with Jen J. Danna
We are delighted to welcome back mystery author Jen J. Danna to Omnimystery News.
Jen's new book, co-written with Ann Vanderlaan, is A Flame in the Wind of Death (Five Star; April 2014 hardcover and ebook formats), the third in their series featuring Massachusetts State Police Trooper Leigh Abbott and forensic anthropologist Matt Lowell.
We asked Jen to tell us a little more about the series, and she titles her guest post for us today "Why Write Forensic Crime Fiction?".
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Photo provided courtesy of
Jen J. Danna
There's an ironclad rule in my house — whenever my daughters and I watch forensic crime shows on TV, I'm not allowed to say a word because my nitpicking drives them crazy. With over twenty-years as a virologist and immunologist, the world of science is my everyday playground. The techniques used on crime shows like CSI, Bones, and NCIS are used in our university laboratory on a regular basis. So when a perfect match for DNA identification by PCR is complete in mere minutes, and mass spectrometry analysis of trace evidence takes only moments longer, it kind of drives me nuts. I understand the issues involved in storytelling, but there has to be a happy medium between Hollywood fantasy science and the real thing.
Luckily, my writing partner is a retired scientist herself, and we agreed when we started our series that we'd have no super scientists who are experts in every subfield, no ridiculously outfitted labs with every piece of equipment known to man, and we'd work with realistic timelines and techniques. If working in the real world throws challenges into the paths of our protagonists, then isn't that an obstacle to overcome? Conflicts in storytelling only make the plot more interesting.
Why center our science specifically on forensic anthropology? Forensic science in general is fascinating to me, but in fresh death, often the evidence is so strong that there is no mystery about what happened. But in the long dead, or those affected by fire, water or dismemberment, the victims can no longer speak for themselves; instead they need someone to stand for them to tell their tale. In the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries, that specialist is forensic anthropologist Dr. Matt Lowell. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with Massachusetts State Police homicide detective Leigh Abbott, Matt and his team of grad students investigate murder when the victims are beyond the exclusive domain of the medical examiner.
In A Flame in the Wind of Death, burned remains are discovered in Salem, Massachusetts shortly before Halloween. Left with only badly damaged remains, Matt must be able to take apart the tiny clues left on the skeleton to determine the cause of death. In the following scene, Matt explains how fracture patterns can help explain how their victim died:
"First, you need to understand the difference between fractures in wet and dry bone so you can tell perimortem fractures from postmortem fractures. I know you're familiar with kerf marks and how a solid object passing through bone leaves an imprint behind. In the same way, heat-induced fractures leave their own microscopic and macroscopic signatures. Using these signatures, we can reconstruct both what happened and the order in which the injuries occurred. The challenge in this case is the conformational changes that occur in bone exposed to extreme heat — it changes shape so you can't simply fit the pieces back together cleanly. But the crucial point is that once there is an existing first fracture in a bone, a second break can't cross it. That's how you can map the order of injury."
"Handy," Leigh said. "But can you tell if a break was there before the fire?"
"Yes. Heat fractures are only formed under specific circumstances — the bone dehydrates causing it to warp and shrink. When that stress becomes excessive, it results in an abrupt break similar to a sharp force trauma fracture."
"Doesn't that cause problems, then? How can you tell between fire damage and sharp force trauma?"
"It's a challenge," Matt agreed. "But wet bone behaves differently. First, heat-induced fractures only happen in dry bone — bone that's charred black or calcined. Normal bone doesn't fracture from heat stress because the moisture content gives it too much resilience."
Leigh swiveled to stare at the bones on the gurney. "So if there's a fracture in uncharred bone, it happened before the fire."
"Exactly."
While the science is an integral part of the series, it is, in fact, the team that drives the story. It is their determination to find justice for the victims that gives the science meaning and puts the humanity of the lost at the forefront of the case.
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A scientist specializing in infectious diseases, Jen J. Danna works as part of a dynamic research group at a cutting-edge Canadian university. However, her true passion lies in indulging her love of the mysterious through her writing. Together with her partner Ann Vanderlaan, she crafts suspenseful crime fiction with a realistic scientific edge.
Jen lives near Toronto, Ontario with her husband and two daughters, and is a member of the Crime Writers of Canada.
For more information about the author, please visit website at JenJDanna.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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A Flame in the Wind of Death
Jen J. Danna
An Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mystery
At Halloween, Salem, Massachusetts is a hot spot for Witch and tourist alike. But when a murder spree begins, a cop and a scientist must team up to find the killer before a media circus is unleashed, panic ensues, and more victims are killed.
Forensic anthropologist Matt Lowell and Massachusetts State Police Trooper Leigh Abbott are called in to investigate burned remains following a fire in a historic antique shop. As Matt, Leigh and their team of graduate students investigate the death, clues point to Salem's traditional Witchcraft community. However, having dabbled in the Craft as a teenager, Leigh is skeptical that someone who has sworn an oath of good to all and harm to none would commit premeditated murder, let alone kill in such a vicious way.
A second body is found in a similar fire and the team begins to suspect that coven members are being framed. Now they must solve the murders before 100,000 tourists overrun Salem for what could be the deadliest Halloween of their lives.
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