Modern Detective Work: Fact vs Fiction

There are a number of mystery fiction authors who have prior careers in law enforcement. That prior experience is a huge advantage since those authors have first-hand knowledge about what they are writing about. Their novels may be fiction but when they deal with the details of investigative work, such as fingerprints, forensic analysis, and what constitutes admissible evidence, they are relying on facts, not fiction.
 
Fact-based details are important in all areas of fiction. Romance authors can’t claim that a forty five-year old male heart throb is a Vietnam War veteran but they can credibly say he was wounded in the Iraq War. However, for murder mysteries, involving modern detective work, facts are critical and must be researched. This is particularly true in the area of forensic and DNA analysis. If you make a mistake with the science, one of your readers will catch it – guaranteed.
 
Fiction writing should not be confused with science fiction. Sci Fi writers can get away with intergalactic travel stories. They also don’t have to worry if their vampire must drink blood every day or just once a week. Mystery writers, on the other hand, have to be certain their forensic analysis conclusions by the criminalist are grounded in real science.
 
I found this out the hard way with Black Velvet. To fully explain what happened would be a plot spoiler for those who have not yet read the book. To prevent that from happening, I’ll just say that I didn’t properly understand the forensic difference between mitochondrial DNA and regular DNA. My microbiologist daughter caught my error but I forgot or didn’t understand what she told me. Fortunately for me, the murder mystery gods intervened and came to my rescue. The person who was my line editor for Black Velvet just happened to have prior experience in a biotech company and caught the same error that my daughter spotted. She pointed out that although my grammar and syntax were correct, my science was not.
 
In addition to getting chewed out by my daughter for not listening to her, I spent the next couple of days catching up on real DNA science and re-writing several chapters to correct my screw up. Were it not for that lucky break, Black Velvet might have been featured in future biology text books under the topic of common DNA mistakes. The bottom line is that in the world of detective mysteries, the plot is obviously fiction but the science must only be fact.