What bothers me about crime fiction?
What bothers me about crime fiction?
By Marc DiGiacomo
Lots of things, but for starters, there is no such thing as a gun clip. There are hair clips, paper clips, even horse clips, but there are no clips for guns. A magazine is the correct term to describe the bullet holder that enters the magazine well of a firearm. I cannot tell you how annoying this term is to a trained professional police officer or military personnel. It ranks amongst the worst incorrect descriptions for an inanimate object. Our nation's leaders have all used this lingo inaccurately to describe gun magazines. But it’s not just them, others are guilty of this word misuse who should know better. Writers are investigators, they research a topic for correct information yet somehow it doesn’t end up accurately portrayed in their novels.
I often read crime stories by the most famous authors with great anticipation only to feel let down when I read something that is completely false. I understand the task of taking your reader on a journey throughout the book but not sticking to accurate police procedures absolutely annoys me. The story can still be exhilarating for the reader without injecting “Hollywood” nonsense into the story line. I really enjoy a good cop movie or show but can’t stand when the actor/actress pulls out their weapon with a finger already on the trigger. This is not how real cops do it. Or walking into a bloody crime scene with no paper booties on the bottom of their shoes, instantly contaminating a crime scene. This is not how the professionals do it, and this is not the way authors should write it.
A properly informed reader will appreciate the law enforcement community even more for their service and maybe it will interest someone into choosing police work as a profession. The world will always need good people to become police officers and authors need to portray this heroic job as accurately as possible for the betterment of everyone.
I write what I know based on my experience and training. Since I’ve been retired I always confer with my colleagues when I am not sure about specifics, besides they are good for new ideas especially since no two police calls are alike. Sure there are similarities but never does the same exact situation occur twice. This is one of the reasons I became a cop. The rush of adrenaline you experience responding to a high level call is second to none. Slapping handcuffs on someone who caused harm to the innocent is exhilarating. You really feel proud of your accomplishments, and that next promotion is always around the corner. For me personally, all I ever wanted was to become a detective. That reality came to fruition and the investigations I was assigned to were everything I could have hoped for and more. My superiors never let our town be victimized without justice. These were the best days of my life. But now they are just memories that pave the way for my novels.
So the next time you read a crime novel, pay attention to the author’s descriptions of police tactics. Watch how they describe investigating a crime scene. Are they wearing gloves while handling evidence? You can learn a lot from a book but let’s write police work as truthfully as possible.In a Small Town
By Marc DiGiacomo
Lots of things, but for starters, there is no such thing as a gun clip. There are hair clips, paper clips, even horse clips, but there are no clips for guns. A magazine is the correct term to describe the bullet holder that enters the magazine well of a firearm. I cannot tell you how annoying this term is to a trained professional police officer or military personnel. It ranks amongst the worst incorrect descriptions for an inanimate object. Our nation's leaders have all used this lingo inaccurately to describe gun magazines. But it’s not just them, others are guilty of this word misuse who should know better. Writers are investigators, they research a topic for correct information yet somehow it doesn’t end up accurately portrayed in their novels.
I often read crime stories by the most famous authors with great anticipation only to feel let down when I read something that is completely false. I understand the task of taking your reader on a journey throughout the book but not sticking to accurate police procedures absolutely annoys me. The story can still be exhilarating for the reader without injecting “Hollywood” nonsense into the story line. I really enjoy a good cop movie or show but can’t stand when the actor/actress pulls out their weapon with a finger already on the trigger. This is not how real cops do it. Or walking into a bloody crime scene with no paper booties on the bottom of their shoes, instantly contaminating a crime scene. This is not how the professionals do it, and this is not the way authors should write it.
A properly informed reader will appreciate the law enforcement community even more for their service and maybe it will interest someone into choosing police work as a profession. The world will always need good people to become police officers and authors need to portray this heroic job as accurately as possible for the betterment of everyone.
I write what I know based on my experience and training. Since I’ve been retired I always confer with my colleagues when I am not sure about specifics, besides they are good for new ideas especially since no two police calls are alike. Sure there are similarities but never does the same exact situation occur twice. This is one of the reasons I became a cop. The rush of adrenaline you experience responding to a high level call is second to none. Slapping handcuffs on someone who caused harm to the innocent is exhilarating. You really feel proud of your accomplishments, and that next promotion is always around the corner. For me personally, all I ever wanted was to become a detective. That reality came to fruition and the investigations I was assigned to were everything I could have hoped for and more. My superiors never let our town be victimized without justice. These were the best days of my life. But now they are just memories that pave the way for my novels.
So the next time you read a crime novel, pay attention to the author’s descriptions of police tactics. Watch how they describe investigating a crime scene. Are they wearing gloves while handling evidence? You can learn a lot from a book but let’s write police work as truthfully as possible.In a Small Town
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I have a pet peeve, too. I've ridden horses most of my life, have shown them for, oh, maybe thirty years, and operated a breeding facility for twenty. I think that people who don't know anything about horses and horse people shouldn't write about them. Most of what you read is nonsense. For instance, I've never heard a horse "scream in pain." I've seen about thirty foals born, which has got to be the most painful thing a mare can experience. Do the mares scream? No. They're silent, except for horrible groaning noises that are actually more disturbing than screams. I'm seen terrible injuries. No screaming horses. Jane Smiley does an excellent job writing about horses. She's a horsewoman. My writing about horses is accurate.
I won't get started about talking about real horsemen vs. the cowboys depicted on romance covers.
Thanks for your article, Mark. I'm going to get started on your book.