I’ve never had to investigate a homicide – mostly because I’m not in law enforcement and because I spend most of my time hidden away and writing in a dark room. However, I do have an interest in the area. I’m an avid fan of shows like The First 48 and I enjoy the mystery genre and police procedurals. I’m even trying to leak over into those genres with my own writing. Plus, there is the personal curiosity of wanting to know why and how people do horrible things to others and how the police go about finding murderers.

Because of that interest and because I want to branch into crime fiction, I spend a lot of time researching murder, forensics and blood spatter, serial killers and all that warm and fuzzy stuff. If a stranger looked at my web search history, they probably wouldn’t want to get to know me… I actually do know me so I could hardly blame them.

I mentioned in a previous post about a book I recently bought called Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques by Vernon J. Geberth. This monstrous 1000 + page book is brimming with information that you aren’t going to get from watching crime dramas on television (although I admit I love the hell out of crime dramas) or even the crime documentary shows.

Here is a quick rundown of some of the topics covered: First officer’s duties, preliminary investigation, special investigative duties, crime scene photos, estimating the time of death, identifying the deceased, notifying family, modes of death, forensic application of DNA analysis, evidence collection, autopsies, identifying suspects, profiling, serial murder and more.

If you are a writer of crime and mystery fiction, this book is likely to become your research bible too, and you will always want to have it in arm’s reach. Horror and even some urban fantasy writers are sure to find plenty of great info as well.

I should warn you that some of the pictures in the book aren’t suitable for those who have weak stomachs. It includes actual crime scene and autopsy photos, many of which are very disturbing.

Practical Homicide Investigation is definitely one of the best purchases I’ve made and it has saved me countless hours of research time online. It also happens to be quite expensive. Still, if you think of it as a textbook (which it really is) and consider the value of the research information the book provides, it is worth every penny. I love this book!