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4/15/2010 6:53:11 AM
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Tog
Posts 146
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Given the ubiquitous presence of cell phones today, as well as the ease with which police could gain access to a helicopter, can a true amateur cozy even be done in a modern setting?
I figure one of two things must happen. Either the reporting of the crime is delayed, or the arrival of the police is delayed. A remote location might prevent the use of a cell phone, and a storm could keep a helicopter grounded and wash out roads and bridges, but are these really the only options?
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4/15/2010 6:39:39 PM
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Jeff Baker
Posts 132
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A lot of people simply won't report a crime! And cops are only human, they don't find every clue!
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4/17/2010 1:33:58 PM
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Yoshinori Todo
Posts 232
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You can write a cozy mystery with police detectives and/or officers! Just make sure it's your amateur sleuth who does the actual solving.
Almost every Agatha Christie novel features the British police, and Christie was certainly the quintessential cozy writer.
edited by Yoshinori Todo on 4/18/2010
--
Josh
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4/18/2010 6:09:28 AM
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Leigh
Posts 211
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Good question, Tog.
Yes, I believe so. The continents are dotted with villages and small towns and even in cities, undiscovered crimes may lurk.
And even with police, I wrote a story set in a rural area during a violent storm. Two main characters work for the sheriff's department, but it has a cosy feel. Of course I haven't sold it yet!
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4/18/2010 12:38:36 PM
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Yoshinori Todo
Posts 232
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Funny, I just finished and submitted a story about an undiscovered (possible) murder in small-town America. Family members of the victim talk about the tragedy while a violent snowstorm rages outside . . . and something startling comes to light . . .
This is not a "cozy," though. More of a suspense story which blurs the boundary between reality and fantasy.
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Josh
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4/18/2010 11:13:34 PM
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Tog
Posts 146
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The specifics of the case I have in mind is an office building with 6 staff, 3 or 4 clients, and my PI, who isn't there on a case. One of the staff gets poisoned. I can't really justify weather being an issue, nor is it a remote location.
A friend of mine is a Sgt in the police in the city where I work, and we have the same shift, so he stops in on slow nights. When I asked him about what would keep the police out of a murder scene, he said the only thing he could think of was a major event, like an earthquake or tornado that tied up all the emergency services. That feels too contrived.
Thanks for the replies.
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4/19/2010 4:38:37 PM
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Yoshinori Todo
Posts 232
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How about a hostage situation . . . ?
Police may be on their way, but they may not be able to enter the building.
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Josh
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4/20/2010 1:52:59 PM
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Allan Kalupar
Posts 27
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Good question - how about if the police were never called. The reasons for that scenario are endless....
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4/20/2010 8:27:55 PM
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Jeff Baker
Posts 132
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As for people calling the police first thing, people don't always act sensibly! And cellphones don't always work everywhere!
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4/21/2010 3:31:28 AM
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Tog
Posts 146
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Well, in this specific case, my PI is a former homicide detective, so he'd keep his head for sure. The odds of everyone in the room having a Nextel phone are slim, so there shouldn't be a coverage problem in a heart of a city. (I used to work in a grocery store and every Vendor with a Nextel phone had to go outside to use it.) Plus, the land lines would all be active.
On the up side, I tested my poison delivery method tonight, and it not only worked perfectly, it tasted good as well (I did not take actual poison).
How about this for a plausibility check. Let's say my PI is sitting in the office, waiting his turn, and watching people go about their business. When the death happens, the police are called and he offers his service as a trained observer. I know the police would take his statement, but assuming that they can rule him out as a suspect, would it be plausible to have him sitting in on the other interviews?
I know that in a real situation, the police would keep everyone separate so as not to get cross contamination in the statements, but that would sort of break what I'm hoping to do.
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4/21/2010 4:07:09 AM
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Leigh
Posts 211
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Tog wrote:
On the up side, I tested my poison delivery method tonight, and it not only worked perfectly, it tasted good as well (I did not take actual poison).
Tog! How do we know for sure it will work? You have to test these things all the way!
Tog wrote:
Well, in this specific case, my PI is a former homicide detective, so he'd keep his head for sure. The odds of everyone in the room having a Nextel phone are slim, so there shouldn't be a coverage problem in a heart of a city. (I used to work in a grocery store and every Vendor with a Nextel phone had to go outside to use it.) Plus, the land lines would all be active.
After 9/11, Giuliani petitioned to give the mayor's office the power to shut down cell phone service so their office could control the spin of news media. After a couple of serious radiation leaks at a nuclear plant in Monticello, Minnesota, the utility sought to require news reporters obtain their stories from an official source, which included shutting down the phone system in that area.
Watching two local burglaries, I'm losing faith in the police. Neighbors virtually solved one case and have a good handle on the other, yet after 2 months, investigators have yet to show up to interview residents who tried to phone in reports. I don't know if the problem is overload or other issues, but you'd think police would like a gift-wrapped case.
(laughing about the Nextel phone)
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4/21/2010 4:34:17 AM
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Tog
Posts 146
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Heh, I don't see my little murder as being on par with a radiation leak, or 9/11. As for the police, one night we had a beer runner and we not only got the plate number on the truck, we got the truck. We were too close to him for him to get in, so he ran across the street into the shadows. A line from Rikti Tiki Tavi comes to mind there. Something about few mongooses being so foolish as to follow a cobra into it's hole.
Anyway, we had the truck, and they still didn't get the guy, so I agree that by the time the crime is over with, it's probably too late to bother calling them. They are pretty good about getting murderers around here though.
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4/21/2010 8:02:02 PM
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James A. Ritchie
Posts 142
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Tog wrote:
The specifics of the case I have in mind is an office building with 6 staff, 3 or 4 clients, and my PI, who isn't there on a case. One of the staff gets poisoned. I can't really justify weather being an issue, nor is it a remote location.
A friend of mine is a Sgt in the police in the city where I work, and we have the same shift, so he stops in on slow nights. When I asked him about what would keep the police out of a murder scene, he said the only thing he could think of was a major event, like an earthquake or tornado that tied up all the emergency services. That feels too contrived.
Thanks for the replies.
You can always have the police involved, but be unable to solve the crime, and the PI comes in after the fact.
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5/12/2010 2:42:23 PM
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James A. Ritchie
Posts 142
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So what if the police are called? Police hardly solve every crime. Set the main part of the cozy after the police have failed to solve the crime. Ever watch Murder, She Write? Those were as cozy as you can get, but the police were almost always involved. Many Miss Marple cozies were the same way.
edited by James A. Ritchie on 5/12/2010
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6/7/2010 9:25:06 PM
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K.J.
Posts 17
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I know this thread's a little old, but it's an interesting topic, so I'm chiming in:
I live in Vancouver, and during the Olympics you could have killed anybody you liked as long as you did it away from the highly publicized locations. The city cops had their hands full doubling as security, and the RCMP were involved in all manner of fancy ceremonies. We've got a great police force, and they did a wonderful job, but they were lucky that Canadians don't like to murder people or loot unattended buildings very much. 
The point, and I think the point of the 9/11 and radiation leak suggestions, is that sometimes a city shifts its focus. Not because of a crime, but because of an external event. So if you set your cozy during something like the Olympics, and keep the mystery separate of it, you can create a sense of isolation. Then the only thing you need to worry about is getting all of the suspects into the damn drawing room - everybody's substantially more likely to flee nowadays.
I also briefly worked in an office building that installed a new automatic door/security system thing that broke down on it's second day in use. Everybody was pretty much trapped inside the building, unless they wanted to get crazy and try to climb out of the 2nd floor windows. But the elevator worked, and we had enough vending machines. Still, in those twenty minutes of terror, we saw the true colours of humanity...
And, if cops do manage to get themselves involved, remember that even the best police forces suffer from a lack of funding, crooked officers and being stretched too thin. I mean, I can't honestly picture anybody using a helicopter to get out to a murder scene; it costs a lot of money to run a helicopter. I'd just tell them not to murder anybody else and drive out.
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6/8/2010 12:13:22 PM
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James A. Ritchie
Posts 142
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K.J. wrote:
We've got a great police force, and they did a wonderful job, but they were lucky that Canadians don't like to murder people or loot unattended buildings very much. .
What, are you Canadians trying to put mystery writers out of business?
Well, at least you guys steal more cars than we do. That's something.
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6/8/2010 4:56:11 PM
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K.J.
Posts 17
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Do we steal more cars? Neat! It's probably an elaborate front for a smuggling ring. We also have lots of smuggling rings.
I'm curious now about the sales of mystery novels and anthologies in countries with low crime rates. A friend of mine was telling me about how popular the genre is in Cuba, and I wonder how it fairs in Japan, Switzerland or Australia. (I could easily look all of that up, I imagine, but I'm so lazy...)
edited by K.J. on 6/8/2010
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6/8/2010 7:16:26 PM
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James A. Ritchie
Posts 142
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K.J. wrote:
Do we steal more cars? Neat! It's probably an elaborate front for a smuggling ring. We also have lots of smuggling rings.
I'm curious now about the sales of mystery novels and anthologies in countries with low crime rates. A friend of mine was telling me about how popular the genre is in Cuba, and I wonder how it fairs in Japan, Switzerland or Australia. (I could easily look all of that up, I imagine, but I'm so lazy...)
edited by K.J. on 6/8/2010
That's an interesting question. Though Cuba's crime rate is extremely deceptive.
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6/9/2010 1:50:05 AM
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Yoshinori Todo
Posts 232
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I can tell you guys for a fact that Japan has still one of the lowest crime rates in the world. You could walk around naked with a bag full of cash in a big Japanese city, and nothing will likely happen to you . . . except that people will gawk at you like were crazy. (And no, I haven't tried it myself.) Also, it is typically claimed that Japanese prosecutions are less likely to be successfully challenged compared to Western countries--thus the high conviction rate--and this may be true to a small degree, but this part is often exaggerated in the Western press, for understandable reasons. On the other hand, Japan continues to have one of the highest suicide rates.
And yeah, murder mysteries are quite popular in Japan (as popular as horror, probably, if not more so!).
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Josh
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6/9/2010 10:15:06 PM
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K.J.
Posts 17
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Wait. You mean to tell me that Japan is not full of Yakuza motorcycle gangs in matching black suits who chop off people's pinky fingers with samurai swords? I have been grossly misinformed by film and television.
There are frequent Godzilla attacks though, right?
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