Real Life Detectives

I had the extreme pleasure of buying three Orlando homicide detectives a few brews and some nachos yesterday--small price to pay for picking their brains in the name of realism in my book.

I walked away with fodder for my novels, even more respect for the jobs these guys do for way, way too little money, an inside look at the way cops talk to each other (firing shots across the bow, is the way they put it, and giving one of them a really hard time because he recently transferred from homicide to child crimes. When one refers to himself as the silverback gorilla and his colleague as a poop-throwing squirrel monkey--well, that's going to HAVE to show up in a book someday.)

I also walked away with a piece of Chattahoochee from a murder scene as a tangible souvenir from one of the detective's cases.
Check it out here, here, or here.

Plus emails and phone numbers and a promise to help out with any other questions.

The challenge, of course, is to right it "right" when everyone thinks cops work the way they do on TV. But they certainly gave me enough to keep my cop busy, and filled in some important details about how they do the job.

Thanks, Mick, Mark & Darrell.