Differences Between Real Life and Fictional Private Investigators by Steven Gore & GIVEAWAY
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To celebrate the release of his latest book A Criminal Defense, Steven Gore is here to talk about his experiences as a private investigator, and how real life PI work differ from what you read in crime fiction.
*Read on to find out how you could win a paperback copy of A CRIMINAL DEFENSE (US only)*
Differences Between Real Life and Fictional Private Investigators
by Steven Gore
Counterintuitive.
If there is single word that characterizes my encounter with writing crime fiction after decades as a criminal investigator, itâs counterintuitive.
And itâs part of the explanation why true crime makes for lousy crime fiction, why so few career-long law enforcement officers and private investigators succeed in crime writing and why most of those who do have only worked in the field briefly. In truth, much of what readers want from investigator protagonists are characteristics and habits that experienced investigators have to train out of themselves in order for them to succeed.
Readers want different things from investigators than do law enforcement agencies and private investigator clients. Readers want to feel increasing tension, while, with the rarest of exceptions, experienced investigators aim to lower it; readers want to watch investigators overcome obstacles, while experienced investigators aim to avoid them; readers want to read about characters who are uniquely qualified, while in the real world there are only investigators who are especially qualified; readers want to watch investigators run up against walls and then force their way through them, while experienced investigators aim how to slip around them; readers want spontaneity and surprise, while experienced investigators plan and plan in order to limit surprises; readers want to see investigators try and try again, while clients want real investigators to get it right the first time; readers are not troubled by brash, aggressive protagonists injecting conflict into a scene, while real investigators donât inject it, they anticipate potential conflict inherent in a situation and work to mute it.
In the end, in the real world, doing all these things in these ways is both the criteria of competence and the conditions for successful investigations.
There is one kind of law enforcement that matches readersâ expectations: narcotics. But it isnât at heart a crime solving assignment. Narcotics cases are generally built from leaning on people whoâve already been caught dirtyâby patrol officers and street drug task forces and through search warrants and wiretaps–to give up those above them. Itâs less about solving crimes and more about discovering crimes already in progress or creating crimes by means of informants or undercover agents. The problem is that since the skills and attitudes that succeed in narcotics enforcement fail in investigations, few narcotics officers become first rate homicide detectives. Observe the contrast between the drug enforcement reality shows and A&Eâs The First 48. In The First 48, at least during the first few years of the show and before detectives began to play to the camera, nearly all of the excitement came from the music and the jump cuts. The detectives themselves were generally low key and methodical.
The problem for me was to translate the reality of investigation into fiction. That is to say, there could be no âWhen in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his handâ of Raymond Chandler or âMy way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machineryâ of Dashiell Hammett. Rather, plots had to be driven internally and conflict had to be exploited from within, rather than imposed from without and the methods used had to be those that succeeded in real life.
On the domestic front, Iâm making this effort in the Harlan Donnally novels of which A Criminal Defense is the latest, and on the international front, in the Graham Gage thrillers of which Power Blind is the latest. In each series, the central problem I faced was investigative competence: the protagonists had to apply real world methods and approaches in a realistic way. That meant applying the techniques of genre fiction to stories whose aim is realism. And the challenge was to make the stories not only informative about the real world of crime and investigation, but exciting for readers. In the end, itâs the readers who will judge whether I have truly bridged the gap between the real and the fictional.
About the Author
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Steven Gore
Steven Gore is a former private investigator whose international thrillers draw on his investigations of murder, fraud, money laundering, organized crime, political corruption, and drug, sex, and arms trafficking in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Gore has been featured on 60 Minutes for his work and has been honored for excellence in his field. He is trained in forensic science and has lectured to professional organizations on a wide range of legal and criminal subjects.
A Criminal Defense
[image error]In Steven Goreâs page-turning second installment, A CRIMINAL DEFENSE by Steven Gore (Harper Mass Market; July 30, 2013; $9.99; ISBN: 9780062025074), readers find ex-SFPD detective Harlan Donnally running a small cafe north of San Francisco. But when Mark Hamlin, a criminal defense lawyer with a slimy reputation, is found murdered underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, Donnally is drawn back into a twisted and corrupt world he thought heâd left behind.
Over three decades, Hamlin’s practice devolved into just another racket: intimidating witnesses, suborning perjury, destroying evidence, laundering money. But is he the victim of murder â or of a dangerous sexual encounter gone wrong? And when law enforcement believes justice has already been done, who can be trusted to find out?
Despite a mysterious request left in the dead manâs hand, Donnally had resolved it wouldn’t be him. He had no desire to immerse himself in the deceit that was Hamlin’s career … nor entangle himself in the corrupted loyalties that turned the dead lawyer’s associates into both co-conspirators and suspects … nor make himself the proxy for the hatreds and betrayals Hamlin left behind.
But the presiding judge demanded otherwise â and that might cost Donnally his life.
âRich, gritty, and terrifically twisty ⦠crackles with legal and psychological authenticity.â
â Lou Berney, author of Whiplash River
Purchase Link: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Giveaway!
Steven is giving away a paperback copy of A CRIMINAL DEFENSE to one lucky commenter (US only — sorry!).
To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment below.
Contest closes August 14.
Good luck! 
Source: J.C. Martin, Fighter Writer
