Part II: Stop & Frisk, Arrest, Identification Procedures, Indictment Last week in Part I: Search and Seizure, I asked (and mostly didn’t answer) the question of whether you should worry about getting the law right in your stories and novels. It’s up to you—after all, we’re writing fiction! For the sake of realism, if you want your fictional perp to end […]
Part I: Search and Seizure For my novels about a female prosecutor, much of the “legal research” is in my head from a career in criminal justice and the court system. Police work and courtroom drama are great for building suspense. I also strive for accuracy under the law. Authors: Should you be concerned with accuracy? After all, you’re writing
While it is possible to find mysteries, from fluffiest to darkest, that take place in the author’s version of never-never land, I prefer mysteries set in some semblance of the real world. There, diversity equals reality. How do we incorporate the varied world around us–races, disabilities, sexual identities and so on–into our storytelling? And how do we do it accurately
In this installment of “On the Case,” we talk to Detective Derick Waller, who is one of the NYPD 12, a group of minority officers who sued New York City and the department in 2016 over the use of illegal and discriminatory arrest quotas. Detective Waller retired from the NYPD on August 31, 2016, after serving 21-3/4 years. He is
Like most writers I know, I write because I have to. Not the kind of have to where you’re going to die if you don’t. Or even the kind of have to because if you don’t you can’t pay the bills and you’ll starve to death and so will your family and then you’ll be thrown out on the street
One question I get asked frequently as a mystery author is whether I spend a great deal of time doing research before writing my novels. The answer is yes. I’ve done a heckuva lot of research for my books. Just not the kind you might think. I’m a longtime New York City journalist (New York Post, New York Daily News,
It was my plan to post a new blog yesterday but Jeff was hogging the computer. He was mumbling about line edits and cursing periodically, but mostly he seemed happy with his progress. Which is, I think, a good thing. Being dead, I am not such a good judge. Anyway, last week I introduced you to our synchronized swim coaches,
Where did I leave off? You will excuse me, but my memory is not so good any more now that I am dead. Anyway, if I am remembering, my cousin Iulia gathered us all in the kitchen to tell us of what she would daydream. We were very much surprised when she told us of her hope to become a
Jeff assigned me the responsibility to blog for him while he’s busy dealing with chapter business. He assured me that people would be interested in my experience as a contestant on Romania’s Got Talent, and perhaps he is correct, but so far it seems that he is not. Don’t tell him I said this, but Jeff is not correct about
We all know that in a mystery the most obvious suspect, the first “person of interest,” isn’t always the culprit. The same is true of pretty much every aspect of publishing. There’s a lot—and I mean a lot—of debate, acrimony, and bad information out there about what you can or should expect, or what you’ll be doing as an author
