Poisons and drugs have been used as murder weapons for many centuries. Sometimes the poison itself does the killing and other times it simply facilities the use of another method. Here are three famous cases involving poisons and drugs. SHOW NOTES: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief-notes/48-3-famous-poisoning-cases.html

Amnesia has been a part of fiction for many years. Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity is a classic example. The character was apparently based on the real-life case of Ansel Bourne, who in 1887 was likely the first documented case of amnesia. Even Agatha Christie suffered her own brush with amnesia—or maybe not. This one has been the source of argument and conjecture for decades. I frequently receive questions from crime writers about amnesia so it remains a common topic. In fact, amnesia...

Your opening scene carries a heavy load. It must hook the reader, introduce the story question—and often the protagonist/antagonist—-reveal the setting/story world, evoke emotion in the reader, and reveal the voice and tone of the story. That’s a lot of work, and pressure on the writer. Show Notes: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief-notes/46-the-critical-opening.html Past Shows: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief.html

SHOW NOTES:http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief-notes/45-carbon-monoxide.html PAST SHOWS: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief.html From FORENSICS FOR DUMMIES: That Sneaky Carbon Monoxide Carbon monoxide is sneaky and deadly. When authorities find a suicide victim in her garage, sitting in a car with the engine running, they can usually chalk up that death to carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a tasteless, odorless, colorless gas that is completely undetectable by humans. It...

PAST SHOWS: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief.html SHOW NOTES: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief-notes/44-setting-as-character.html Can a story be set just anywhere? Some can, but most rely on the location and time period to underpin and amplify the story. In the best stories, setting becomes an essential character. Can you imagine James Lee Burke’s iconic Dave Robicheaux being anywhere but Louisiana? What about Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder or Michael Connolly’s Harry...

In the criminal investigation or injuries or deaths from gunshot wounds (GWSs), the anatomy of the entry and exit wounds, particularly the former, can reveal the nature of the weapon, the bullet size and characteristics, and of great importance, the distance between the muzzle and the entry wound. This distance can be a game changer when distinguishing between a self-inflicted wound (suicidal or accidental) and one from the hand of another (accidental or homicidal). It can also support or...

“Prior bad acts predict future bad acts.”—Harper McCoy Fear grips an isolated mountain town after drug dealer Dalton Southwell kills a rogue dealer and his entire family. Score settled, message delivered. But, Dalton’s best-laid plans go awry when his brother Dennie takes a bullet in the gut. In a panic, Dr. Buck Buckner is kidnaped from the local ER, a pharmacy is robbed and the owner murdered, and the killers melt into the rugged Tennessee hills. Buck’s physician father calls in Bobby Cain...

My dear friend Gayle Lynds recently posted an excellent article on the Rogue Women Writers blog titled “10 Rules For Writing A Best-selling Thriller.” Gayle offers many useful insights every writer should take to heart. In this show I want to expand and offer my views on a few of her points. 10 Rules For Writing A Best-selling Thriller by Gayle Lynds: https://www.roguewomenwriters.com/2020/09/10-rules-for-writing-best-selling.html

Crime writers love poisons. Even those who write the more cozy variety. I mean, arsenic and old lace? Arsenic, the queen of poisons, is often used as are the opioids and amphetamines and a few others. But maybe you want to explore more uncommon, and deadly, options for your story. Some are easy to come by, others a bit more difficult but all have been used and just might add to your story. PAST SHOWS: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief.html

Do Series Characters Change? A better question might be: Should series characters change? Go through some upheaval that arcs their life into uncharted waters? What is a character arc? Where does it come from? How do you create this in your fictional stories? More importantly, do you even need one?

Cops are cool, and memorable fictional characters, but P.I.s seem to come in more variable and quirkier flavors. From ex-military types to everyday folks with a knack for sniffing out wrongdoing to little old ladies with cats. The latter tend to be the smartest and toughest. This wide variety is what makes reading P.I. stories fun. Private investigators, both licensed and amateur, tend to be more eccentric, possess different skills (some useful, others less so), and seem to break the rules...

Jake Longly is the protagonist of my series of comedic thrillers (DEEP SIX, A-LIST, SUNSHINE STATE, RIGGED).He’s an ex-professional baseball player. Pitcher for the Texas Rangers with an overpowering fastball. Until his rotator cuff injury ended his career. Then he purchased Captain Rocky’s, a bar/restaurant on the sand in Gulf Shores, Alabama. His major life goals now are running his bar and chasing bikinis. Worthy goals for Jake. His father Ray feels otherwise. Ray has some murky...

Identifying skeletal remains is no easy task for the ME and the forensic anthropologist. SHOW NOTES: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief-notes/36-identifying-skeletal.html PAST SHOWS: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief.html

Most corpses that are the victims of foul play are easily identified because they’re found in familiar places and reported by folks who knew them. But those found in remote or odd places with no ID create problems for investigators. In these cases, identifying the corpse is a critical step in solving the case. SHOW NOTES: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief-notes/35-corpse-id.html PAST SHOWS: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief.html

In the remote past, most poisoners favored botanical products such as hemlock, oleander, deadly nightshade, foxglove, hellebore, monkshood, opium, and many others. These were easily available and untraceable. More recently, various chemicals have been added to this long list of plant-based poisons, which has made the work of the toxicologist that much more difficult. Show Notes: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief-notes/34-toxicology-part-3.html Past Shows:...

The biggest problem facing the toxicologist is that there are literally thousands of drugs and chemicals that are harmful, addictive, or lethal if ingested, injected, or inhaled. Some even absorb directly through the skin. Toxicological testing is time-consuming and expensive, and few, if any, labs can afford to perform such testing on every case. For this reason, the testing must be as focused as possible. SHOW NOTES:...

This is the first in a 3-part series on Forensic Toxicology LISTEN/SHOW NOTES: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief-notes/32-toxicology-part-1.html Past Shows: http://www.dplylemd.com/criminal-mischief.html

Some criminals attempt to destroy corpses, the primary pieces of evidence in homicides. They think that if the police never find the body, they can’t be convicted. This isn’t true, since convictions have in many cases been obtained when no body is found. And destroying a body is no easy task.

If Locard’s Exchange Principle is the cornerstone of forensic science, evidence is the heart and soul of the crime lab. Indeed, evidence is the sole reason it exists. Without evidence, what would the lab do? Evidence is used to determine if a crime has been committed, to link a suspect to a scene, to corroborate or refute an alibi or statement, to identify a perpetrator or victim, to exonerate the innocent, to induce a confession, and to direct further investigation.

SKIN IN THE GAME is the first story in my new Cain/Harper thriller series: Raised as siblings by an itinerant “gypsy” family, knife expert Bobby Cain, trained by the US military in the lethal art of covert eliminations, and Harper McCoy, nurtured by the US Navy and the CIA to run black ops and wage psychological warfare, are now civilians. Of a sort. Employing the skills learned from the “family” and their training, they now fix the unfixable. Case in point: Retired General William Kessler...

What is a MacGuffin? Since Alfred Hitchcock coined the term, his definition—such as it is—might be best: “The main thing I’ve learned over the years is that the MacGuffin is nothing. I’m convinced of this, but I find it difficult to prove it to others.”