Putting forensic fact into fiction

Crime stories are fiction, not reality. If they were set in the real world you wouldn’t want to read about it because the detectives involved would spend an inordinate amount of time checking their work against procedure manuals, staring at computers, waiting for test to come back from the lab, and watching endless CCTV footage. Boring….

Nevertheless sometimes you have to try to get things as correct as the work will allow. Thanks to modern TV the general public knows an awful lot about forensic science (or at least thinks it does). Writers can’t get away with things they used to such as murdering someone by pouring hemlock into the ear while the victim sleeps. Sorry, Shakespeare, it just won’t work. How do I know? The wonderful Doug Lyle told me one day, and if Doug says it won’t work, believe me it won’t work.

D. P. Lyle MD is a big, bluff, immensely friendly practising cardiologist in Orange County, a very funny and likeable man who’s a regular at book conventions in the US and a published novelist and non-fiction author in his own right. You can discover his growing body of work at his excellent website www.dplylemd.com which also serves as a starting point for crime and thriller writers around the world when they want to find out how to track down a criminal or bump someone off.

I first met Doug a couple of years ago when we were both on a BBC Omnibus programme designed to find out if there really was such a thing as ‘the perfect murder’. I’m not sure we reached much of a conclusion — the Beeb put a bunch of writers together in a small room in Seattle and asked them to come up with ideas, under the patient eye of Doug as chair. But it was enormous fun trying to hammer out the problem. Every time you thought you’d worked out a good solution Doug would think for a moment, crack a grin, then look you in the eye and say, ‘But then…’

Nor does he forget that this is a very serious subject at heart either. As he usually emphasises whenever he’s speaking… murder is the worst thing one human being can do to another. Writers who inject death into what is still, at some level, a form of entertainment deserve to remember that. I know I try to. I don’t want to make my books excessively gory or visceral — that’s not my style. But I do want people to be shocked by the loss of a life, and to understand this is unnatural, unwanted and cruel.

Doug is a natural teacher, and one of those people born to share facts, stories and anecdotes, of which he has many, and not just to do with human mortality either. If you get the chance to catch him at an event I seriously suggest you take it. You’ll come away entertained and a lot wiser too. Doug is also the organiser of CraftFest, the teaching strand of ThrillerFest in New York, just one more place where he does more than his bit for the writing community.

One of Doug’s several great booksI like to think of Forensics for Dummies, his seminal reference guide to the world of forensics, as Doug’s Bible. This extraordinarily useful and interesting tome covers pretty much any situation a writer or reader is likely to encounter in modern criminal fiction, from date rape to fingerprinting, the use of DNA, handwriting analysis, and the procedures professionals follow at crime scenes.

Ever wonder about the difference between forensic and clinical psychology? Or how you can identify whether a victim is male or female from the skull alone? It’s all here, along with some real life examples and case studies to help you understand what’s going on. Doug has a nice line in style too. Take this on the persistence of one form of evidence, ‘…semen stains can remain identifiable and usable for DNA analysis for many years. Just ask Bill about Monica’s blue dress’.

Absorb this fascinating book and you will realise how much those of us in the game cheat (in order to keep your attention, it must be said). If you’re hunting for an unusual Christmas present for an inquisitive reader look no further.