Shining a Light on Character

One of the fun things about writing detective stories is getting to equip your characters. There's so much gear to research ... or at least, there would be if I didn't devote so much of life to "gear research" already. And the little details do not go unnoticed. You might think nothing when Roland March whips out his flashlight. But to some readers, it makes a difference. 

March is a detective,which means he's in plain clothes and doesn't have a rig for carrying lots of equipment. When he wants to shine some light on the situation, he slips out his trusty Fenix. Compared to the big flashlights of old, these little things put out an incredible volume of light relative to their size. I have a couple of them myself, and I think they're better than the old Surefires they replaced, despite being a whole lot cheaper. 

Ian Fleming (above) probably started the gadget trend in adventure fiction -- and he wasn't above getting some of the details wrong. After all, he gave James Bond a .32 caliber pistol on account of its stopping power. I'm not complaining, though. As any gear-obsessive will tell you, the choice of equipment reveals character. As a reader, I enjoy knowing what kind of equipment a hero chooses, and as an author I do my best to make those choices meaningful.