The Crime Writer's Reference Guide: 1001 Tips On Writing the Perfect Murder

by Martin Roth

Here's the book no writer of murder mysteries, thrillers, action/adventure, true-crime, police procedurals, romantic suspense, and psychological mysteries, whether scripts or novels, should be without.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference, Crime

287 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

1924-2000.

Screenwriter, television producer, and writing instructor. Also known and published as Marty Roth.

Reviews

[Richard]

Since it’s a reference guide, I’ve been slowly making my way through Martin Roth’s (1924–2000) The Crime Writer’s Reference Guide for several months now. He updated it in the early 1990s and this edition was published after his death in 2003. A fair amount of the data is dated, but the concepts remain solid and the author includes plenty of suggestions on how/where to get the latest information on various topics. The reference is divided into sections on Crime, Criminals, Cops, Investigations, The Courts, Prisons, and Language (slang and legal). It also includes an exellent list of further reading books for each of its sections. If one were writing a story set in the early 1990s it would be invaluable to set the stage on then current practices and techology.

[Tasha]

Some really great new info. that i've not seen in other research books. Drugs, uses, packaging, basically takes you from thinking about the crime, developing it, making it believable, processing it, putting your case together and getting it to court. Good resource.

[Jess]

A very informative book. Focuses mainly on Californian law, police force and prisons - but does have a section on capital punishment in all states of the US.

[Frances]

Often seems to slip into being a list of terms rather than a collection of suggestions, but a good start and sparks some ideas.