In Reference to Murder

A License for Peace or Peril?

This article, from the San Francisco Chronicle, is another reminder that technology which can be used for the greater good can also be used to subvert basic freedoms, if allowed free rein. It's a discussion about license plate recognition tools and how on the surface, they seem like a boon for law enforcement, but raise some serious privacy concerns.

Still, while I'll leave the discussion of the ethics and poltics to more appropriate forums, the technology does have some intriguing uses that could easily pop up in crime fiction soon, if it hasn't already. Photos of thousands (perhaps millions now) of license plates in various locations are stored for months and an investigator seeking a witness or suspect to a crime can mine the data, searching either by plate number, location or time. Because the process uses GPS tracking, authorities have more information about where people go in their daily lives, whether to work or school or a local bar.

So, if you're looking for a different way your story's protagonist can track down a bad guy, for instance, it might be something to consider. As one CHP Officer indicated, "The possibilities are endless in terms of what we can do with this."

What's in Store?

The state of book sales and bookstores has always been a mixed bag, if you'll pardon the pun. The American Booksellers Association had 4,057 member stores in 1996; last year, that number was down to 1,625. Two popular mystery book stores, Murder Ink, the first and oldest independent mystery store, and The Black Orchid, both in New York, recently closed in December 2006 and September 2007, respectively. And depending upon which set of statistics you read and how you interpret them, the number of books sold has also been declining.

However, there are signs of life. The ABA says that, although from the mid-'90s until two years ago, store openings could be counted on two hands, in 2005 the ABA registered 90 new stores and in 2006, 97. Although book sales have been a little flat, the Book Industry Study Group says publishers’ net revenues in 2006 reached $35.69 billion, up 3.2 percent over 2005’s total, and that unit sales in 2006 exceeded 3.1 billion, with projections showing revenues reaching nearly $42 billion and units at 3.24 billion by the end of 2011.

That seems to be hopeful news for book authors and book fans, but there are still a lot of developing technologies and trends that are still evolving, and if you ask any publishing group or expert about their predictions for the future of the industry, you'll probably get a different answer from each.

This brings us to a brand-new offering in the book world, a literary version of Netflix called Book Swim. For a monthly fee, they'll send you books to read, which you send back at your leisure. This sounds like a godsend for readers, certainly, especially shut-ins and busy families, but how will this affect overall book sales? Maybe not this one company, perhaps, but what if it attracts competitors? Perhaps it will take a bite out of sales, perhaps not. Afterall, there are still an estimated 117,378 libraries in the U.S. alone, and their existence hasn't caused a decline in the publishing world. Authors can also take heart that if a Book Swim renter likes a book, they can go ahead and buy it for keeps.

If it's not a brave new world for writers and publishers, it's definitely a grave new world, but writers being what we are, will continue to write regardless. Ultimately it begins and ends with the creative process, or as Anais Nin said, "If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it."

Blogging Away

Since this is a blog with resources for readers of mysteries, not just writers, I've included several sections of The List which would appeal more to readers, or at least equally to both, such as the Blogs links. There are many excellent mystery-related blogs out there, and I want to personally thank two which have recently linked back to this one, namely Women of Mystery and The Rap Sheet, edited by J. Kingston Pierce. Both are run by a great group of folks, so check them out.

Just in time for Fall in the Northern Hemisphere (and today was the first day it's felt even a little seasonal in D.C.), is the fledgling blog party, Carnival of the Criminal Minds, the brainchild of Barbara Fister. It's a leaping off point for guest bloggers to host a blogosphere buffet of either general mystery and crime fiction news or one specific theme, like this month's debut, crime fiction from Australia and New Zealand. The current schedule includes a different guest host twice a month, as listed on the archival link above.

While we're on the topic of non-U.S. mysteries, take a look at Detectives Beyond Borders, a "forum for international crime fiction," with news and reviews of crime fiction around the globe.

In the Blogs section of The List here at In Reference to Murder, I have about ninety blogs listed, including those created by groups of authors; single-author blogs; general mystery-related; blogs by law enforcement personnel; blogs by folks in the publishing biz, and general writing blogs. More will be added soon, so keep checking back for updates.

New Crime Busting Tool

Fortunately for the law enforcement good guys, science is always trying to stay one step ahead of the bad guys in developing new ways to catch criminals. One really cool innovation is currently being developed and tested in the UK:  fingerprinting with light.

Researchers found that if gel tapes were used to lift the prints and then analyzed with a spectroscopic imaging microscope, they can identify individual molecules within the print to give a detailed chemical composition. How detailed? They've been able to tell quite a bit about the individual who left behind those fingerprints. Whether they're a smoker or a vegetarian, for instance, and they believe they'll be able to detect the presence of contaminants within the prints, giving clues about what the suspect had handled, i.e. drugs, gunpowder, or chemical or biological weapons.

And that's not all; they'll be able to allow forensic scientists to observe how fingerprints change in time and within different environments and maybe tell how old a crime scene is.  Or what happens to prints when exposed to high temperatures,  helpful in arson cases where lifting prints has been particularly difficult.

If you want the scientific explanation, check out this publication from the American Chemical Society or the more layman's explantion from this Science Daily article.

We've come a long way since Sherlock Holmes...

An Ear for Crime

I have to admit when I first started conducting research for stories, I was a bit naive about the extent of information on the Web and the many varied disciplines involved within forensic science. I recently researched background for a short story I'm working on involving forensic linguistics, which is fascinating on its own, although no doubt I was also attracted to it due to the fact my better half is an audio engineer.

But what is forensic linguistics and its partner, forensic phonetics?  Apparently, it's lots of things. For example, forensic linguists can be used to tell what people are thinking just by listening to them speak or to determine how old a speaker on tape is or where they're from. Forensic linguists might also be called on to determine whether the voice of the suspect is the same as the one whispering a bomb threat on a police tape recording, or how many people were arguing in the room held under audio surveillance, and what was the argument about? Or, from which part of Germany is the person who made the anonymous blackmail call just the night before? 

There are also some perhaps less-expected applications, such as determining the order in which gunshots were fired or the study of aircraft "black box" recordings, since there are overlapping areas between forensic linguistics and forensic audio. Forensic linguists are also often called upon for document and handwriting analysis, which can overlap with the work of forensic document examiners.

The Forensic Linguistics Institute has some case studies and examples that provide an insight into the science. Language and Law also has come case files, as well as a good overview. You can check out more links by clicking the the Forensic section of The List and then scrolling down to Linguisticss & Phonetics.

The Art of Crime

Yesterday, detectives in Scotland announced they had recovered a Leonardo da Vinci painting, "Madonna with the Yarnwinder," stolen from a Scottish castle in a daring daylight raid four years ago. The painting appeared on the FBI's 10 most-wanted list of stolen art and was valued at $65 million.

In the Crimes by Type section of this blog's The List, I have a section on art theft and forgery, with some interesting links on the subject, including one to the FBI's "most wanted." If you're more interested in mysteries focusing on art instead of true crime, you can check out the Mysteries by Topic section of The List, which includes a link to the wonderful Mystery Lists by Topic, which has two resource pages devoted to "artistic" mysteries, one from the Wakefield Public Library and another from the Madison Public Library (God love libraries and librarians).

While we're on the topic of stolen Leonardo's, you might check out one of Ellery Queen's classic adventures, The Greek Coffin Mystery, which, despite its title, revolves around a stolen Leonard painting (and of course Ellery cracks the case). Another book focusing on crime and Leonardo artwork (albeit a drawing instead of a painting) is an installment of Thomas Swan's Inspector Jack Oxby series titled the Da Vinci Deception.

This is probably a good place to plug Janet Rudolph's Mystery Readers Journal which has themed issues and has included two editions featuring art mysteries. Check it out and consider subscribing, if you haven't already. It's a fun publication and a good resource, as well.

GAMES PEOPLE PLAY

After concentrating recently on forensics and police procedural sites, I thought it was time for a break. There are some fun mystery games and puzzles sites on the Web that will help you kill a moment or two. Mystery  Goduku is similar to the popular Sudoku, but instead of numbers, these games provide nine letters you use to fill in the boxes. And if you've got 2-5 minutes, try Mystery Net's mini-mysteries. They also have some community games, if you've got a little more time on your hands. If you're more of a trivia fan, check out these Mystery & Detective Fiction Quizzes. There are dozens of quizzes there, organized by author. So kick back, unwind a bit, and have a go at these mysterious pastimes. Just don't let your boss see you.

Geography Bee

After the better part of a week spent in Vermont, I was curious to know if any mysteries had been set in that state. Some of you likely already know the answer to that question, but it's a definite "yes." There are a couple of nice sites where you can find out that kind of information.  The first is G.J. Demko's Landscapes of Crime, which includes several articles and listings of mysteries seen from a geographical angle, including a link to those set in New England. Stop You're Killing Me has a location index by countries and U.S. states, including Vermont with eight authors listed. The most well-know among those is probably Archer Mayor (a Vermont assistant medical examiner), with his detective Joe Gunther, head of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, who's been featured in seventeen novels to date. Mayor has used many different Vermont areas and landscapes, including St. Albans, Burlington, and Brattleboro.

Not to slight the other authors, of course, who include Barbara Comfort, Williams Jaspersohn, David Leitz, Ellen Rawlings, Herbert Resnicow, Anna Salter, Sarah Stewart Taylor, and Nancy Means Wright.

So while you're on the train for 13 hours (as was yours truly), kick back with a couple of Vermont mysteries and combine some fun reading with leaf peeping.