How far would you go to protect a secret? Would you risk your job for it, your friends your family? Would you kill for it?

The story behind the latest DI Andy Horton crime novel, Shroud of Evil number eleven in the series, explores the corrosive nature of secrets. It plunges the flawed and…

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I'm often asked how I research my crime novels and in particular the police procedure and crime scene investigation side of things. I'm not married to a police officer or a former police officer (although I am married to a former fire-fighter) so I don't have inside knowledge except when it comes to fires, burnt bodies and serious road and other incidents which fire fighters attend, and they can all be incorporated into a crime novel, which indeed I have done.

So where do I…

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Crime authors Stephen Booth, Ann Cleeves, Matt Hilton and Pauline Rowson, and crime experts from Hampshire Police, the University of Portsmouth and the University of Surrey kept a packed audience enthralled at CSI Portsmouth on Saturday 3…

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The seventh in the DI Horton series of Marine Mystery crime novels A Killing Coast is to be published in hardcover by Severn House in the UK on 26 January 2012 and in the USA in May 2012.



Here are some photographs taken from the locations featured in A Killing Coast a British police procedural.The novel…

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There are many reasons why a crime scene has been staged.  The most difficult task is to recognize some of the subtle appearances to indicate that a crime scene has been indeed staged. Fires are an example of a type of potential staged crime scene; it’s usually to cover up a previous crime that had been committed such as…

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From any crime show that we’ve viewed on television or in the movies, there is that moment where the evidence matches and the suspect is then brought to justice.  They make it seem so easy and it only take a few moments.  It’s definitely much more complicated than it looks and the forensic professionals who make that positive distinction are nothing less than exemplary in their…

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This is for all you super slueths out there or some insight into writing a murder mystery...

Understanding and interpreting a crime scene is much like a three-dimensional puzzle, generally with more questions than answers.  However, the exigent circumstances are that the investigator needs to come up with some answers immediately and hopefully the name and whereabouts of the…

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What you are about to read is a true account of an actual event.  The names haven’t been changed because no one will care.

 

First, let me start at the beginning, don’t worry it won’t take long.  I moved to the country about five years ago.  It’s lovely with wide-open spaces, room to breathe, tons of trees, and wildlife.  Many times when I…

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My tough and driven heroine, Emily Stone, from my two novels (Compulsion, Dead…

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Frenzied news reports that were coming out of Texas earlier this week led many of us to believe that a serial killer’s victims had been discovered in the Lone Star State.  A woman, who later identified herself as a psychic who goes by the name of Angel, called the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office to report that there was a mass grave of…

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I’ve received many questions about profiling from readers.  It seems that many people are interested in this technique and how it actually works.  I can’t blame them because it’s an intriguing concept and that’s why I studied it along with my criminology.

In my books…

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Death investigation is the most important aspect of a medical examiner, coroner, or death investigator’s basic professional duty.  Death investigators play a key role in all types of death scenes; they contribute to the successful death scene investigation along with, but not limited to police officers, emergency personnel, hospital personnel, police detectives, forensic pathologists, funeral directors, and family members. 

The death investigation team is…

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Robin Burcell, novelist and just-retired police officer, joins Hook'em and Book'em in a two-part interview: The article today focuses on Robin's 27-year-career in law enforcement. A second interview… Continue

Retired FBI agent returns after eighteen months in Iraq as an embedded Law Enforcement Professional. He and his team hunted down terrorist bombers after searching through IED blast sites for clues. Join us as Special Agent Greg Snider tells us about his fight to protect our troops in this first of three articles. http://hookembookem.blogspot.com/

Operation Black Widow was a combined task-force investigation targeting the leaders of Nuestra Familia, one of the most notorious prison gangs in California. Join us as one of fhe investigators tells us about how they put the case together in this two-part article.http://hookembookem.blogspot.com/

TV shows like CSI are entertaining, but they give an unrealistic impression of how evidence is really collected and how crime scenes are managed. Catching crooks isn't easy--it takes a lot of work and effort on the part of the police and the lab. 

Timothy Masters was freed on January 26, 2008 in Fort Collins, Colorado after serving 9 1/2 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. The DNA from the victim’s body didn’t match that of Masters but of the woman’s former boyfriend, who had been dismissed as a suspect early in the case.



The lead detective, who relentlessly pursued Masters for ten years, is now under investigation for alleged misconduct. Evidence was manufactured. Rules were bent or broken. An innocent man suffered… Continue