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| Pic courtesy of Pixabay |
I’m delighted to be a guest on this blog—many thanks to Leye Adenle for letting me have his spot. I’m a long-term fan of crime fiction and a chemist/biologist. I’ve found a way to combine my reading pleasure with my interest in science which I hope will be both interesting and useful.
Perhaps I’m a pedant. Maybe it’s my scientific background. But I do like to see crime writers getting things right! I’ve no problem with alternative realities in science fiction or fantasy where the normal laws of science are broken. But in crime novels, I like to see scientific accuracy and sometimes, alas, mistakes creep in.
Rather than sitting here grumbling, or writing complaining letters to authors like one of the “picky-ass readers” Stephen King has described, I thought it would be useful to help crime writers to avoid some basic, common, scientific mistakes. I set up a website (www.crimewriterscience.co.uk) providing tips on poisons, weapons, explosives and other topics and was then encouraged to develop this into a full-length book. The result is CRIME WRITING: HOW TO WRITE THE SCIENCE, published in the UK by Studymates this month.
The book covers a range of scientific topics relating to crime and assumes no scientific background on the part of the reader. It starts with how poisons work and the effects of specific toxins and dispels some myths along the way (nothing is instant and cyanide does not make you blue, for instance).
It looks at knocking people out (don’t bother with chloroform, and trying to inject someone in the back of the neck to produce instant unconsciousness won’t work either). I cover explosives and fires, without giving too much away as I don’t want to end up charged with assisting terrorism, and I describe the basics of firearms which are often misdescribed by non-U.S. writers (a 38mm handgun, anyone?) or shown inaccurately on screen. Blowing someone backwards through a window with a shotgun while remaining stationary yourself breaks the laws of Newtonian physics (as well as the window) and you can’t actually “silence” a revolver.
Getting rid of a body is not as simple as is sometimes depicted and, despite Dame Agatha’s assertion that Murder is Easy, killing someone is not always that straightforward. Nevertheless, humans are fragile, especially when stabbed or repeatedly bashed over the head, so I try to bring a little biological reality to violence.
DNA transformed detection and I outline the basics but also point out where it can be misleading—the fact that someone left DNA at a crime scene doesn’t mean they are the villain: the when and the how are critical. I mention some exciting developments in forensics and also point out the drawbacks of some long-accepted forensic techniques.
The book isn’t a practical guide for a would-be murderer, divulging arcane secrets from the laboratory which will enable someone to poison a rival with a houseplant or make a bomb from shaving cream and cocktail cherries.
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| Run! Pic courtesy of Pixabay |
I don’t name and shame authors—I respect crime writers too much. But I do point out mistakes I’ve come across without identifying the source. I also point out where someone has got something right (referring to tobacco tar stains rather than nicotine, for instance).
I hope that the book will be useful to crime writers and fascinating to crime readers. If it helps, I’ll be delighted—and I’m happy to assist further if needed.
Brian Price
Brian Price is a chemist and biologist who retired from the Environment Agency in 2016. He is the author of CRIME WRITING: HOW TO WRITE THE SCIENCE and runs a website offering tips on science for crime writers (www.crimewriterscience.co.uk). He is an avid reader of crime fiction and has also written a number of short stories, one of which was a runner up in the Weston-super-Mare Literary Festival 2019 and another was short listed in the Chorley Writers Circle competition in 2018. He taught science and technology courses for the Open University for 26 years. Previous books include P FOR POLLUTION and C FOR CHEMICALS (with Mike Birkin)
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Thanks, Brian. It sounds like an essential reference from crime writers, and probably it will be of interest to a much wider audience.
ReplyDeleteIs there an ebook available? Since I'm in a small town in South Africa, snail mail takes forever. (Sometimes literally i.e. it never gets here.) And there are a couple of points I need to check in a hurry!
Best of luck with the book!
Reply from Brian:
Delete'Thanks for your comment, Michael. There should be an e-book available towards the end of the year. In the meantime, drop me an email and I’ll try to help. Best wishes, Brian'
Thanks, Brian. I'll take you up on that!
DeleteHi Brian. Great blog. I have ordered my copy already, and it's incredibly useful to know you're at the end of an email if the need arises.
ReplyDeleteI have a quick question. They've recently remade the old series MacGyver where the hero is forever getting out of trouble by weird improvisation. I made a point of watching an episode last night where the hero made explosives using salt, water and batteries, then snapped through the bars of a prison window with CO2 mixed with alcohol. Do you shake your head in disbelief at this kind of thing, or do they base any of it in actual science?
Reply from Brian:
Delete'Many thanks, Zoe.
'You can make hydrogen gas by passing current from the batteries through water with a little salt added but you’d also get highly toxic chlorine. Hydrogen forms an explosive mixture with air but the idea doesn’t seem very practicable. I’m not sure what he’s doing with the window bars – I’d never considered champagne as an explosive! Some materials become brittle at low temperatures (was it solid CO2?) but I doubt that would be useful in the case of steel bars or that the temperature would be low enough.
'All the best, Brian'
Can I point out that Brian did not correct me in front of an audience when I said 'You will not find DNA in urine, red blood cells or the shaft of a human hair.' He messaged me later to put me right. And yes, I am getting the book for my birthday! 'I promise to do better,' she said thinking about the book she's just delivered!
ReplyDeleteI see there is a technique for human hair now even with no follicle. Red blood cells also?
DeleteReply from Brian:
Delete'Hi Michael – yes, there is mitochondrial DNA in hair shafts which is useful (though not as good as nuclear DNA). There is no DNA in red cells but it would be unusual to find them without accompanying DNA-bearing white cells.'
I'm so happy you wrote this book, Brian. If only so I can point out to my critics that a souvlaki skewer is a far more dangerous threat than cherries and shaving cream!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to get my copy of CWHTWTS!
Great post, Brian. Looking forward to reading this and making fewer mistakes. Can you share which poisons don't show up on a routine toxicology screening at autopsies??
ReplyDeleteReply from Brian:
Delete'Thanks, Cara. Routine tox screens look at common drugs of abuse and prescribed medicines which people may overdose on. Whether a lab would look for anything else would depend on any clinical signs (e.g. locked muscles from strychnine poisoning) reported around the death or lesions found at autopsy (gastric irritation from arsenic, say). If a death doesn’t seem suspicious (someone with heart disease having a heart attack, albeit from a poison) no-one would look further. There’s no such thing as an undetectable poison since all leave traces, just those which wouldn’t be looked for. Looking for some of the more obscure chemicals would be difficult, expensive and can take a long time. In a novel you could always suggest sending samples to Porton Down (or a made-up university), but they would still need an idea of what they were looking for.'