Forensic specialist, screenwriter Jennifer Graeser Dornbush pens a crime novel

HALLIEEPHRON: I met Jennifer Graeser Dornbush at Willamette Writers Conference and knew I'd met a kindred spirit. She writes crime fiction for film, TV, and now novels. 

She was literally born into the forensic life. Her father was a medical examiner and his office was in their home. For decades she went on death investigations, received 360 hours of forensic training through the Forensic Science Academy, and studied current and historical forensic science. Her book, FORENSIC SPEAK, is used by cops, CSIs, and writers of all levels and hailed as the north star to crime writing. 

Now she's out with her first crime novel, THE CORONER, and I'm delighted to welcome her to Jungle Red. 

What inspired you to write THE CORONER, and did the story grow out of personal experience?

JENNIFER GRAESER DORNBUSH: 100%. Long before American television was saturated with CSI and Forensic Files, I was living my own weekly CSI adventure with my family in northern Michigan. My father was a medical examiner for three counties and my mother assisted as his office manager. They ran the office out of our home because the county was underfunded and could not provide him with one.

Dad performed autopsies at the small county hospital morgue, but all the records, paperwork, and photographs were kept in our family office. Samples of blood and  body tissue were stored in a basement freezer, right under the pork chops and frozen beans like some B-rated horror flick. Dinnertime conversations often revolved around the case of the week.

“Let me tell you about an interesting suicide I saw today,” my dad would say. “Oh, and pass the corn, please.” 

Dad investigated an average of 100 deaths a year. Accidents, suicides, natural deaths, and scores of drunk driving fatalities filled Dad’s days and nights and kept food in the cupboards and clothes on our backs. During the 23 years Dad worked in forensics, I had a hands-on education in death investigation. It was as natural as brushing my teeth.

When I started writing I began to tap into my past and discovered that I was drawn to crime stories – from Hitchcock to Fargo to Breaking Bad to Bones. The discovery that I loved this genre surprised me because until this point, I was not a CSI fan and rarely read crime novels. Now, suddenly, I felt deeply connected to my past. And I wanted more! I wanted to know everything.

I hounded Dad and Mom with phone calls, e-mails, and questions. I attended the Forensic Science Academy. From this experience my non-fiction book, FORENSIC SPEAK, was born and continues to be used by writers, professors, and law enforcement alike. I began speaking  about forensics to empower other storytellers with the treasure trove of experiences and knowledge from those decades of death investigation in my family’s home.

THE CORONER harkens to my experiences growing up in a small town and seeing how death investigation works in a rural area. I like to expose the reality that resources in rural areas are often limited and different than they are in big cities. I’m not saying they are not professional. They are. But the elements of staffing, equipment, education, experience, and budget all factor in and vary vastly from county to county.  I think it’s interesting to explore how small communities react when one of their own is taken from them.

No one remains anonymous in small towns. Everyone plays a role. Everyone is affected. Everyone has an opinion and a stake.

  

HALLIE: You’re also the author of an inspirational novel and feature film about an Army widow called God Bless the Broken Road - in theaters September 7th,  and a nonfiction book, Forensic Speak, about how to use the science of forensic investigation to write crime dramas.

How did writing a mystery differ?

JENNIFER: Storytelling is storytelling no matter the genre or format. All genres and formats follow the same story rules and arcs. I find it takes the same amount of time, effort, thought, energy, and research to develop a story whether it’s for book or screen. Creating a screenplay requires the same amount of story work as it does for a novel.

The only difference is that I can write a screenplay in a fraction of the time it takes me to write a novel because most of the backstory and ground work never shows up as words on the page.

Non-fiction is a whole different ball game. It requires a lot less emotional energy. And in that sense, it feels less exhaustive.  I love the challenge and results of all of them.

HALLIE: What was it like, being a little kid and getting to tag along on death investigations?

JENNIFER: One Sunday, when I was eight, my father toted us all over to the local airstrip. A small plane had crashed the night before and Dad wanted to return to the scene in daylight to scour the area for any remaining body pieces. My younger sister and I paired up to help him. Outfitted in our Sunday best, we roamed the damp field that early spring morning in search of brain matter and skullcap. And yes, we found some.

As a  teenager, I was rather grossed out and embarrassed about what my father’s job at M.E. These were the days before CSI and Forensic Files made death investigation exciting and cool. When my friends found out my dad did this, they took great interest, so that lessened the embarrassment on my part. And while I do love the sciences, I always knew my calling was to be on the storytelling side of crime solving.

HALLIE: Do you find yourself having to balance the requirements of storytelling with presenting accurate forensics science?

JENNIFER:  Yes and No. Both storytelling and forensic science are such a part of who I am that I feel like they flow innately from me almost through my subconscious. This is not to say that I don't have to research forensics. I do. It's a huge field of science that is always changing.

I have also studied story structure and character development for most of life and continue to do so. I'm a very strong plotter and learner and researcher. But there also comes that time in the creative process when you've outlined and researched enough to know that the balance is in check… or at least good enough… (done is better than perfect!) Move forward and just write! Trust that internal muse! After you get that first draft on paper, you can fix it in post (as they say in "the biz"). 

HALLIE: Did you plan out the mystery before you started or did you see where you writing took you? 

JENNIFER: I’m a plotter. That comes from my screenwriting training. When I start a new mystery I pretend I’m the investigator and I create a case file for my “case.” From there I create a rough skeleton outline of the mystery plot. After that I flesh out the character’s arcs and emotional journeys, and B, C, and D stories surrounding the case. Then, I create a treatment. Workshop it. Then, a first draft. More workshopping. I’m a collaborative writer. It’s more fun, makes the project stronger, and gets the project done faster.  

HALLIE: I'm so jealous. My writing process is much messier and sadly I fly solo.

You advise writers on how to get the forensics right. What are the three biggest mistakes writers make when writing in the crime genre? How can they best fix them?

JENNIFER:   

Mistakes:

1. Not spending the time, energy, or research to get the forensic facts right. 

2. Thinking that what you see on TV or in movies is correct procedure. 

3. Writing crime scenes that come off at cliche, plastic, or static (in action and dialogue!).

Fixes

1. Get a copy Forensic Speak! There are over 300 forensic terms, plus, a list of  

over 50 resources that will make your crime writing more authentic

2. Make friends with a cop, coroner, toxicologist, or crime scene investigator who can show you the real ropes!

3. Know the correct forensic terms and how to use them. Don't over use terms. Layer in the facts of the case/evidence to keep the plot moving, but center the focus of scenes around character conflict, tension, and emotional needs.

HALLIE: Jennifer will be checking in today, so take advantage of her expertise! Forensics! Plotting! The movie business! Ask away...

ABOUT THE CORONER: Summoned from her promising surgical career first to her estranged father’s bedside, and then his post as medical examiner when his small town needs urgent help with a suspicious death, Emily Hartford discovers home is where the bodies are in this pitch perfect mystery debut.

“If you like small town mysteries, twisty reads or books by Lisa Black or Patricia Cornwell, you'll love The Coroner.”―Karen Harper, New York Times bestselling author of Shallow Grave

Going to the dark side of crime writing with Kate Clark Flora

HALLIE EPHRON: Kate Clark Flora was probably the first mystery writer I met when I was publishing my first crime novel. An attorney turned novelist who wrote the wonderful Thea Kozak series, she generously welcomed me to the fold. Her FINDING AMY, a true crime, was an Edgar Award finalist. 

Kate has found a special niche for herself, helping cops tell their stories, both as true crime and in novel form with her Joe Burgess series. 

Her new book, Shots Fired: The Misunderstandings, Misconceptions and myths about Police Shootings, written with Joseph K. Loughlin, is a journey “behind the shield” which highlights the experiences of the real human beings in the line of fire. 

I'm in awe of the authenticity in her work. Today she shares with us where that authenticity comes from.

KATE FLORA: The reading community we write for is an informed and demanding one, so we all have to do research for our books. Because I write police procedurals and about real crime, some of my research tends to be quite dark. 

I was looking for a reference book on my shelf recently, and scanning the contents reminded me that a stranger, knowing little about me and what I do, might be taken aback by my collection. I’m the person who goes to a library book sale and is delighted to score a criminalistics textbook. I read an article in a recent New Yorker and immediately ordered a book about geographic profiling, only to find that I already have David Canter’s Mapping Murder on my shelf. Every book I write has research files, and I have a file of old New Yorker articles on fascinating subjects like using soil to track where a killer has been.

Sometimes these books are things I read out of curiosity; sometimes, they related to the actual work I’m doing. For example, when I was working with retired Portland, Maine deputy chief Joe Loughlin on a book about Amy St. Laurent’s murder, Finding Amy, there was trial testimony from a forensic entomologist about the fly larvae found with the buried body. I had recently read M. Lee Goff’s A Fly for the Prosecution, so I had a great reference for helping me illuminate the expert’s testimony. 

Also very helpful in writing the scenes about the forensic exhumation was an entire notebook about the process put together for me by a police detective down in Delaware. He created it for a fictional mystery that’s never been published, but it was waiting for me when I needed it for a real crime.

Other books on the shelves have come to me through conversations while I’m doing research. Sometimes I have a conversation with a detective, and order up a book he suggests. That happened when a detective in the Miramichi, New Brunswick police department was walking me through the slides he uses to teach interviewing technique at the police academy. Our conversation led me to Mark McClish’s book, I Know You Are Lying: Detecting Deception Through Statement Analysis. Listening to small language choices the interviewee makes can be very illuminating, as in the moment when the suspected killer in my true crime, Death Dealer, speaks about his missing wife in the past tense.

 

Once, after a conversation with a Portland detective about interviewing technique, I ran into my local police chief. He asked what I was working on, and I told him about the detective and some of the things he’d told me. 

“It’s all flavor of the month,” he said. “I’ll send you a book.” A few hours later, a patrol car stopped and the officer handed me a wonderfully informal, and informative self-published book by a Rochester, NY detective, Lt. Albert Joseph, Jr, called We Get Confessions.

After reading Gavin DeBecker’s The Gift of Fear, I found myself late one night sitting in a jail up in New Brunswick, waiting to do a ride-along, and discussing the book with another officer. It, and the companion book, Fearless, are great books about trusting instinct and learning to be safe and resilient.

Because I write with, and about cops, in my Joe Burgess police procedural series and in my nonfiction, I have an entire shelf about cops. One of the great books is Mark Baker’s Cops, another Adam Plantinga’s 400 Things Cops Know. Another, not for the faint of heart but worth getting from the library, is Practical Homicide Investigation. 

For anyone interested in police shootings in the cops’ own words, I just finished co-writing, with retired Deputy Chief Joseph Loughlin the book Shots Fired: The misunderstandings, misconceptions, and myths about police shootings.

 

There are books about the criminal mind, crime scene investigation, and methods of murder. Sometimes, I carry my enthusiasm too far. Once, while I was cooking for a dinner party, my husband suggested that having a book about plant poisons open on the counter when the guests arrived might not be a good idea. Another time, invited by a library in New Hampshire to talk about “The Dark Side of Crime Writing,” I had happily embarked on a talk about dissection of the liver before I realized that readers might not really to need to know all that goes into making the sausage to enjoy it.

I wonder—are your bookshelves as dark as mine? What are your go-to books for crime writing?

Maine native and recovering attorney Kate Clark Flora writes true crime, strong women, and police procedurals. Led Astray is her latest Joe Burgess police procedural; Death Warmed Over is her latest Thea Kozak mystery. Her fascination with people’s bad behavior began in the Maine attorney general’s office chasing deadbeat dads and protecting battered children. In addition to her crime fiction, she’s written two true crimes and a memoir with public safety personnel, and most recently Shots Fired: The Misconceptions, Misunderstandings and Myths About Police-Involved Shootings, co-written with former Portland assistant chief Joseph Loughlin, and a story in a collection entitled, The Obama Inheritance. Flora has been an Edgar, Derringer, Agatha and Anthony finalist and twice won the Maine literary award for crime fiction. 

HALLIE: This sent me scurrying to my office bookshelf where I keep my reference books...

• Magic and Showmanship: A Handbook for Conjurers by Henning Nelms
• An Actor Prepares by Stanislavski
• Whistlin' Dixie: A Dictionary of Southern Expressions by Robert Hendrickson
• The Handbook of Doll Repair & Restoration by Marty Westfall

Kate will be here today to answer your questions and chat about her passion for telling it like it is when it comes to police and the challenges they face. 

I'm wondering, for a start, what she thinks the biggest misconception is about police work.

Papa Haydn on the Case--Music and Mystery

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Uh-oh. Stuff you never thought about. 

You think this murder stuff is easy? Huh.  

As author Nupur Tustin says on Franz Joseph Haydn: “You may know him as a composer. You may even know him as Kapellmeister—Director of Music—to the powerful Esterhazy Princes. Now, I’d like to introduce you to Haydn, the Kapell-Detective.”

But in writing about Haydn the detective, Nupur ran into a bit of a dilemma. The question:  Can forensic science play a role in historical mysteries? And the answer? Well, it’s fascinating. And who better to interview her about it—than the author herself?  

NUPUR TUSTIN: Why would a writer of historical mysteries bother researching forensic techniques?

I was writing the first draft of A Minor Deception, when a dead body showed up, and I realized that I had absolutely no idea how to describe it.

Obviously some sort of description was necessary. There was a corpse in the wine-tavern. Even if Haydn looked away, revolted, after his first glance, I'd have to provide some explanation as to the cause of his revulsion. Moreover, the barber-surgeon, also present at the scene, was unlikely to be quite so squeamish.

But things were so different back in the eighteenth century?

Then again, some things don't change. Whether your mystery is set in eighteenth-century Austria or twenty-first century Los Angeles, when a body appears on the scene, you need to give your reader some idea of what your sleuth sees. Manners and customs may have changed, but the changes that take place in the body after death have not.

Some changes like rigor mortis—the stiffening of the limbs after death—would have been commonplace in a time when death itself was an everyday occurrence.

Other changes—such as the bloating that occurs as toxins are released in the process of decomposition—may have seemed more unnatural. Certainly in eighteenth-century Austria these changes led to a vampire scare so widespread, the Empress Maria Theresa had to command her personal physician to look into the matter.

Whether your victim is an eighteenth-century traveler or a twenty-first century lawyer, the appearance of a stabbing or bludgeoning or death by drowning remain the same.

Yes, but how much would an eighteenth-century individual know about the signs that point to violent death?

Your eighteenth-century sleuth may not necessarily realize the bloodshot appearance of a victim's eyes points to death by strangulation, but that's not to say he or she won't notice it.

An experienced executioner might even be able to tell your sleuth about this particular phenomenon. You can't hang criminals, lop off their heads, or carry out other similar executions without learning a thing or two about what happens during and after the event.

All right, forensic pathology may be useful, but what made you delve deeper?

Although forensic pathology gave me nightmares, my introduction to it brought me into contact with other fascinating technologies available to the modern investigator. When a fellow crime writer shared the news of a free online course taught by the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, I was eager to take it, although I didn't think I'd learn much from it of value to the Haydn Mysteries.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Seriously? 

Absolutely. As I worked with fellow students on solving a true crime, I realized there was more to investigating a crime than pulling out all the stops with the fancy techniques available to us. Based on what the investigator sees at the crime scene, the initial interviews, and oftentimes the subsequent behavior of the survivors, a hypothesis is formulated.

It is this hypothesis that directs further investigation.

In fact as I worked on the case, I realized my questions, and the ones the instructors were prompting me to ask, had nothing to do with the examination of trace evidence and everything to do with (a) the appearance of the crime scene, and the mismatch between it and the story the victim's husband gave the initial responders; (b) my knowledge of human behavior; and (c) my nascent knowledge of criminal behavior.

Can you illustrate those three types of questions?

Sure. Here's an example of the first type. The gunman had apparently opened the passenger-side door, and in a struggle with the victim, shot her in her right temple. The incident took place in the U.K., meaning that the entry wound would have to be in the left temple for that story to be accurate. Her right temple faced her husband.

The position of the body suggested she'd been looking straight ahead when she'd been shot.

As for the second and third, having shot one individual, how plausible is it that the killer would have left the other alive to potentially identify him? The woman had received a fatal wound to her temple; but her husband had sustained only a minor injury to his left arm.

Fascinating! But how did all this help with the Haydn Mysteries?

The questions I asked as I worked on this case are the same type of questions I have Haydn ask when he's presented with a crime. What's the most likely hypothesis based on the initial evidence? If new evidence challenges his initial assumptions, what explanation might take into account both the old and the new evidence?

Since I already know who the killer is, thinking in this way helps me to refine the plot as I write my novel. I'm not only considering how to present evidence based on what actually happened, I'm also thinking about plausible ways in which it might be misinterpreted.

You're forgetting they didn't have the technology to evaluate trace evidence back then.

I've come to realize that forensic evidence is more important in presenting a cast-iron case in court than in actually solving the crime. While in some cases, it does solve the crime, in others, it has to be taken in conjunction with other types of evidence gleaned from interviews with the victim's family, suspects, and anyone remotely involved. Frequently, two experts will disagree on whether fingerprints or tire marks or even handwriting match. And DNA evidence is only as good as the kit used to collect it.

Sounds like a lot of work. Don't you already have your hands full researching the time period?

Oddly enough, it makes writing a historical mystery much easier. The same type of investigative work needs to be done to narrow down the list of suspects and to follow leads. I still, of course, try to present the reader with as much cast-iron evidence as I can.

What about you, readers? Are you convinced that learning about contemporary investigative techniques can be helpful even to a writer of historical mysteries? Can you think of examples from mysteries you've written or read?

HANK: Oh, that is so fascinating! Huh. I keep thinking about The Alienist. It’s such a complicated balance—because we as readers are reading trough the prism of what we know—and compare it to how what it was like in the past. How do we change our perspective and expectations to feel comfortable in the past? 

Love this, Nupur!  And tell us more about your book.

And I’m delighted to give a copy of A MINOR DECPTION to one lucky commenter. Are you a fan of classical music?

Bio:  A former journalist, Nupur Tustin relies upon a Ph.D. in Communication and an M.A. in English to orchestrate fictional mayhem. Childhood piano lessons and a 1903 Weber Upright share equal blame for her musical works.

Haydn Series: http://ntustin.com     

Amazon  Barnes & Noble   Kobo   iBooks  Goodreads

 Kapellmeister Joseph Haydn would like nothing better than to show his principal violinist Bartó Daboczi the door. But with the Empress Maria Theresa’s visit scheduled in three weeks, Haydn can ill-afford to lose his surly virtuoso.

But when Bartó disappears—along with all the music composed for the imperial visit—the Kapellmeister is forced to don the role of Kapell-detective, or risk losing his job.

Before long Haydn’s search uncovers pieces of a disturbing puzzle. Bartó, it appears, is more than just a petty thief—and more dangerous. And what seemed like a minor musical mishap could modulate into a major political catastrophe unless Haydn can find his missing virtuoso.

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! )