It's A Fair Cop, Guv!

The difference between fictional crime and real crime is rather obvious. In fictional crime I get to solve the mystery, and bring the villain to justice. I can tidy things up or leave a few loose ends dangling to keep my readers coming back for more (hopefully). In real crime life is a lot messier and the bad guys don't always get caught, and certainly don't always get banged up, or if they do they can get released too early and do it all over again. Research is, of course, vital for any crime writer, but if I wrote a crime novel that genuinely reflected how the police operate no one would read it because it would be so tedious. I don't mean that the day in the life of a police officer is tedious, far from it, but that reflecting police procedure and police structure in its truest sense in a novel would bore my readers to tears - even police officers who read my crime novels tell me that! But if you want real life policing then I can't think of a better place to look than an absolutely fantastic blog written by a police officer and an inspiration to me in writing as well as providing very helpful research - well done. Check it out. It really is well worth reading. http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/