescue

My Esssential Details:

Starting Weight is 13 stone. No Loss or Gain so far (I haven't started training yet!)

Eating Habits: Rubbish (it was Christmas last week, still have some chocs left over that need eating!)

Proposed Training schedule:

• Starting with a walk tomorrow for 2 hours. 
• Walking at walk 10-15 miles per day (Very achievable, below is a map covering 7 miles completed in 1.5 hours walking)

Marc's A-Z of Crime Fiction

I am going to do a weekly post counting down from A-Z and thinking of some important components to Crime Fiction within each letter of the alphabet.

Rules of my blogs will be two components:
1 Key Components in Crime Fiction 
2 An author or a book beginning with the letter.

ANTHROPOLOGY

This may not be a natural letter A for many crime writers but for me it is an essential one.

I studied Forensic Science at University and this is the one subject that stood out for me, I have continued to read and download journals, websites are read and I try to search for books that have some fictional or factual bones within them.

Looking at Forensic Anthropology in Crime Fiction, there are lots of examples starting with books: Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell (who probably started the obsession with "The Body Farm"). TV has had Bones (inspired by Kathy Reichs books), Waking the Dead. In both cases, the list are endless depending on the amount of research you do!

Forensic Anthropology as a subject what does it entail. Well, putting it simply, it means the STUDYING THE BONES OF THE PERSON WHO DIED. Breaking the subject down further, it is similar to Pathology, the study of a person before skeletonisation. The Key Areas of Forensic Anthropology:

• Identification - Height, Age, Sex and ancestry using growth patterns on bones, unique markers and size of bones.
• Cause of death - trauma, disease, previous injuries.

ARRESTS

"You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence, if you fail to mention, when questioned, something which you may later rely on in court. Anything you do say, may be given in evidence"

The Police Arrest Caution, we hear it all the time on TV, Films, Documentaries, Books. This is the key to understanding when someone has been arrested and they are going to be questioned for an offence they have committed.

The Caution has two purposes: Allow the person to answer any questions that have been asked but also the silences or no comments are also going to be used against them if they wish to do so.

The definition of Arrest:  the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system.

ANDREW GROSS: http://www.andrewgrossbooks.com/

This is one front cover from Andrew Gross. Andrew Gross has been writing as an individual now for three books before this he co-wrote with James Patterson on six books in seven years.

Andrew Gross has now invented his character, Detective Ty Hauck, the head of some local detectives in New York. In RECKLESS, Ty Hauck has left the NYPD.

I can only comment on RECKLESS as it is the only book I have read by GROSS since his split with PATTERSON.

SYNOPSIS:

Ty Hauck has left law enforcement for a job with a big-time private security firm. But he quickly learns that life in the private sector can be every bit as dangerous as wearing a badge - if not more so. When a successful trader at one of Wall Street's largest firms is murdered his suburban home along with his wife and daughter, it seems at first to be a case of burglary gone wrong. Then another financial executive is found dead in a very suspicious 'suicide'. As Hauck digs deeper he uncovers a horrifying financial conspiracy that stretches from New York to Central Europe to London. And the masterminds behind it will kill anyone who gets in their way!

REVIEW:

I found the book to be a good read as it broke down the recent collapses of the leading World banks AIG and others and I could understand them more from this than the media circus that we read everyday.

On the side of reading and analysing the writing, I found it be a difficult read and the overall flow of the book was let down by the speech always referring to characters in the speech themselves instead of the tried and trusted methods. There seemed to be bits of the story missing and through this we are constantly jumping along instead of strolling through the book, the fast paced nature of the book on top of the missing plot gives the impression of bouncing.

New Year Resolutions

So here we are 2012 has begun. Firstly, I wish everyone who reads this blog a Happy and Prosperous New Year. I hope that everyone has enjoyed their Christmas and is not too overweight from the excess food consumed over this period.


A New Year brings with it the promise of good fortune, a better year than the last and the hope that we can all become one step closer to our ideal.

Every year, millions of people set themselves a set of rules that their wish to keep to... the usual ones are going to the gym, lose weight, stop eating junk etc. They all seem to follow the same pattern in losing the excessive weight that was gain from the previous Christmas.

I believe that New Year Resolutions should be more long term goals and something that can be maintained throughout the year, something with more than one challenge set and once this has been reached the next stage of the goal can be achieved so that come 31st December you have reached all that was set out in front of you.



Here is an indication of how generally people do with their New Year Resolutions:

"Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals"

Here is a list of my New Year Resolutions:

1. Lose between 1-1.5 stone (1 and 2 are linked)
2. Train for the Aberdovey Bike Ride in June
3. Finish False Details (at Editing Stage so nearly there)
4. Start a new creative writing venture (I have the idea, cant wait to get started)