BROKEN ALLEGIANCE (A Tom Kagan Novel) has been unleashed

By Mark Young

Stop the presses! I completely forget to share my latest bit of news. I have a new novel out!

Can you believe I forget to tell you about this? I have been so busy working on my next novel, posting other authors’ new releases and other blog-related interviews—I completely forget to let you know about my own novel.

I apologize.

Release of Broken Allegiance (A Tom Kagan Novel) may be known to those of you who pal around with me on other social media sites. However, I just realized that some of my reading friends might only cross paths here on Hook'em & Book'em. They may not know that another of my mystery, suspense, police procedural novels has been let loose on the world.

Here is the down-and-dirty:

Police gang detective Tom Kagan sought justice for more than ten years, leaving him a broken man. His only reason for living—the woman he loves and the badge he swore to uphold. When a man is brutally killed in a vineyard on the outskirts of Santa Rosa, California, it sparks a series of events that test what’s left of Kagan’s resolve to protect and serve. 

Secrets from the past thwart Kagan’s efforts to unravel a series of killings sanctioned from within the walls of California’s highest security prison. From the lush vineyards of Sonoma County to the shores of beautiful Lake Tahoe, the detective must outsmart a killer who is moving in for one epic killing spree. 

Leaders of the notorious Nuestra Family prison gang are fighting for power, a struggle that spills out onto the streets of California. Kagan joins forces with Special Agent Hector Garcia, a feisty supervisor of the Special Services Unit for the California Department of Corrections; Diane Phillips, a beautiful and hard-charging prosecutor; and Mikio Sanchez, a former gang member marked for death. Through the eyes of cops and gangsters, readers are able to glimpse the seldom seen workings of the gangster underworld. 

Broken Allegiance is about treacherous lies, broken promises, and shattered lives—about life, death and a man’s honor.

Does this pique your interest? If so, you can find a copy of Broken Allegiance through Amazon’s Kindle Store here or in print through Createspace here.

Grab a copy. A sequel will be coming out right on its heels. Next time, I will be a little quicker letting you know when another novel is released.

Promise! Cross my heart and hope to… Huh, I think I’ll stop right there. After all, I do write crime novels.

Catching Burglars: Ex-Cop-turned-Author Writes From Her Passion

By Kathy Bennett

[Editor's Note: Author Kathy Bennett writes from her own police experience. She served 29 years with Los Angeles Police Department. And if that was not enough experience, she married a cop. Find out more about Kathy at her own web site here]

Everyone who has a job knows that there are some aspects to the job that you like better than others. If you’re a baker maybe you don’t like baking the cake but you enjoy applying the icing. Perhaps you work as an auto mechanic. You aren’t fond of replacing brakes, but tearing apart a car's engine and putting back together again provides you a great sense of accomplishment.

Police officers are no different. Some officers love to write tickets. Others like working with the community to solve ongoing problems. For some officers, spotting people driving stolen cars or detaining suspects holding narcotics gets their hearts racing.

The suspects I liked to target were burglars. It didn’t matter if they were burglars who invaded a person’s home or if the suspects broke into cars. For me, the attraction was the fact they worked 24/7. Even more incentive was that burglars are hard to catch. What can I say? I like a challenge.

One of the more memorable arrests I made I was working with another female officer whose name also happened to be Kathy. She was my favorite partner ever. We’d just started working together and were assigned to the ‘morning watch,’ which many other departments and professions call the graveyard shift. Most officers working the morning watch enjoyed patrolling in the dead of night and the ones who worked it year after year were a tight-knit group. We were newcomers, and had to prove ourselves.

There was an industrial complex where businesses were getting hit several times a week, and had been for months. Kathy and I decided our first shift together that at some point we’d go over to the industrial complex and park in the shadows and see if anything developed.

I was driving our black and white patrol car, and we slowly cruised past the many closed businesses in search of a good ‘hiding spot.’ We passed by a building that had a chain-link fence enclosure attached. The fencing had privacy slats, but that didn’t prevent Kathy and me from spotting a guy prowling around.

After detaining him, we determined there was a business in the complex that had been burglarized, and that the suspect was in possession of two large key rings containing about a hundred of regular door keys along with dozens of vending machine keys. The suspect was a transient and had no explanation for the many keys he had with him. Along with the keys, we had evidence from the business that had been burglarized to book him, so we hauled him to jail. That was the first of a number of good arrests we made on morning watch. During our first month we were readily accepted into the fold and were well respected by our co-workers. Kathy and I worked morning watch together for the better part of seven years.

Another time, there was an area where the division had a high incidence of burglaries of items from motor vehicles.  Somewhere around three o’clock one morning, Kathy and I were driving through the 'hot' area with our lights off and, lo and behold, we saw a car parked in the middle of a dark street. We nabbed three young men who all went to a religious school together. They were in the process of breaking into a car, and once we’d taken them into custody, we got them to show us the fourteen other cars they’d broken into. The boys were arrested and booked. Needless to say, when we called the kids' parents to come pick up their felon sons, the parents weren’t happy at all.

In my latest book, A Deadly Justice, my personal itch for capturing burglars led me to create a team of

sophisticated burglars as adversaries for my main character, LAPD Detective Maddie Divine to uncover. But in order to keep my story authentic, Maddie and her partner, Jade, get involved with other investigations as well…just like it happens in real life. What Maddie doesn’t know is that investigating the burglars may reveal a secret in her own life she’s tried desperately to bury.

*******

Kathy Bennett is no stranger to murder and mayhem. She served twenty-nine years with the Los Angeles Police Department - eight as a civilian employee and twenty-one years as a sworn police officer. While most of her career was spent in a patrol car, she’s also been a Firearms Instructor at the LAPD Academy, a crime analyst in the “War Room”, a Field Training Officer, a Senior Lead Officer, and worked undercover in various assignments. Kathy was honored to be named Officer of the Year in 1997.

Kathy's debut novel, A Dozen Deadly Roses, and her second book, A Deadly Blessing became bestselling ebooks at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. A Deadly Blessing, is the first book in a series featuring LAPD Detective Maddie Divine and was named a Best Nook Book Original for 2012. Law enforcement personnel laud Kathy's authentic stories of crime and suspense for 'getting it right.'

Kathy's third book, A Deadly Justice, was released in September of 2013. She's currently working on her fourth novel, A Deadly Denial.

Serial Killers and Criminal Profiling

By Pete Klismet
[Editor’s Note: Criminal profilers conjure up all kinds of images to the average Joe. Movies, television shows, and novels have often given us misconceptions of this special breed of investigator. Our guest writer today can help us understand this part of law enforcement because that is what he is trained to do—profile criminals. Pete Klismet, is a retired FBI criminal profiler who teaches, writes, and provides consulting services on this subject.]

“How’d you know that?”

“Are you some sort of a psychic?”

“Do you have a crystal ball or something?”

Anyone who has been trained in criminal profiling and has worked with law enforcement agencies, or has taught about the concept in college, has heard all of these comments.  And many more.  The word “profiling” conjures up some sinister images in people’s minds, and seems almost devilishly frightening to some, but yet fascinating to others.

WHAT IS CRIMINAL PROFILING?

Criminal profiling is the art of developing a behavioral profile of an offender based on evidence from a crime scene, and many other factors involved in an investigation of a violent crime.  Profiling is sometimes done by a forensic psychologist -- someone who has studied the criminal mind. However, since the mid-1980’s, the FBI has assumed a prominent role in the use of this technique.  A profile may then be used by police departments to assist in apprehending the criminal.  But a criminal profile by itself, rarely solves a crime.  In most cases, that is accomplished by old-fashioned detective work.

A profile is intended to be a behavioral portrait of an offender. If done correctly, the profiler may be able to determine ‘why’ a person committed the crime he did.  If ‘why’ can be determined, then we may have motive, and thus help identify the person who committed the crime.  There is a lot that a crime scene can tell a profiler about the person who committed the crime. This is especially true in homicide investigations. Criminal profiling is often used to help investigators identify psychopaths and serial killers who may otherwise go free. It can also be used to help identify other types of offenders, such as serial sex offenders.

In criminal profiling, a crime scene often helps to label the offender as organized or disorganized. An organized offender will plan ahead, often choosing the victim ahead of time. Any tools needed are brought by the offender. He is meticulous with details, and it is clear that the crime was well thought out. This tells a profiler much about the offender.

Organized offenders tend to be high in the birth order of their family. They are very intelligent, but often were underachievers in both school and life. Most of them have a live-in partner, are socially adept, and will follow the coverage of their crimes in the media very carefully.  Contrary to popular belief, a killer of this nature, even a serial killer, is not ‘crazy.’  Quite the opposite is true.  They also ‘hide in plain sight,’ and when identified are a complete surprise to people who know them and thought they were ‘perfectly normal.’

A more spontaneous or impulsive offense is often the work of a disorganized offender. He will act impulsively, with little to no planning involved, and the crime scene will usually show this lack of planning. Seeing this, a trained profiler can draw some conclusions about this offender.  Disorganized offenders are often of average or slightly below-average intelligence. They were younger children, they usually live alone, and are not as socially mature or competent as an organized offender. They often live or work near the scene of the crime, and tend to have a poor work history. Typically, they are younger than the organized offenders.

Criminal profiling is used not only to find potential offenders, but also to narrow down a list of offenders that has already been compiled by the police. Although it doesn’t work in every case, criminal profiling has helped investigators to apprehend hundreds of criminals. By studying the patterns and motives of previous offenders, profiling may enable investigators to predict the characteristics of current and future offenders, allowing killers and other perpetrators to be caught before they can continue on to other crimes.

SERIAL KILLERS

Serial killers are a fairly recent phenomenon on the American landscape, and many people are captivated by what they do and how they do it.  Some of them, such as Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez “The Night Stalker,” and Jeffrey Dahmer have even had cult followings, as odd as that may seem.  In some ways it seems ghoulish, and in other ways the allure of a person who commits multiple murders seems to present a fear of the unknown, of not being able to comprehend such irrational acts, and a desire to learn more about what makes these people tick.  To some it’s not all that interesting, but to many others it’s something they can’t learn or read enough about.

I became friends with the husband of one of my students, an Air Force major, some years ago.  We both enjoyed golf, and would get together once or twice every couple of weeks and play 18 holes.  After one round, we sat down and were enjoying a couple of cool, refreshing beers.  Without any prompting, and literally out of the clear blue sky, Paul said, “By the way, I want to thank you for ruining my love life.”

“Me?  What did I do?”

“Brandy lies in bed every night with a book about one serial killer or another.  I have a hard time getting between her and her books.”

“Sorry…..my bad.”

While we both got a good laugh out of that, I know I’ve had more than a few of my college students who were similarly absorbed with learning more and more about the dark and gruesome, illogical actions of people who kill others for “fun.”  It’s one of the most irrational things man can do, yet trying to learn what drives them to kill with such blood-lust can almost consume one’s life.

When I went through what we called “Profiling Boot Camp” at the FBI Academy in the mid-1980’s, I was the same way.  I’ve spent nearly thirty years reading virtually every book on particular serial killers that I could get my hands on.  To the present date, that probably numbers well over one hundred books.  With every book I read I learn something new, and I’ve continued to do the same thing for many years.

FBI DIARIES: PROFILES OF EVIL

But in my case, there’s a method to my madness.  When I combine my years of training and experience with what I may learn from a book, it almost seems unfair to not share that with other people who may have a similar interest, or may be taking a course on criminal profiling in college.   There are other books out there which some consider textbooks.  Some of these contain information which is not consistent with what I learned and practiced.  A few of these books offer the author’s own personal ‘spin’ on profiling, and more often than not, this is someone who declared themselves a ‘profiler’ because they read some books and perhaps have taken some psychology classes in college, including “Abnormal Psychology.”

I suppose anyone can make the same claim, but relatively few of us can make the claim with the training, education and experience to back it up.  And I think that’s what’s driven me for so many years.  No one “knows it all” about criminal profiling, and I certainly won’t claim to.  In fact, one thing I’ve learned over the years is the more I learn, the less I seem to know, but I continue to want to learn as much as I can.  And that’s what I hope to offer anyone who reads this book, whether you’re similarly fascinated and want to know more, or whether this book is used as a textbook for a college class.

This is not an academic treatise in which you will have to review statistical tables with boring columns of numbers and percentages.  Unlike a college textbook, I’ve tried to write this in a conversational manner, or as if I were doing a lecture in my college classroom.  I hated reading textbooks when I was in college or graduate school.  This is a practical guide which, while it won’t turn you into an instant profiler, will give you considerable understanding into how a profiler's minds work, and why they work the way they do.  Hopefully, I’ve written it in a way that will be understandable, and the cases I’ve reviewed should add some credibility to the concepts in an earlier part of the text.

I promise you that I’ve put as much of my learning and experience into this book as I possibly can, and if you study some of the concepts and cases I’ve studied or profiled, you may gain a similar thirst to know even more.  If I’ve made you think in a different way, I’ve done my job.  And an author or a teacher can’t hope to accomplish more than that.

*******

PETE KLISMET

Pete Klismet retired as full-time Professor of Criminal Justice in May of 2013. He is also retired from the FBI, where he was selected to be one of the original group of criminal profilers. He is the founder of Criminal Profiling Associates, on the web at www.criminalprofilingassociates.com. He is the award-winning author of FBI DIARY: PROFILES OF EVIL, available from Amazon.com, his publisher at Houdini Publishing  or through the links on his own web site listed above.

Future Crimes

By Mark Young

Can you imagine a world in which there is nowhere to hide? Where your expectation of privacy no longer exists? Where all your secrets might be revealed to the world? My current work in progress—Off The Grid, scheduled for release in December, 2011—is about these issues. A world in which a cop must live Off The Grid in order to survive a formidable opponent.

As I write this novel, my research keeps taking me down some very strange avenues of science, places at first glance that seem unbelievable. For example, terrorist—aided by recent developments in technology—might be able to carry weapons of mass destruction small enough to hide inside a suitcase. Surveillance capabilities that track and record a person’s life in minute detail using technology being developed right now. Technology so minuscule that the human eye may never detect it.

For a moment, let us consider a familiar security risk we deal with everyday—the computer. Everyone is aware of the potential risk when we use the internet. Still, we rely on this technology for personal things like paying our bills, making purchase, ordering pharmaceuticals, or publishing articles like this one. Governments rely on the integrators of this system, always trying to make sure they have the very latest cyber security system in place. Yet, hackers still break through these firewalls, stealing our identities, our money, and our information. Here are a few of the headlines over the last seven months:

• Serial hacker admits breaching Federal Reserve computers (April 19, 2011)
• Cyber attack forces ORNL to shut down Internet access (April 19, 2011)
• Federal Reserve Hacker Steals 400,000 Credit Card Numbers (November 19, 2010)
• $9m RBS WorldPay hack mastermind avoids jail (September 10, 2010)

We expect our communications to be protected by the service providers we use. Supposedly, our means of communications is protected by an unbreakable cryptographic system. We expect to be protected when we chat on our cell phones, transfer money into a checking account, or use a credit card. But yet, these crimes persist.

Quantum computers and nanotechnology might make matters even worse unless new safeguards are put into place in the very near future. Quantum computer (QC) technology—small enough to be contained in tiny molecular structures—may someday outmatch the capabilities of clusters of super computers around the world. These QCs—smaller than a pinhead—calculate data in a three-dimensional level instead of our current linear programs. These QCs threaten to destroy our current cryptograph systems because of the very nature of their code-breaking capabilities, operating in seconds what formerly took computers months and years to process.

QCs, coupled with the capabilities of nanotechnology, will revolutionize our manufacturing capabilities on a worldwide scale. How massive?

Jose Wolfe, editor of Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, wrote: “Quite simply, the world is about to be rebuilt from the atom up. That means tens of trillions of dollars to be spent on everything: clothing… food… cars… medicine… the devices we use to communicate and recreate … the quality of the air we breathe … and the water we drink, are all about to undergo profound and fundamental change. As a result, so will the socio and economic structure of the world. Nanotechnology will shake up just about every business on the planet.”

Imagine the challenges law enforcement will face when this technology falls into the hands of sophisticated criminals. Due in part to this concern, staff members from several federal agencies began to meet regularly about their plans and programs in nanoscale science and technology. This blossomed into the Interagency Working Group on Nanotechnology (IWGN) in 1998, and in 1999, this group completed its first draft of an initiative that ultimately resulted in it becoming a  ‘federal initiative’ called the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). Not surprising, the government did what it does best—disbanded the IWGN and created yet another group called the Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET) Subcommittee. This group is responsible for riding herd on all of the federal government’s nanoscale research and development programs.

It is almost as enlightening to see who is assigned to one of these federal committees, as it is to see what they actually do. Which federal agencies are represented by NSET? Here is the alphabet-soup list:

Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)

·         Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

·         Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS/DOC)

·         Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)

·         National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA/USDA)

·         Department of Defense (DOD)

·         Department of Education (DOEd)

·         Department of Energy(DOE)

·         Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

·         Department of Justice (DOJ)

·         Department of Labor (DOL)

·         Department of State (DOS)

·         Department of Transportation (DOT)

·         Department of  Treasury (DOTreas)

·         Department of National Intelligence (DNI)\

·         Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

·         Food and Drug Administration (FDA/DHHS)

·         Forest Service (FS/USDA)

·         U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC)

·         National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

·         National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH/CDC/DHHS)

·         National Institute of Health (NIH/DHHS)

·         National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST/DOC)

·         National Science Foundation (NSF)

·         Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

·         U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

·         U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

If this is a subcommittee, can you imagine what a full committee must look like?

At least the federal government seems to recognize the importance that nanotechnology will have on this country—if not the rest of the world. However, a federal response to this issue may not be enough. A non-profit group—Center For Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN)—urges an international response, citing the risks if such an effort are not undertaken:

“ … MNT (molecular nanotechnology manufacturing systems) could spark an unstable arms race between nations, and could be very useful to terrorists. The dangers of an MNT-based arms race will require more study. But one thing that can probably reduce the dangers is international development of defensive technology, to be placed at the service of any nation that is threatened ..."

Who should be a part of this international response? That is what governments and industry leaders are beginning to try to hash out. As CRN and other groups warn, however, time is running out. The longer an international response is delayed, the greater the risk grows.

Kay's Words blog interview: Mark Young

Editor’s Note: I am taking a break. My friend, Kay Marshall Strom, posted an interview today on Kay’s Words about … me and Revenge: A Travis Mays Novel. You got it, a little promo. I promise we’ll get back to mystery crime writing, publishing, and law enforcement in the very near future. Click on the link at the end of this post if you’d like to read the interview in its entirety. Otherwise … go ahead and take a break. You deserve it.

Glowing Author: Mark Young

Glowing Author #29

Looking for an entertaining mystery, dripping with suspense and spiced with a dash of romance?  I thought you might be. Which is why I’m glad Mark Young stopped by to tell us about his debut novel.  So, without further delay…

Heeeeeere’s Mark!

Congratulations, Mark! 

Thank you.  And thank you, Kay, for the opportunity to tell others aboutRevenge: A Travis Mays Novel.

So, tell us a bit about your new book. 

Here’s what the backcover says: When a trained killer threatens ex-cop Travis Mays—and those Travis loves—he finds a skilled adversary and an unexpected fight. 

Haunted by his past, Travis begins a new life and a new career, teaching criminology at a  university and building a cabin in the Idaho Mountains. He hires a beautiful river guide, Jessie White Eagle from the Nez Perce tribe, to steer him safely through raging whitewater, only to find that this trip changes everything—for Travis, for Jessie, and for those they hold dear. In the shadows lurks a man—calling himself Creasy—determined to make sure Travis pays for past sins.

It’s a fast-paced thriller that takes readers on a wild ride down Idaho’s whitewater rivers, along the historic Lolo Trail once tread by the Nez Perce nation, and onto the city streets of California. Tighten your helmet. This ride never stops until the last shot is fired and the final body falls. 

Wow!  Not the kind of plot line just anyone could pull off!  Could this be influenced by your “day job”?

Six years ago, I ended a twenty-six year career in law enforcement. It was a challenging and fulfilling mission, but my body finally told me it was time to change direction.

During those years in law enforcement, I was afforded many opportunities as a detective and sergeant not normally available to cops in mid-sized agencies like my own— the Santa Rosa Police Department (SRPD) in California. I worked on several law enforcement task force operations, including the presidential Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force targeting major drug traffickers, and the federal Organized Crime Task Force charged with identifying and prosecuting prison gang leaders.

So when I sat down to write my first crime mystery novel, I was able to draw upon years of experience—people from all walks of life, crime cases, personal impressions, and a little police humor gathered from real characters.

How did you come up with this specific plot line?

Actually, my attempt to learn to fly fish led to it. After leaving law enforcement, I needed to move my family from California to a more rural setting. So we packed up and moved to a small town in eastern Washington, a few miles from the Idaho border.

One of the things I promised myself was that I’d learn to fly fish. One of the fishing areas lay in central Idaho, along the beautiful Clearwater, Selway, and Lochsa rivers. Truly God’s country. The Nez Perce (NP) Indian reservation straddles a good chunk of these mountains, and I developed an interest in their culture and history. I began to envision a story where a character from my law enforcement world connects with a character from the NP law enforcement world, and they work together to solve a crime while learning about each other’s way of life.

I began to research the cultural, historical and present-day challenges of the NP. I interviewed the chief of the NP Tribal Police, members of the NP tribe, spiritual leaders in the community, and one individual who headed up archeology projects of this Indian culture for more than thirty years. Unfortunately, I could not use most of what I learned for this novel. I hope to dish out additional morsels of information in upcoming sequels to Revenge.

My interest in cultural history arises from my own personal history and experiences. I can trace my heritage, through my mother’s side, back to the Cherokee nation, with roots in Oklahoma. And, in 1973, I had an opportunity as a reporter to travel to South Dakota where I interviewed American Indian Movement (AIM) leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means during the takeover of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. During the standoff between AIM members and federal authorities, I was able to move into the town during the siege and interview members of the Oglala Sioux Nation about conditions they faced on the reservation.

The plot for Revenge was spawned from this background.

Click on this link to read the rest of the interview.

Novelists Break the law

Interrogations and Warrantless Searches Make for Good Story

Want to kill the action in your crime story? Let the main characters announce they’re going to get a search warrant before barging into the killer’s apartment. Audiences are hissing and groaning. Writers want to slink back into the shadows.  They know ‘waiting for paper’ is a real time waster and a fast way to destroy audience interest.

So is the story twisting the novelist’s arm to break the law?

This is fiction. Everyone should be able to feloniously break and enter—even if they are a cop—to keep the story moving along. In the interest of blind justice, right?

Last week, I realized how many novels and films I’ve seen where breaking the law has become standard operating procedures for the good guys. Where the main character—the good guy—pulls out the handy lock pick set, plays with the tumblers, and in they go. We are conditioned to think that breaking the law in the interest of justice is for the ultimate good. Does that strike you as a little convoluted? Here are few shows that will demonstrate what I’m writing about.

In a recent lawyer show, the law partner directed a private eye to get information on a potential client in the next few hours. Next scene: Private investigator pries open the front door of this potential  client’s apartment using a crowbar. The private eye trashes the place to make it look like a burglary, confiscates a few items that might be evidence, and hacks into her computer before leaving with what he found. The law partners—I think they call them officers of the court—willingly received this information with a wink and a nod.

In another show that same night, investigators raced to find a victim witness who might be in trouble. They reach the woman’s apartment, kick in the door, search the place at gunpoint and find it empty. Mind you, this is the home of a witness to a murder, a lady who might be in danger herself. In some scriptwriter’s mind, the fact that she might be in danger constituted exigent circumstances to break and enter for the good of the show.

Exigent circumstances make prosecutors wince—and judges frown—when these kinds of cases hit the courts. It is a legal term used to describe when law enforcement might be justified to enter a residence or private dwelling without a warrant. Such action might be justified if a person faces imminent danger or when a suspect is likely to flee. One of the most common situations in law enforcement are  domestic violence cases. Neighbors heard a man and woman fighting. Responding officers get to the door, hear a woman scream, a man yelling, and property damaging going on. They boot the door, grab the man and wrestle him to the ground. The woman—black eyes, bloody nose— sees her man hogtied on the floor, jumps on the officer and the whole mess winds up in court.

Stop and think back over the books, movies and television shows you’ve read or seen lately. Can you remember any scenes where the law was abrogated, where civil rights are violated in the interest of the greater good?

Another situation  we see quite often is excessive use of force on suspects. In a recent show—one I actually enjoy watchinga family of cops are working in the same town. One of the sons—a homicide detective—routinely violated the civil rights of practically every crook he came in contacted with although the viewers and the cop felt each crook had it coming. The detective’s reason for roughing up the bay guys is that someone might die if certain information is not quickly obtained. The person is saved, the cop gets high-fived from his partners, and he goes to the local tavern for a beer. Finally—after weeks of civil rights violations—this detective follows the law even when the stakes are high. My wife and I gave each other a high five because the detective finally followed the law.

Now, I’m not a card-carrying, flag-waving ACLU member. Far from it. Remember, I once was a cop and suffered alongside others in the department when those legal beagles peppered us with all kinds of legal shenanigans. However, I wonder how much we have become conditioned to seeing the law violated—by the good guys. Real cops would have wound up in a state or federal prison for doing a fraction of the violations  that make-believe cops get away with every week.

I enjoyed—maybe fascinated is a better word—watching the 24 television show season after season. I agonized along with Jack Bauer as he tortured one terrorist bomber after another in order to save the nation from total disaster. He knew the ends somehow justified the means, but I think he generally regretted using those methods. Looking back over Bauer’s career, the viewing public grew to accept just how far Bauer had to go in order to save the country. Many of us grew to condone Bauer’s methods.

As novelists, I wonder if we ought to rein in our Jack Bauer-type of characters just a tad. Maybe we should try a little harder to stay within the law to get the job done while still raising tension. Characters are created to walk a fine line between right and wrong, between good and evil. As writers, we might consider trying a little harder to up the consequences when our characters stray.

It can be done. The job might be a little more challenging than the excitement of watching  a bad guy getting his face flushed down the toilet or some other interrogation technique. But it is possible to have our good guy walk a fine line, stay within the law, and still show the tension of the character.

Here is a good example of a not-so-nice private eye who finally decides to do the right thing by the end of the novel. Dashiell Hammett did a wonderful job of capturing this dilemma in The Maltese Falcon. Private investigator Sam Spade tried to explain to the beautiful Brigid O’Shaughnessy why he must turn her in as the killer and for her part in the crimes.  Brigid pleads with him to look the other way—for love.

Spade first says, “I don’t care who loves who I’m not going to play the sap for you.”

She keeps pushing. Spade then lists all the reasons he must do what is right—loyalty to his dead partner; for the good of the organization; because his job is to run down criminals and put them in jail; because it is his neck or hers. He gives eight reasons why he must turn her in to the cops.

Brigid comes close, putting her face close to his, still begging.

Finally, Spade grabs her, clinches his teeth, and utters: “I won’t play the sap for you.”

This might not be an altruistic  reason for staying within the law, but in Spade’s world it is reason enough to do the right thing.

Do you have a character in your novel who might be contemplating breaking the law? What consequences might your character suffer for crossing that line?

Predicting Future Crimes

(I am a guest blogger on The Graveyard Shift today. Here is the beginning of the article Predicting Future Crimes. Click on the link below to join us for a walk into the future. The CIA believes it is possible. Do you?)

Predicting Future Crimes

An unnerving movie, Minority Report, came out a few years ago where crime is virtually eliminated in the year 2054. Cops acted on data from precogs, three mutated humans who can peer into the future. Using this futuristic prediction, an elite law enforcement unit tracked down these criminals. The crooks were identified, apprehended, tried and convicted before the crime was ever committed. Everything changes when these precogs turned their attention toward Tom Cruise’s character, John Anderton, leader of the Precrimes police unit. The police unit commander must flee for his life.

Unbelievable?


Take another look. Public attention went spiral a few weeks ago when they learned Google Ventures-the internet giant’s investment arm-teamed up with a CIA-backed investment company to pump money into a little-heard-of company called Recorded Future (RF). What caught everyone’s attention is this new company’s stated goal: monitor the web in real time and use this information to predict the future.


....Continue on The Graveyard Shift

Mike Smitley

SMALL TOWN OR BIG CITY: CRIME TAXES STRUGGLING COMMUNITIES

Ex-Chief talks about police, politics and publishing in rural America

Retired Police Chief Mike Smitley spent thirty years in law enforcement before turning in his badge and stepping into the publishing world. His cop resume would make any policeman proud—directed drug and homicide task forces, served as a SWAT team leader and sniper, criminal investigator, trainer and street cop. Mike spent the latter part of his law enforcement career as the chief of several police organizations.

Since leaving law enforcement, Mike used his police experiences as background for several novels before using his talents to create Father’s Press, a small press operation in Missouri. He currently resides there with his wife and two sons. Mike has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice and a Master’ degree in Administration of Public Affairs.

Hook’em and Book’em has visited police officers on both coasts. We have even traveled to Iraq to learn about police operations in that war-torn country. Today, we travel to middle lands of this country, where life is presumable slower and a little more sane. Or is it?

MARK: Mike, thanks for joining us today. Let us begin be learning about how you got into law enforcement. Why did you get into this line of work?

MIKE: Law enforcement was always something that I knew that I would do, even as a small child. I always knew policemen had a dramatic impact on society and were the thin line between peace and chaos. I’ve always believed that it was the most important job a person could have.

MARK: Where did you serve and what paths did your career take you?

MIKE: I worked for 23 years in Lee’s Summit, MO, then took the police chief job in a small town in northern Wisconsin, then took a chief’s position at Junction City, KS. I then ran a drug task force in Kansas City.

MARK: What did you find most interesting about police work?

MIKE: The most interesting thing was the ingenious ways the human mind finds to circumvent the law and society’s norms. The diversity of people never ceases to amaze me.

MARK: What did you find most challenging?

MIKE: The most challenging thing is the creativity and insight needed to determine what events transpired through the evidence left by human behavior.

MARK: What are some of the interesting cases you worked on?

MIKE: The most interesting cases were always the most complex ones. And none were more challenging than homicide cases.

MARK: What have been some of the most significant changes in law enforcement as you look back over your career?

MIKE: The most significant changes are the technological advances made in forensics and communications. Science and technology have greatly increased the effectiveness of policemen and increased the success rate in complex cases.

MARK: You have worked for police agencies that seem to range from small to medium size. What are some of the difficulties a small town chief faces in trying to meet the needs of the community with limited resources?

MIKE: The hardest thing for me was the political issues that cropped up. There are so many conflicting interests in small towns and frequently councils and other power brokers divide up into factions over issues. If there is not common ground on which a chief can bring both sides together, he has to choose. And with dwindling funds resulting from a depressed economy, a chief has to find creative ways to do more with less. And in the final analysis, one can only do so much with the resources that are available. Before long you are restricted to trying to get by with old and worn out equipment and only the basic training necessary to maintain the officers’ state certification. You can’t expand or modernize your department and the community suffers.

MARK: I would imagine working for a small agency allows more personalized interaction with the community. Have you found this to be true? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages?

MIKE: It can allow you more time for public interaction if you have competent commanders who can handle operational and personnel issues that crop up on a daily basis. But incompetent or uninvolved commanders and supervisors can leave a chief so consumed with managing the affairs of the department that he has little time for public interaction. Also in a depressed economy, frequently vacated positions are not filled leaving existing supervisors spread too thin with too many people or units to supervise, requiring more involvement by the chief. So with adequate funding and competent personnel under you, a chief can be more involved.

J. Mark Bertrand

Author Interview: J. Mark Bertrand

  

Crime genre novelist J. Mark Bertrand’s main character has one foot out the door. Back on Murder, scheduled to be released next month, opens with homicide detective Roland March knowing his career is in the toilet unless he can pull off the impossible.

J. Mark Bertrand’s publishing career, however, is starting off with a bang. His first two novels will hit the book shelves this year. In July, Bethany House is set to release J. Mark Bertrand’s novel, Back On Murder, a gritty crime story unfolding on the big-city streets of Houston. Last February, Mark and coauthor Deeane Gist saw their novel, Beguiled— a romance suspense novel— quickly rise on CBA and ECPA listings just weeks after its release.

It looks like this will be a great year for this new author.

YOUNG: Give us the down and dirty on Back On Murder. What is the story about?

BERTRAND: It’s about two seemingly unrelated cases—the shooting death of a La Tercera Crips gang lord and a house full of his minions; and the disappearance of a beautiful suburban teen, which is getting all the media attention. Houston homicide detective Roland March bounces from one detail to the next, convincing himself along the way that the two cases are connected.

YOUNG: Give us some insight into your main character, Roland March. The story begins with everyone knowing March’s career is almost over. Tells us a little about why he keeps fighting to stay in the game. What drives him?

BERTRAND: When we meet March, things have gotten so bad for him in homicide that his bosses are loaning him out on pointless details. He shows up at a crime scene and is pretty much superfluous. Everybody ignores him. And yet he used to be good at the job. He made some famous cases back in the day. When he gets a break in the gang killing, he sees his chance to get “back on murder.” His wife would rather see him get out of law enforcement. Even March can’t explain exactly why he’s staying. But that break galvanizes him. He gets a taste of what it used to be like and wants it all back.

YOUNG: Your protagonist bucks a traditional concept in the Christian publishing industry—main character strengthens his faith in God or resolves his spiritual conflict after facing adversity. Here, March is a non-believing skeptic with a jaundiced view of the church. An outsider. Will March ever resolve spiritual quandaries or will those issues be left for other characters to resolve.

BERTRAND: March doesn’t fit the stereotype, that’s for sure. And I’d argue as a novelist that’s a good thing. There’s something to be said for defamiliarization, for looking at the world through a fresh set of eyes.

One of the questions people ask, given the publisher, is whether Back on Murder is Christian fiction. All I can say is, it’s crime fiction, written by an author who’s a Christian, narrated by a protagonist who isn’t. Complicated enough for you? If your definition of the genre is how well it fits that “faces adversity then solves spiritual conflict” trope, then this doesn’t qualify … but neither would The Moviegoer or Wise Blood. (And no, I didn’t just compare myself to Walker Percy and Flannery O’Connor. Or if I did, it was knowing full well I’m not worth to tie their shoelaces!) The French film director Claude Chabrol once pointed out to Roger Ebert that not every Communist movie has to be about the wheat harvest. The same thing goes for any artist with a strong point of view.

As far as March’s issues go, let’s just say this. Things are going to get worse for the detective before they get better.

YOUNG: Intriguing. Can’t wait to see if March will survive. This story takes place in Houston, Texas. Is this city a special place for you or are there other reasons for placing the story in this location?

BERTRAND: I lived in Houston a long time, went to grad school there, and have a love/hate relationship with the city to this day. In crime fiction now, a sense of place is very important. Surprisingly, despite being the fourth largest city in the United States, Houston is underrepresented in the genre. I chose it for that, and because in so many ways—oil, suburban sprawl, mass market religion, and so much more—it’s the perfect metaphor for the world we live in now. If you’re writing about Houston, you’re writing about America, too.

YOUNG: Mark, I read in one of your articles that crime fighting intrigued you at an early age. Anything happen to shake your enthusiasm? How did you go from the junior sleuth of earlier years to the crime novelist of today?

BERTRAND: I’m not a detective today for the same reason I’m not a general: they don’t let you start at the top! Growing up watching Magnum P. I. and Remington Steele, I was so going to be a private detective. I even did a couple of correspondence courses and talked my way into a kind of apprenticeship with a local private eye. The dream persisted until I reached college, where my love of literature kicked in. For someone so committed to the gritty, surreal reality of the job, it’s ironic to think how romanticized my view was.