JENN McKINLAY: After sixty books written, I have to say I’ve had to research a wide variety of topics from hoarding to driving in Ireland. But in A MERRY LITTLE MURDER PLOT (coming out on Oct 8th), I had to research the possibility of death by electrocution using a string of holiday lights…well…oh, wait, I can’t tell you anymore because it might spoil the book. Suffice to say, it is very possible.
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Now tell me, Reds, what is the most interesting/oddball/alarming thing you learned while researching one of your books?
HALLIE EPHRON: How easy it is to kill with an overdose of Tylenol. It’s scary how little it takes. Also: dead bodies don’t bleed. If it’s bleeding it ain’t dead (yet). Also: It’s pretty easy to “accidentally” kill someone in an MRI lab (between the super-powerful magnets and the massive amounts of liquid nitrogen, easier than you want to know). It’s amazing that mystery writers can even sleep through the night.
RHYS BOWEN: as Hallie said, in real life too many people get away with murder. How easy it is to tell an elderly person he’s forgotten to take his pills so that he gets a double or triple dose. And if an autopsy is done you say “ he was getting so forgetful!”
My garden is full of oleander. While not as deadly as rumor would have it it looks like a bay leaf in a casserole.
The most interesting research I ever did was asking John to help me in a scene where Evan has to wrestle a gun away from a man on a steep mountainside. We tried to act it out and ended up in an interesting position entwined on the floor, much to the horror of one of our kids!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, so much fun! And if someone looked at my search history, they would really be perplexed. How long does it take to drown in salt water, what does someone look like when they’ve been asphyxiated. Can you make mac & cheese with bananas? Seriously, I cannot tell you why I looked that up.
There are always, always, wonderful things you find that you were not looking for. For instance, my character Jane Ryland is called Jane Elizabeth. Her idol is Nellie Bly, the reporter. Guess what Nellie Bly’s real name was? Elizabeth Jane. I just loved that, and I did not know it when I wrote it.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Just think what our collective search histories would look like! a veritable smorgasbord of murder methods! Jenn, I electrocuted someone in my very first book, and learned why it's not unreasonable that regular outlets are not allowed in bathrooms in the UK… Also for that first book I remember posing myself on the stairs as if I'd been pushed down them–ouch! And like Rhys, we've done our share of role-playing. The lengths we will go to for our plots!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I went down a rabbit hole while researching the 1930s scenes in OUT OF THE DEEP I CRY and wound up learning how to harness a horse team for plowing. I actually used some of, too, as Harry McNeil questions someone!
Weirdest research was with the help of my dear late friend, Tim LaMar. Tim was my go-to guy for guns and violence. Despite being a gentle and very physically unimposing man, Tim knew his stuff, and he walked me through how to turn a sapling into an offensive weapon, and what hitting someone's head with a big rock sounded like.
And I second the concern over our search histories! You can imagine the sorts of things I was Googling for when researching the upcoming book, which is about a Neo-Nazi militia. Please don't come for me, FBI!
LUCY BURDETTE: The searcher would find my history heavy on poisons as well! Lily of the Valley? Check! Some kind of poisonous nut that would work well in a pie crust? Check! I also loved my research for the golf lovers mysteries–I went to actual LPGA tournaments to talk with the players, and even bought a slot to play in the professional/amateur tournament. It took most of my (admittedly small) first advance, but I wouldn’t trade that memory for anything. John caddied for me and was paid $50 at the end:)
How about you, Readers, what bizarre information have you learned while reading or researching that you didn't know before?
Hhhmmm . . . I think perhaps the oddest thing I ever came across was the fact that, in the Middle Ages, books were often chained to shelves to keep them from being stolen . . . .
ReplyDeleteHhhmmm . . . I think perhaps the oddest thing I ever came across was the fact that, in the Middle Ages, books were often chained to shelves to keep them from being stolen . . . .
ReplyDeleteIn my first book, someone is killed by a blow to the head, so I researched that. It turns out that most of us have pretty tough skulls, thank God, so the average bang on the bean isn't going to kill us; a murderer has to get it just right!
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