Forensic Science Books
Help Writing Crime Novels
Why Forensic Science Books Help You Write Crime Novels
If you are thinking about writing a crime novel the first thing you must do is buy and read a forensic science book before you plan your plot. By doing so you will create a better, more believable story that will get you much more sales bringing in more revenue for yourself. Here are some reasons why a forensic science book will help you plan your plot and characters better.
- These books can teach you the police secure the crime scene and why it is vital to protect the evidence. The importance of separating any witnesses so they can cannot communicate with each other and change their stories. How the police look over a scene and separate areas. How a basic map is sketched of the crime scene and why. How they search for evidence if in a large open area such as a field or park and how and why items of evidence are bagged up and signed.
- Reading forensic books helps you determine time of death; the type of weapon used its effects on the body. How they measure the size and the tools used by name.
- You will learn how certain weapons were and how the perpetrator used that weapon. If there is blood you learn by the blood splatter patterns and the height of the victim and how violently the victim was hit and the angles of the person to victim when the blows rained down thus create a more realistic scene to your writing style.
- You will get a better understanding of DNA left on the body and at a crime scene and how it is processed. Snippets of the book will be relevant to the plot that you may have in mind so that you can use these to work around your plot and characters.
- You will learn plenty about police procedures and the how evidence is treated which will make you appear to be a knowledgeable author in the field resulting in a higher sales volume.
- Learning how forensic pathologist determines the cause of death and how he achieves the result will undoubtedly help you write better crime fiction.
- You will be able to create unexpected twists and turns as you will read about what happens if evidence is contaminated, spoilt or missing.
- Learning all the legal jargon will make you appear like you are a professional forensic examiner with police and court procedure knowledge.
- Knowing how long test results come back from labs and the paperwork involved will ensure that even a professional medical examiner will think you are a similar professional. The more knowledge you gain around the effects that certain weapons have on a body and a crime scene, the better you can build your characters around. For example, if there were many vicious stab wounds then you can build a character around this. Police officer characters can be described better than by watching TV as you will learn more from a forensic science book as they have share goals and work closely together.
Forensic Science In Action
Reading the role of the forensic scientists can help you write your crime novel every step of the way. You will learn about what type of person used the weapon involved in a forensic science book and base your character with similar characteristics. For example, if the murder weapon was a knife, then forensic science will often tell you that the perpetrator would often display impulsive aggression and would not meticulous in cleaning up his crime scene thus would almost certainly leave behind some DNA evidence.
If your weapon of choice is a hammer in your crime novel, how that hammer was used will reveal on the body by the indentation the force used can reveal if the killer was left-handed or right-handed, his height, how he was positioned when he used it and the level of rage and control, he has.
Your plot may include manual strangulation as a cause of death. The killer who uses this method often has a close intimate connection to the victim, current or ex-boyfriend. If a stranger it is likely to be a sexual sadist who will most likely strike again pretty soon. Do the close proximity of the hand on the victim’s neck, the victim is often smaller in height and weight than the attacker with less chance of being able to fight off the attacker. The killer will know use this method with full knowledge that the chances of her fighting him off are quite slim due to her build so he knows he can get closer without having to use a weapon. If he was a stranger to the victim it is likely that he was stalking her before he attacked. So, you have details of a victim and a perpetrator just from reading forensic science books. Details such as this you can be found in forensic science books will make writing your crime novel much more complete with lots of real-life relevant forensic knowledge. Every crime leaves a victim and the victim often helps forensic scientists solve put together details of the killer through DNA evidence left at the scene whether it is from blood, semen, hair and fibres, saliva or fingerprints. How each of the DNA is extracted, examined and processed will give you all the knowledge and terminology to make your crime novel much more realistic. The amount of crime books that are sold around the world each year is around 7.8 billion. So, the demand is there whether you to choose to write an eBook or find a publisher who will be willing to take your crime novel to a different level.
The more riveting and detailing your crime novel has the more money you will make from it as positive reviews keep your book at the top of the search engines. Here is a list of some forensic books that will undoubtedly help you get to the top as a crime writer. One is a great start and would probably fill in so many gaps, but the more you read the more you will learn and write better crime fiction that appears much more realistic to your readers who come back to you when you produce your second crime novel.
List Of Forensic Crime Books
Forensics for Dummies by Dr D. P. Lyle 2004 John Wiley. A practical book in plain English aimed at suspense writers.
Working Stiff, Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek & T. J Mitchell 2015 Scribner. A realistic look at the work of a medical examiner and the difference between real-life and television.
Traces by Patricia Wiltshire 2019 Blink Publishing. The author’s memoir as a forensic scientist and criminal investigator.
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid 2016 Black Cat. A top crime writer exploring crime and forensics.
Unnatural Causes – The Life & Many Deaths of Britain’s Top Forensic Pathologist by Dr Richard Shepherd 2019 Penguin. The author has performed over 23,000 autopsies including serial killers and so called ‘perfect’ murders’.