Crazy research for the crime writer

[Jennifer Thomson]

Here are some of the things I have learnt whilst writing a crime novel -

Anyone can fit inside a pop our cake. Most of these cakes aren't cakes after all. They may have frosting on the outside, but the rest is usually cardboard. This is a bit disappointing when you want your character to eat their way out of the cake.

 

Read more about my pop out cake research here -

http://ramblingsofafrustratedcrimewriter.blogspot.com/2011/04/wacky...

 

You can see how many bullets a revolver has in it from the outside. Full, a revolver has six bullets. When it falls it won't go off as there is an inbuilt safety mechanism that stops it from being fired.

 

The downside with a semi-automatic gun, is that it will leave spent cartridges.

 

If in doubt about a real place you are using for a crime scene and where everything is, go there and take some photos or even better some video. You don't want your book coming out and someone saying,' Hey, I know that place well and it's nothing like the way you describe it.'

 

You can buy sperm over the Internet and use it for artificial insemination. It's a simple process. not very nice, but simple.

 

If you turn to your boyfriend in the middle of the night, on an island when the last ferry has gone and there is no place to run, he may get scared when you ask if using a garlic press on a man's dangle bits would be sore.