Getting it the crime novel right--

While reading books for the book club and having our book club discussions, I find myself either flipping to the back or the front of the book to check on the "Acknowledgements."  I'm curious how the writer gets to develop "the voice" for the novel to give an authentic sense of place or the right dialogue.  I guess you'd have to have the assistance or support of those who either work in the field or had worked in law enforcement--for mysteries in this case.  Of course, that is not the same in every case (listed in print, anyway) but I look for it.



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That might even become a discussion point during the book club sessions to see whom the author credits in acknowledgements.  Does it appear to be a back bone for what is in print or a deficient that more help is needed? 

As it goes, a number of us carefully watch television to follow crime on the news, serialized dramas and some news magazine shows.  Though it's not that these readers and TV watchers want to join law enforcement to live out the printed page or screen, there are questions about what crime investigation is actually like.  And enter the writer to build that bridge.

So what's out there for the writer who might want help to write realistically about police crime investigations?  A former policeman has offered and an answer in the creation of a new company.  Crime Writers Consultants created by Sgt. Derek Pacifico offers writers help through consultations or a two-day writing program.  Pacifico had retired from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department in Southern California after working nearly 6 years in homicide and handling roughly 200 murder investigations.

When I heard about this on public radio, I thought "aha!"  How many writers work this hard to try to get it from the horse's mouth (so to speak).  I just wonder about that attention to detail.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of the mystery novel--

I checked out a book recently and read about another just released one in USAToday which both tackle the craft of mystery writing--from different angles. The newer book is Talking About Detective Fiction by long-time mystery writer P.D. James. It gives an illuminating, big-picture approach to mysteries with information about the history of the genre in certain literature titles (i.e., Charles Dickins's Bleak House) to present day works with writers like Colin Dexter as shared in Amazon's product description of the book.

Click here to read additional information including a Publisher's Weekly review about this book which says it does cover British writers to a major although not exlusively degree. Look for attention focused on Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh and more. The book is 198 pages.

James has a great expertise to lend to her book while the other book The Lineup: the world's greatest crime writers tell the inside story of their greatest detectives gives a multiple voice approach. Edited by Otto Penzler, the book features 21 authors talking about the characters that they have created--the inspirations and what makes up the characteristics of the detectives. I skipped around and read the entries about writer John Harvey's Charlie Resnick and Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan. The book is 406 pages.