Who, US? It's all fiction, really it is....

HANK PHILLIPPPI RYAN:  What is “moumiophilia”? You’ll know in a moment!

Yup, he's reading  a book Becky edited!

But first, there are many things that bring crime fiction together—and one of them is the stuff we all think and talk about—and how disconcerting it can be to those who don’t realize why we’re doing it.

One of my favorite examples happened once at dinner, at a lovely restaurant, as I was saying to Jonathan: ‘Well, you can’t just throw someone off a bridge to kill them. They wouldn’t necessarily die, and someone would probably see you.”

And then the waiter—who happened to be standing there and had overheard me—said, “Um, ma’am?”

So you can imagine the conversations Becky Masterman has had. And one was about moumiophilia.

Becky Masterman and friend

So:  true story, and one to remember—Masterman says when she was sending queries  about her book starring a retired FBI agent main character, she sent one to an agent who responded, “Nobody is interested in a woman older than thirty."

Wrong. She exploded onto the crime fiction scene last year with the Edgar-nominated RAGE AGAINST THE DYING—one of those books that instantly sets the standard. Publisher's Weekly starred review said: "one of the most memorable FBI agents since Clarice Starling, as well as a killer debut thriller."


Now she has a new book—FEAR THE DARKNESS--that’s getting equally universal acclaim.

And starting our week looking at “reinvention”: Becky Masterman didn’t start out as a crime fiction author. She started as—well, let her tell you. And that’s where the moumiophilia comes in. 

WHO ME?

   By Becky Masterman

 

 “. . .a first novel that reads as if Masterman’s been sitting for a long time on some truly ugly secrets.”

My response to that review was, “Who me? Come on, it’s not that bad, is it?”

You see, for fifteen years I worked as an editor for a reference publisher, commissioning books on forensic science.  

 I discussed blow flies over dinner, and whether or not the blood spatter on the wall beside the staircase resulted from an accidental fall.  Frankly, when I first

started this job I felt like the girl in the playground being chased by a boy with a frog.  I felt as if these guys were testing my gag reflex to see if I could take it.  I sensed that being able to talk about murder over a meal without dropping my fork was critical to my success as an editor. 

I got used to the grisly, the shocking, the macabre.  So when I started my crime series about a retired FBI very special agent named Brigid Quinn, I found myself privy to a whole world of resources.  Like Brigid, I didn’t know much about forensic science, but I knew everyone who did. 

Mostly I’ve dealt with authors who know me as their editor, so when, for my first book, Rage Against the Dying, I contacted my paraphilia expert and asked him what the word was for someone who was sexually aroused by mummies, he didn't hesitate.  He answered, “Ah, I have a list of 547 paraphilias, but that is not one of them.  I will create a new term in your honor, moumiophilia!”

Dr. Aggrawal understood why I was asking him about mummies.  While researching Fear the Darkness, however, I was talking to a medical examiner I had just met at a conference.  All intent on getting some information critical to my plot, I asked, “Say, if I killed someone by pressing on their carotid artery, would you be able to tell the cause of death in the autopsy?”  The medical examiner narrowed her eyes and responded, “And you want to know this. . .why?” 

But I think the story that most personifies what it’s like to work in the world of forensic science is when I was having dinner in the elegant restaurant of the Seelbach Hilton in Louisville.  Another author of mine, who is a forensic anthropologist, was explaining to me over cocktails how she had been asked to examine a head that had been encased in concrete.  She was amazed at how beautifully preserved it was.  I was rapt.  The waiter came to our table at that moment and apologized for interrupting what appeared to be an intense conversation.

“Oh, no problem,” I said.  “It’s just girl talk.”

HANK:  Have you ever been “overheard,” Reds? DO you think readers are interested in women over 30? (::ducking::) And any questions for Becky? Pssst. Ask about the fine for killing a--cactus. Yup, a cactus. 

(And a copy of FEAR THE DARKNESS for one lucky commenter! ) 

Tales as Old as Time

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Where do you get your ideas? Is it not the BEST question? Yes, yes, it’s complicated, and sometimes unanswerable. But sometimes, you get to hear the BEST answers.

And here, from the real-life forensic scientist and CSI (and crime fiction author) Lisa Black, is a “where do you get your ideas” answer I’ve  NEVER heard before.

You’d think Lisa would get them from her everyday real life--after all, she’s analyzed crime scenes and tracked down real-life criminals.

 But nope.

She gets her ideas--and lessons in point of view, and character development, and motivation—from a place you might never have predicted.

ANCIENT MOTIVATIONS

                 By Lisa Black

         We all know that why our characters do what they do is much more interesting than what they do. It is also much more difficult to explain, to express to our readers, and yet is absolutely vital to the proper telling of a story.

         A year or two ago, as part of a self-imposed cultural enrichment program and trying to Be a Better Person and whatnot, not to mention getting my husband to turn off the television for a whole half hour, we started reading the Bible. I had heard readings all my life, of course, and with my husband’s upbringing he had actually had fairly extensive schooling (I say ‘actually’ because if you met my husband, the presence of any sort of religious experience in his background would come as a stunner), but neither had ever read it cover to cover. And, speaking now strictly as a writer, I’m so glad I did.

         I knew, of course, that the western world tends to reference a Judeo-Christian heritage, but again, speaking strictly as a writer, I had no idea how much.      

The basis of our entire justice system is in there. The idea that lying in wait to kill someone is somehow more repugnant than simply killing him—today that specific phrase is one of the aggravating factors used to determine eligibility for the death penalty in many states. Also mentioned is the idea that if you are forced to commit a crime and could do nothing to stop it, then you are not guilty of it. If, however, you could do something, then that’s a whole ‘nother stretch of road.

         There are so many phrases and figures of speech still used today—by the skin of his teeth, at wit’s end, as old as the hills, the blind leading the blind—to name the merest fraction. And then there are the stories. If we thriller writers seek tales of deceit, treachery and betrayal, as well as passion, love and selflessness, they’re all there.

         I often complain to my husband that you can tell the books were written by men. Moses and Jeremiah note every battle fought and every meal ate, but leave out the obvious things like why? And how did he feel about that? I know many books were written long after events occurred and the writers had to work with what they had, and I don’t mean to male-bash, but honestly—isn’t this just like when you come home from a dinner party and your husband has noted every option of Bob’s new car, but never asked Bob why he and Janice are divorcing?

        

    For instance, King Solomon had an older brother, Adonijah. Being the elder, Adonijah, reasonably enough, thought he should be king and isn’t happy when dad David promoted little brother Solomon instead. After a scuffle he seems to accept his fate and is a model citizen for forty years. He then tries another coup, this one equally unsuccessful. 

        

      Why? Did he think he could handle his lot in life, really tried to be happy being the Fredo of the David dynasty, did a slow burn for four decades and finally couldn’t stand it any more? Or did he actually bide his time for half his life, until he figured (wrongly) he had enough pals in the city to overthrow the palace?

       

        And in a ‘here’s the rest of the story’ incident, after this second coup Adonijah knows he’s in deep trouble with his brother and goes to the only person who can help—Mom. She relays to Solomon that Adonijah knows he did wrong, he’s sorry, he’ll be a good boy again, but he wants a favor—to marry a particular woman. Solomon, who’s been surprisingly sanguine about the whole matter up to this point, not only says no but then executes Adonijah, apparently not for trying to oust him from the throne but for having the gall to ask for a wife on top of it. 

       

     Why? This woman is not mentioned before or afterwards so it wasn’t some sort of love triangle. Was asking for a favor when you’re lucky just to have your life spared simply the straw that broke the back of fraternal sentiment? Or did Solomon believe that anyone with that kind of arrogance hadn’t learned a thing and would continue to plot coups? What? Why?

         

   

 Then there’s Jezebel. Jezebel and her boyfriend King Ahab were the Bonnie and Clyde of the Bible, sociopathic, violent and voracious. She is truly evil—she destroyed a man just to cheer up her pouting hubby with the guy’s vineyard—but I can’t help but catch a tiny glimpse of her point of view.

        

      She had been born a princess and then, just as every princess up until the last century or so, traded like a live pawn to a stranger in a foreign land in the name of political expediency. Yet in no time at all she has her new husband in her hip pocket.

          

      Among other things a kerfluffle with Elijah ensued when that prophet had a smackdown with her priests of Baal, seeing who could get whose god to light a fire. The Baal camp failed. Elijah even stacked the deck against himself, soaking the wood with water to make it really impossible, then prayed and it burst into flames.

          

      Having thoroughly trounced the other side—and here is another why? moment to me—he kills them all. Which, let’s be fair, could be seen as a trifle unnecessary. Certainly Jezebel thought so, and sent a message to Elijah that essentially said “what you did to them, I’m going to do to you—by this time tomorrow.” Elijah is so frightened of Jezebel, this female, foreign-born political pawn, that he hides in the forest for forty days. 

        

      As befits a good story, Jezebel comes to a bad end. With Ahab dead and an army advancing on her city, she does her hair up, puts on her makeup, and stands in a window. Let me point out that Adolf Hitler crawled into a bunker and shot himself, and they found Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole.

         

     But Jezebel fixes her hair and stands there and watches them come. Like Bonnie, maybe like Evita, maybe like Leona Helmsley, I don’t like her, but I can’t help but note her almost superhuman strength. But where did it come from? Was she simply playing the hand she’d been dealt, being the best queen she could be using the Machiavellian training of her parents’ court? Was she proving to the world that women could rule with a hand more iron than any man? Did she really think she was Baal’s specially selected sales rep? Or were the forces in her darker, more deep-seated, swirling and growing since birth?

          

         The whys fascinate me. So what this writer learned from the Bible other than phrase origins and some fabulous prose, is that the motivations of our characters are their most captivating, and difficult, quality. Without a thorough examination of the insides of their head, their actions and trials and plots are as bones lying scattered on the desert sands.

HANK:  I am sitting here, still picturing Jezebel at the window. Wow. And it also proves, no matter, what or where, it’s all about telling a good story.

     Did you read Bible stories as a kid? As an adult?  Is there a character in a Bible story you think about?  Job? Lot’s wife? Noah?

*************************

        

           

Close to the Bone hits forensic scientist Theresa MacLean where it hurts, bringing death and destruction to the one place where she should feel the most safe—the medical examiner’s office in Cleveland, Ohio, where she has worked for the past fifteen years of her life. Theresa returns in the wee hours after working a routine crime scene, only to find the body of one of her deskmen slowly cooling with the word “Confess” written in his blood. His partner is missing and presumed guilty, but Theresa isn’t so sure. The body count begins to rise but for once these victims aren’t strangers—they are Theresa’s friends and colleagues, and everyone in the building, herself included, has a place on the hit list.

Lisa Black spent the five happiest years of her life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office she analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now she’s a certified latent print examiner and CSI for the Cape Coral Police Department in Florida. Her books have been translated into six languages and one reached the NYT mass market bestseller’s list.

             

Police Procedure: 5 Ways We Get It Wrong

AND THE WINNERS ARE: Congratulations! Copies of the gorgeous new trade paperback edition of Julia Spencer-Fleming's "A Fountain Filled with Blood" are going to (drum roll, please!) Charmaine, Jess, and Darlene! Send your address to julia "at" juliaspencerfleming dot com.

BREAKING NEWS: Today we're giving away 3 COPIES of the trade paperback of "One Was a Soldier" to lucky commenters!

HALLIE EPHRON: I first met writer and former police detective Lee Lofland a few years ago when he and I were on a panel at Bouchercon. Soon after, he and his wife moved all too briefly to the Boston area just after he had finished up his fabulous resource for mystery writers, "Police Procedure & Investigation." I've followed his blog, Graveyard Shift, picking up insights.



He talked then about a dream he had, mounting a Writers' Police Academy that would focus on offering writers/us rubes an in-depth understanding of law enforcement and forensics. Ride alongs. Jail tours. Experts. When Lee moved to North Carolina, another brief stay, he made that dream a reality. 

Registration for this year's Writers' Police Academy, September 20-23, 2012, in Jamestown, NC, is now underway.
 

Welcome, Lee, to Jungle Red! I do think, thanks to you, we writers are getting smarter about police procedure and forensics. But what mistakes do you still see writers making? 

LEE LOFLAND: You know, I wish I could say the errors I see in books about police procedure and forensics are all mistakes, but they’re not...not all of them. Some of inaccuracies occur due to ill-informed editors who think they know it all because they’ve religiously watched CSI on TV since episode one hit the airwaves. Other mistakes occur because writers fall into the rut of “that’s the way it was done in so-and-so’s book,” therefore it must be right.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the writer who thinks he’s conducted solid research because he went out of his way to contact his friend who is a friend of the barber who cuts the hair of the guy who lives next to the woman whose sister married a guy who’s on a bowling team with a guy who was once interviewed for a job as a police officer. Not exactly the best of resources.

These five are the most common:

1. FBI agent rides into town to take over a murder investigation, or a kidnapping. Well, to begin with, the FBI, as a rule, does NOT work murder investigations, unless it is the killing of one of their own, or the murder of a federal official (senator, congressman, U.S. president, etc.). They also work murders on federal property. But they don’t investigate the murder of Mr. I.B. Dead that occurred Anytown, USA.

Local police investigate their own murder cases. Not the FBI. If local cops do decide to ask for federal assistance on a case, the FBI would act in a supporting role, leaving the local officers in charge of the operation. So, please, at least think twice before sending your FBI agent/protagonist riding into town on a white horse to save the day. It just doesn’t happen that way, unless your story involves art theft or treason.

Also, each state has its own kidnapping statutes, which means any police officer in any state can work a kidnapping case, and they do.

Here’s a link to one of my articles that spells out exactly which cases FBI agents investigate.

2. Cordite. Grrr... Cordite has not been around in decades. Therefore, your hero CANNOT walk into a crime scene and “smell the lingering odor of cordite in the air.” NO, NO, and NO!

Modern ammunition uses smokeless powder to propel the bullet. Smokeless powder has an odor that’s quite similar to the smell that hangs in the air after a 4th of July fireworks show (minus the beer and hotdogs).

3. Cop’s suspended from duty, yet he still continues the investigation on his own time. Another Grrr... I see this all the time in books. In fact, it’s a pretty predictable occurrence, and it’s wrong, not to mention boring.

When an officer is suspended, so are his police powers (usually). He does not have the authority to investigate, arrest, etc. Therefore, if he did make an arrest while on suspension, the case could be tossed out of court. And, he could be held liable for the illegal detention of the suspect. Basically, that’s kidnapping.

4. The karate chop to the back of the neck that knocks the bad guy unconscious. Puhleeze.... The only thing that would do is make the guy really angry.

FYI - Knocking someone unconscious is a bit more of a task than you’d think, and I’m a perfect example of that. A thug once used a wooden baseball bat to try to prevent me from arresting him. The jerk did manage to connect a hefty swing to the back of my head just as I was turning away from the incoming bat. Sure, it knocked me down, and it hurt, a lot, but when I managed to get to my feet, well, let’s just say I “gently” placed him under arrest.

5. A karate chop to the wrist, causing the bad guy drop his gun. Double Puhleeze... If a bad guy points a gun at a cop, well, let’s just say he should feel properly aerated immediately after pulling his weapon on the officer. No karate chops.

And, please don’t make the mistake of having your protagonist shoot the gun or knife from the hand of a bad guy. Unless your officer is a highly skilled sniper, that ain’t happening. Cops are trained to shoot center mass, which means the center of the largest part of the visible target.

Some officers are such poor shots that they’re extremely lucky to hit a man-size target. So hitting a hand would be an extremely huge stroke of luck. In fact, there’s a recent story of a police chief who was fired because he’d failed to shoot qualifying score on the firing range.

HALLIE: I'm embarrassed to say that I've made at least ONE of these mistakes. Not sayin' which.

Writers’ Police Academy has grown so much -- what are some of the exciting goings-on this year?


LEE: Writers’ Police Academy (WPA) is not a typical writers conference. We don’t do author or agent panels. Nor do we do the typical breakout sessions where local cops stand in front of the room to talk shop.WPA is all about learning the behind-the-scenes details and having a ton of fun while you’re doing it.

We are the real deal, a one of a kind event, featuring real police, fire, forensics, and EMS training at an actual police academy with classes and workshops taught by real police academy instructors and top experts from around the country. The only thing you can’t do at the WPA is to see and do it all in a single weekend.

HALLIE: What's on your roster this year?

LEE: Here's just a few of the experts we've got.

• Marcia Clark (former OJ Simpson prosecutor)
• Experts from Sirchie Fingerprint Laboratories
• World-renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. Elizabeth Murray
• Author Kathy Harris (marketing manager for the Oak Ridge Boys)
• Cold case and bloodstain pattern expert Dave Pauly
• Detective Lee Lofland

And workshops:
- Interview and Interrogation.
- Cold Case Investigations.
- Dive teams

- Arson investigation
- Gangs

- Firefighting

- Treating gunshot victims
- Driving simulator
- Arrest techniques and Handcuffing

- Shallow grave investigations
- Explosive and bomb squad
-Jail searches - we have fully-equipped onsite jail cells
- Underwater evidence recovery (we have an onsite pool!)
- Tons of police equipment and dozens of vehicles for demos and for your up-close inspection, including helicopter, command posts, patrol vehicles, bomb

HALLIE: WOW. There is really nothing else quite like it. Anyone who's writing police procedure owes it to themselves to show up.

Lee will be checking back in today to answer questions, and on Friday he'll be back to talk about knotty issues like how an author can credible get their civilian sleuth involved in an investigation. He'll also give thumbs-up and thumbs-down to a few top TV shows.

ON EXPLORING LOFLAND

"Let me just ask you one more thing...."

Lt. Columbo
Lee Lofland--he makes you laugh and he knows two hundred ways to kill you. And he's much smarter than Columbo. Don't even think about trying to fool him. Of course you know Lee is the author of Police Procedure and Investigation, A Guide For Writers (Writers Digest Books). And yes, he's a nationally acclaimed expert on police procedure and crime-scene investigation. He is also a consultant for many bestselling authors and television and film writers. His current works-in-progress are a mystery novel and a children’s book about police and CSI that’s scheduled for release in 2008. And his wife (who could be another blog interview!) is lovely. And very patient. But Lee put down his doughnut and coffee...really, it was a raspberry croissant and skim latte...to chat with me about himself. (Okay, joke. It was coffee.)

And don't miss the trick question at the end!

Hank: Did you always want to be in law enforcement?

Lee: I was an avid reader from the moment I could put two words together to form a sentence. I discovered the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine at an early age and those wonderful stories sparked my interest in solving crime. So, yes, even as a child my goal was to be a police detective.

The desire to work in law enforcement was paired with the longing to be a writer. I was also a huge fan of Poe, Dickens, and my relative, Dr. John Lofland, the first Poet Laureate of Delaware, who was a great friend of Edgar Allan Poe.

Hank: When did you make that decision? And why?

Lee: I made the decision to become a police officer when I was in junior high school, The turning point was when my best friend's brother was hired by our local police department. He came home on weekends and shared such exciting stories about his academy training. Oh, the way he talked about chasing bad guys and working crime scenes. It was fascinating. I was hooked from that moment forward.

It took me such a long time to get into police work because I wanted to work for one particular department, for a specific sheriff, and that office had almost no turnover. I actually begin the journey by going to work in the state prison system as a corrections officer. I'd hoped that experience and training would help get my foot in the door of the sheriff's office. It worked.

Hank: Wait--your relative was a pal of Poe's? Do you have any inside scoop?

Lee: Dr. John Lofland was the first official poet for the State of Delaware and authored the poems in the book The Poetical and Prose Writings of Dr. John Lofland, the Milford Bard. Of course, he wrote other poems and books, and, yes, he and Poe were great friends. Buddies.

In fact, in 1830 Dr. John Lofland accepted a challenge from Edgar Allan Poe at the Stars and Stripes Tavern on Water St. in Baltimore Md. The challenge was to see which of the two could write the greater number of verses. Poe lost to Lofland in the marathon contest and was obligated to pay for dinner and drinks for his good friend. I like to think this as proof a Lofland received the first ever Edgar Award, dinner and drinks from Poe himself!

Hank: Very cool. (And maybe you’ll get the next one?) But back to your own history. What surprised you as a corrections officer?

Lee: I suppose the thing that surprised me the most was that a prison is a separate world from the one beyond the walls and razor wire. It's a culture all its own, complete with an inmate legal system that's policed by the prisoners themselves. The incarcerated residents have even devised and maintain their own currency.

Of course, there were many other surprises, such as the working conditions. No, not because of the inmate activity; because of the stress and pressures applied by the prison administration and the grueling work schedule that imposed on the security staff.

Another surprise was to learn about the extreme waste of time and space. There's no wonder the recidivism rate is so high. Warehousing men and women doesn't seem to work. Sure, it's fine for career criminals - put them away and lose the key - , but not for those who truly need to, and want to, make a go of it after they've paid their debt to society. They don't stand a chance of becoming productive citizens after they're released from the moment they first step into their cells. Prison-life can actually train people to become better criminals and that's not the way it's supposed to work.

Hank: Did you meet people who will inhabit your books?

Lee: There's a never-ending supply of characters living in the far corners of my mind. I've seen the worst-of-the-worst, and I seen those who simply caught an unlucky break. I remember one inmate in particular who, while on the outside, lived across the street from his daughter and son-in-law. One night he heard his daughter screaming for help and ran to help her. When he opened the front door to his daughter's house, he was horrified to see her husband viciously beating and raping the man's only child. When he couldn't pull his son-in-law away from the girl, he went back across the street and retrieved his shotgun. Then he returned and killed his son-in-law, an act that may have saved the young woman's life. The father received a life sentence for pre-meditated murder.

My daughter went to work for the prison system many, many years after I'd left (I tried to discourage it, but she did it anyway. Thankfully, she saw the light and is no longer there). Last year, during Christmas, she began to tell me a sad story of meeting an old man, an inmate, who'd killed his son-in-law because he was raping the man's daughter. Yep, it was the same man, same sad story. Sometimes, I wonder how many people have shared that man's nightmare over the years.

On the other hand, there are those inmates who killed for sport. I have no sympathy for those monsters.

Hank: Did you keep a diary or journal?
Lee: I don't have a day-to-day journal of my entire life, but I do have notes and memos detailing important events. I also have my notes from my years as a patrol officer and detective. I even have a few old copies of case file. I recently discovered an old log book from my days as a sheriff's deputy. If anyone's curious, I can tell you how many gallons of gas it took to fill the tank on my patrol car in the early 80s. I also have tons of photos for inspiration. My memories of this time of my life replay themselves over and over again in my mind. There's definitely never going to be a shortage of book fodder. And this was just the beginning of my career.


Hank: Your Police Procedure book is amazing--a wealth of information, as useful as an encyclopedia, and as readable as a novel. Forgive the predictable question--but was it a tough book to write and put together?

Lee: My first effort at a police procedure guide was intended to be a manual to compliment the workshops I conduct for writer's conferences. I put it all together and then someone said, "Gee, you should make this into a book." So I did. My agent called me one afternoon and said, "They love your book. Absolutely love it, but there's one section they'd like you to change in order for them to publish it." I thought, well how fantastic is that, and asked what they'd like changed. In a soft, sweet voice she replied, "Pretty much everything between the first and last page." So I started over. I guess that was better than a rejection.

When I first had the idea to write the book you see now, I thought it would be a piece of cake. After all, I'd lived the life and thought I knew it all. I quickly found out how wrong I was. The result came from two-and-a-half years of intense research. I also had to dig up plenty of old memories and not all of those recollections were pleasant. I did, however, make a lot of new friends. I’m glad to have finally moved on to fiction. The funny thing is that I find myself referring to my own book as a source of research for the novel I'm writing. Go figure.

Hank: Yeah, your novel! Tell all.
Lee: For now, I'm calling it The March of the Spiders. It's a convoluted story of a detective who's struggling to function in a normal world. His turmoil began when he shot and killed a young man during a gun battle. He hasn't been able to cope with ending the robber's life, and he's been in therapy since the event occurred. In fact, he hasn't been able to carry a loaded gun since that day, fearing he'd be placed in the position of hurting someone else.

The detective lost his beloved wife to cancer and, since her death, he's been raising their teenage daughter. He still loves his wife dearly and misses her greatly. He's lonely, and his grief is apparent during the conversations he has with the photograph of his smiling wife that's taped to the dashboard of his police car.

The return of a murderer, a killer with an agenda that includes the protagonist, has further complicated the detective's problems. Murder, abduction, addiction, and nail-biting nightmares are all obstacles in the hero's path. Through twisted thoughts, nightmares, self-pity, and the voices of the dead echoing inside his head, the detective is determined to succeed in his quest to become the father his daughter so desperately needs.

The book ends with an unexpected twist.

Thanks Lee! Now, before everyone heads over to The Graveyard Shift, a guide to all things cops and robbers http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/ to get all their own questions answered--

Time for the Jungle Red Quiz! (Our own unexpected twist.) Tell us four things about you. But make only three of them true. See if we can guess which one is a trick!

1) I play several musical instruments

2) I have a collection of mug shots of every person I arrested who was convicted.
3) I once appeared in the audience on The Jerry Springer Show

4) I have a tattoo of Mickey Mouse

So--what do you all think? I think if 1 is true, we have our next Sisters In Crime Meeting agenda all set.