Member Article

Ex-police recreate crime-scenes

Though it’s usually the police that have their sources, Think Forensic – a company run by real-life law enforcement professionals - are positioning themselves on the other side of the fence, and becoming ‘sources’ themselves.

Recently, crime authors such as Lynda La Plante and Peter James openly shared the methods they employ to gain criminal and procedural insight, which helps them to weave authenticity into their plots. Each of the household-name authors interviewed confessed to consulting with police professionals as part of their research.

It may be easy for a well-known author to command the time of those in law enforcement, but it’s not necessarily the same for other authors writing in the same genre.

To this aim, Think Forensic have added crime-writing workshops to the vast range of CSI experiences they deliver to the general public, to schools, and to companies across the UK, from their purpose-built crime centre in Huddersfield. Invited by publisher Pan MacMillan to recreate crime scenes from Ann Cleeve’s ‘The Moth Catcher’ at this year’s national crime-writing festival, Think Forensic found that they were inundated with questions from authors who were looking to bring clarity and realism to their work. Many of these writers admitted that the opportunity to question those working in the field was simply too good to miss.

Though generic writing and publishing advice will be given during these day-long workshops, via the in-house forensic linguist and writing coach, the true benefit to crime-writers is the chance to walk through real crime scenes, recreated by the law enforcement professionals that worked on them originally. Scene-of-crime officers, Investigating Officers, Crash Investigators and Detective Superintendents will describe what they did at each crime scene, how they did it, with what budget, using which techniques, and to what outcome – plus much more.

This level of detail is crucial. Kimberley Chambers, author of ‘Payback’ says, “For the book, the Chief Inspector of the East End murder squad talked me through the aftermath of the discovery of a body, the scene-of-crime procedures and the decomposition process of someone who’d been in a shallow grave for several days. It’s the kind of detail that needs to be accurate so that scenes feel authentic.”

Long gone are the days when you can bend the ear of your local bobby for the price of a pint. Says Think Forensic’s Managing Director, Sue Procter, “TV programmes, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, may show the crime, the investigation and the verdict within an hour, and involving only the main characters - but this is far removed from what actually happens off screen.

Not only are our CSI author days informative, they’re fun, too. We’re looking to make a real difference to authors locally and across the U.K. Attendance to one of our workshops also gives the author access to a private member’s group, where they’re free to seek advice after the event itself, so that they can continue to employ a high level of accuracy as their book progresses.“

The first author event was fully booked very quickly; however, Think Forensic have now added more dates. The next available workshop will be on November 26, at their Huddersfield centre. Authors can book their place via Think Forensic’s website.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Diane Hall .