The Mystery Starts Here

Well, I had a tough choice to make last Tuesday. Watch “Fringe” which I really like, or check out the new show, “The Mentalists.” I opted for the new show. I wanted to get to know the characters, figure out which one did what, etc. Long story short, I wasn’t impressed. The main character was interesting but inconsistent. At the start, the camera showed you what he was seeing to determine specific facts. For instance, a girl had been murdered. Patrick Jane, the mentalist, noticed several things (which we, the audience saw) and solved the case in a matter of minutes.

Then Jane and a team when to Palm Springs to help solve the murder of two people. Now, we are never introduced to the team and have no clue what each of their roles are. By the end of the show, Jane has once again pulled a rabbit out of a hat and solved the crime but….we are never privy to what he saw or how he came to those conclusion. That was irritating and so was the fact that they got some of the forensics wrong. The police hauled a man in for questioning because one of his hairs was found at the crime scene. Now, we all know that no one can tell conclusively that a hair found belongs to a certain individual. It may be consistent with hair from that individual, but not a match. The ONLY way to match a hair would be if it had the root and one could do DNA on it and that would take a while.

So, bottom line – I won’t bother next week. I’ll be watching “Fringe” and probably eating ice cream.

If you don’t believe me, read "Forensics and Fiction" by D. P. Lyle, M.D. I so enjoyed his, "Howdunit Forensics" that I rushed to Amazon and brought this book, too. In it, Dr. Lyle answers questions posed by both published and prepublished mystery writers and some of the questions are downright weird. Here’s a sample: Can a corpse be bled? (No -they ooze) What items were used to stop bleeding in the 1900’s? (mud, eggs, herbs and tabacco – euuu) Can my bad guy be severely burned in a tanning bed? (yup)  and one of my favorites – Could my character hide inside a corpse? (it’s possible!!!) If that one doesn’t give you nightmares, nothing will.

The book is divided into five sections, with a list of each question and its page number in the front of the book so it’s easy to flip to something of particular interest. This will also help in future if you want to go back and re-read a certain question, perhaps to think up one of your own.

Dr. Lyle answers each question completely in language anyone can understand. The questions and answers in "Forensics and Fiction" are sure to trigger a bunch of ‘what-if" questions for your mysteries. If you want to find out more about Dr. Lyle or his books, visit his website at:  www.dplylemd.com