by Jamie Marriage
Sultry, seductive and deadly, the Femme Fatale is a classic character from any medium you care to name.
She lives a life of danger and mystery, usually causing catastrophe to good guy and villain alike. She sends the good to their doom and from the bad she steals the spoils.
But maybe that’s the kind of girl you want in your life. Who wants a dull relationship after all?
If so, here are a few tips to help you on your way to an exciting, but probably short, relationship with a Femme Fatale.
Attracting a Femme Fatale:
Certain kinds of people are more likely to attract a Femme Fatale than others; for what they want even more than riches is a challenge. For this they have a habit of seducing dangerous and cunning characters like the hero, the spy, or the detective.
With what seems like a click of their fingers the Femme Fatale will trap otherwise careful and courageous characters in her web and make them suffer and take the fall when everything goes south. But if you are smart as well as in the right job at the right time you might come out the victor.
Living with a Femme Fatale:
Even more difficult than attracting your lady of mischief is keeping her; she will always be looking out for number one and, as a result, she might get you into trouble.
Keep an eye out for incriminating evidence planted around your house and place of work; she may love you, but she may have planned that you are better off out of the way.
For the same reason be on your guard for “surprises” that she may have planned. That romantic outing to the country may seem like a nice idea at the time but she may have left something ticking in the picnic basket she sends you to fetch.
 Ending your relationship with a Femme Fatale:
So you have gone this far; well done. Not many can boast that they have been with a Femme Fatale long enough to want to end the relationship on their own terms.
Ending this relationship may take more cunning than you have used up to this point. You have evaded the planted evidence, the assassination attempts and other heroes or villains she has brought in to confuse things, but now it’s time to take things up a notch.
Play her own tricks back on her. She’s a dangerous woman; she is bound to have a few skeletons in her closet that you can expose to make things difficult for her. Hopefully, under enough pressure she will just leave diplomatically. If not you will need to work for your freedom.
Maybe she will leave if a bigger score comes to light; read the newspaper aloud in sections talking about wealthy businessmen or successful crime fighters. A bigger challenge may be all she needs .
If all else fails expose her dastardly crimes to the world and the law will deal with your messy breakup for you. She may not be happy with the result but at least you have gotten out of the relationship alive.
The Femme Fatale: dangerous, beautiful and as exciting a partner as you will ever have. Just make sure she isn’t your last.
MUSIC: Elvis Presley - Mean Woman Blues
Space - Female of the Species
 Defining Justice in a Fictional World
Article by: Kylie Fox
The term “justice” is one of the most difficult to define. A few weeks ago, I attended a panel made up of three judges from various courts and each of them had difficulty in providing a definition. Why? Because it is such a subjective term.
Justice means very different things to different people. In some countries, for example, it is considered just for the hand of a thief to be severed. Here, we would consider that to be barbaric – certainly not just.
To the judge, justice can only be served within the confines of a set of laws and they must take into account the crime, the probability of rehabilitation and the impact on the victim. They must find a fair and reasonable punishment, thus defining justice.
To the criminal waiting in the docks, who no doubt can justify his actions, at least to himself, any sentence, any punishment, will likely seem unjust.
To the victim, or the family of a victim, perhaps there is nothing that would feel like justice has been served. Consider the parents of a murdered child. One could assume that nothing short of the return of their child and the perpetrator rotting in hell, could seem like a just outcome.
We are often outraged at the sentences received by criminals – how can a life be worth ten years in jail? Others closer to the perpetrator will cry – but it was one stupid mistake!
In the real world, there are too many circumstances, too many variables, for justice to become a blanket term.
Equally, justice must not only be served but be seen to be served.
That adage holds true in crime fiction too – we, as the readers, expect to see some kind of justice for the crimes committed. This kind of justice doesn’t necessarily have to follow any real-world rules, so long as we are provided with some sense of closure.
In a court-based story, like those of John Grisham, we do expect that the perpetrators of the crime will be tried, convicted and receive exceptionally long sentences. We need for the police to have already done the groundwork for the case, but equally we expect the lawyers to find that smoking gun, right in the nick of time, or to push for a confession from a broken defendant on the stand. Only then can the reader be satisfied that justice has been served.
In many detective, private eye and police procedurals, we don’t need to follow the crime as far as the court case. We don’t need to know the sentence. We are satisfied with our protagonist surviving to solve another case – and of course, they must always get their man. Justice is seen to be served the second the police slap the handcuffs on.
For forensic-styled protagonists like those of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs – we still expect them to get their man just not with the traditional footwork of a detective, but clever lab work. Oh, and only after their own lives have been threatened.
Jeff Lindsay brings us a whole other kind of justice – justice Dexter-style. And it’s every bit as satisfying – sometimes even more so – than the legal counterparts. Dexter’s particular brand of justice is to murder the perpetrators of some of the more vicious crimes, dispose of their bodies and continue working as a blood spatter analyst for the police department. He’s one of the good guys. He just does very bad things. But still, we cheer him on, pray he doesn’t get caught and feel well and truly satisfied that justice has been served when the dismembered remains of his latest bad-guy victim are tossed into the ocean.
Justice, in crime fiction, is every bit as varied and subjective as justice in the real world. I guess the only rule of justice is that it must be seen to be done and it must, at least somewhat, satisfy the parties involved. In the case of fiction, those parties are the reader.
What do you see as the most satisfying endings to crime fiction novels? Equally, what are some that have left you feeling ripped off; that haven’t seen justice served?
 Keeping it real: Fact, Fiction, Faction?
Article by: Janette Dalgliesh
Research is a prime tool in the crime writer’s toolkit, whether it’s boning up on grisly forensics, dusting off obscure legal anomalies, delving into cultural history or exploring back alleys and beaches.
Bad or lazy research results in the crime myths against which I railed in my last post, and leaves a story the poorer. Good research can immerse the reader utterly in story and in characters’ emotional journeys.
When I first encountered Shane Maloney’s bumbling hero, Murray Whelan, in his debut novel Stiff, I had no doubt that Maloney was, like Whelan, a card-carrying Labor Party apparatchik. Of course, I was completely wrong! He’s just a great researcher.
Kerry Greenwood’s impressive academic credentials and her research talents provide enormous richness to her stories, whether she’s writing flapper Phryne Fisher, baker Corrina Chapman or the Delphic Women series.
And of course, Marianne’s own research provides Tara with a thoroughly recognisable Perth, as well as believable encounters with aura-reading, motorcycle racing, organised crime and soon (oh yes!) the rock ‘n’ roll industry.
Research comes from both internal and external sources, and writers use it in a multiplicity of ways.
 Harper Lee, in her iconic novel To Kill A Mockingbird, weaves the characters of her childhood and the town in which she grew up seamlessly into her narrative, to create an engaging story with powerful messages at its core. Her twin themes of racial inequity and sexual violence had a dramatic impact on the opinions of 1960s white middle-class America.
Lee’s childhood friend Truman Capote (upon whom Lee based the character Dill) put the boot on a different foot when he wrote his “non-fiction novel” In Cold Blood, published in 1966. He details the horrific 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a wealthy farmer from a small Kansas town, along with his wife and two of their children. Capote spent four years—with Lee’s assistance—interviewing investigators, townspeople and, once they’d been caught, the two killers. It’s not the first ever true crime book, and some of Capote’s interviewees later claimed he’d fabricated details, but In Cold Blood remains a seminal work of the genre, using literary techniques in reportage.
Australian author Kathryn Fox’s recent novel Death Mask uses yet another approach. A doctor with an interest in forensic medicine, Fox is a passionate campaigner against sexual and domestic violence.
In Death Mask, main character Dr Anya Crichton (who was introduced to readers in Fox’s Malicious Intent) is an Australian forensic physician and researcher with a focus on sexual assault. Invited to New York to present sexual health information to American football players, she finds herself entangled in the aftermath and investigation of an alleged gang rape by members of one team.
Fox is unequivocal in her condemnation of sexual violence in sports and the treatment of victims by the justice system and the media—a highly topical and important subject. She ramps up her central message with a handful of additional and mostly related topics: sports doping, unethical sports doctors, domestic violence, corrupt sports management and even the evils of home-shopping networks.
Into her story Fox weaves research findings, statistics and conclusions, each presented within dialogue or as part of Crichton’s inner contemplations.
In comparing Fox’s novel to the work of Capote and Lee, there is a subtle but important difference.
Capote dramatises true events to extract a gripping story for his readers. Lee draws on real life to explore issues through a juvenile fictional narrator who is almost unaware of their significance.
Fox unflinchingly asks Crichton to become her mouthpiece, as she embarks on what appears to be a work of educative fiction with an explicit crusade at its heart. Death Mask is, in essence, a work of “fact-ion”: a blend of facts and fiction designed to challenge and alter opinion, and to arouse her readers’ passion to support her (wholly justifiable) campaign against sexual and domestic violence.
Web reviewers are full of praise for Death Mask, especially those who report that the shocking evidence and research provided by Fox gave them new insights into badly behaved sportsmen and various other issues.
Have you read Death Mask? What did you think? Is this kind of “fact-ion” at crime sub-genre of the future? I’d be interested to know your views!
with Janette Dalgliesh
Top Crime Myths
I’m a placid soul, and I know crime on TV is supposed to be escapism. But that doesn’t stop me wanting to throw a brick at the screen when stories get the simple stuff wrong. Dear writer, is it too much to ask? Here are my top five crime myth peeves:
24 hour wait
Scene: Wife turns up dead after not going home the night before. Detective scowls: “Did you report her missing?” Distraught husband sobs: “I called but missing persons said I had to wait.”
The 24-hour waiting period isn’t universal, even in the USA. In many cases, circumstances would be assessed before dismissing a concerned relative. And in Australia, there is no waiting period for reporting a missing person. If you don’t know where someone is and you have concerns about their safety, you report them straight away. Scriptwriters who reinforce this myth need their wrists slapped.
Sex before science
Scene: Luxe hotel room, blood everywhere and a corpse on the floor. The forensic expert arrives, long hair waving in slo-mo, and proceeds to collect samples protected only by a pair of latex gloves.
I love the forensics sub-genre, to the point where I can forgive its many myths. But this one really gets my goat. UK drama Silent Witness at least pays lip service to the notion of protecting the integrity of a crime scene, with the gorgeous Emilia Fox happily donning baggy disposable coveralls and bootees to do her job. But according to CSI – the biggest franchise in the pack – as long as scientists have their trusty gloves, they can shed hair, skin and clothing fibres to their heart’s content. Grrr.
Instant results
Scene: the forensic lab (yes, again – promise I’ll move on after this). Our sexy scientist prepares her samples in a montage of serious-forehead and shiny equipment. And look! Within minutes of putting the sample into the machine with the to-die-for graphic design – a match!
The science of DNA fingerprinting has been developing and improving for many years, since its first court appearance in a UK immigration case in 1985. While it’s true that the tests are much faster than they used to be, most times the lab work and subsequent analysis and reporting requires more than an ad-break to complete. And it’s rare that DNA evidence comes in the neat package most forensics shows would have us believe. And this could be having an effect on real court cases.
In 2004 a Peoria, Illinois jury let off an alleged rapist because the DNA evidence presented by the prosecution – his saliva on her breast – didn’t match their expectations of forensics.
Witnesses are dumb
Scene: detective gets a phone call from a witness, who whispers “I can’t tell you over the phone… meet me tonight…”. And you know they’ve signed their death warrant.
Really? Witnesses the world over are all calling the cops, and conveniently timing it so they’ll be killed before they can pass on their all-important information? This isn’t a myth about the legal system or the process of investigation, but it’s a myth about what’s likely. Midsomer Murders is a particular offender with this annoying narrative device, though it doesn’t stop me watching (albeit with iPhone game or laptop handily in reach).
Wire me up
Scene: a sympathetic suspect agrees to a lie detector test, and the results prove she didn’t do it. Woohoo!
We love the idea that the bad guys can be caught out, or the innocent exonerated, by a machine. But in the real world, lie detector tests only work on some of the people, some of the time. In the USA, each state has different approaches to the admissibility of these tests, while in Europe, they’re generally not accepted by the courts. Here in Australia, only NSW has made a specific ruling on the matter, also finding the tests not admissible.
Happily, lie detectors in crime fiction are increasingly depicted as having a purely investigatory role, which is closer to the real world. I’ve even seen scripts that discuss the unreliability of the tests.
Perhaps this is a sign that given enough time, writers of crime do eventually let go of their favourite myths. Perhaps all I need to do is wait.
What’s your favourite peeve? Feel free to share!
Hi Marianne,
Thanks for mentioning the research I do for my thrillers, especially for ‘The Genesis Flaw’. To be honest I have a great deal of fun researching my stories: I’ve ended up in Antarctica for my next thriller, and was lucky enough to spend time onboard the enormous ice-breaker ship, The Aurora Australis, being given a guided tour by the wonderful ship’s master (note, not captain. He told me off for getting that wrong!).
When researching ‘The Genesis Flaw’, I really enjoyed learning about the science of genetic engineering, but the highlight had to be the time I spent with a hacker known as “Fosm”, who swept me up into a world of hackers’ jargon and chat rooms, data and identity theft, taught me how to build a Wi-Fi sniper rifle and launch a Denial Of Service attack, and even took me along to a hackers’ conference. Yes, they do have them! The conference was a hoot, I can tell you. I felt as if I’d landed on another planet where everyone spoke a weird unintelligible language. There was an undercurrent of suspicion. I discovered there were three main groups attending – the legitimate info security people, the undercover detectives who hunt down hackers, and the black hat hackers who are up to no good. All very cloak and dagger.
Louisa
 OK I’m pretty late to the party. Ahem. But yes, I’m totally hooked. One thing I love about the Brits is their ability to laugh at themselves and stare their failings straight in the face (or maybe it’s just that the creator and writer of the series is a Scot?!). Still, the BBC produced it.
Some of the lines, delivered with utter sangfroid, are just inspired. Occasionally, the series lets itself down with some practical oversights but overall I’m having a fan girl attack. With eight seasons still to watch, it will be interesting to see the turnover in cast/characters. Will I be able to maintain my attachment without Matthew MacFadyen?
Walker of the Worlds is my favourite SF blog. Mark balances reviews with opinion pieces and news from the SF world. He also gives great cover round ups of new books, which makes great browsing. The blogroll in his sidebar provides excellent links.
I absolutely love this site. Full of reviews, author chats, giveaways and commentary that is relevent and always changing. A huge amount of work that pays off in spades.
I’m excited to see Sharp Shooter is eligible for the Ned Kelly awards for Best First Novel. So many great books there, I’m happy to be in such auspicious company; Emma Boling, Stephen Irwin, Kaaren Warren, Justine Larbalastier and Rhonda Roberts to mention just a few.
And … because I’ve been enjoying so many great book blogs lately, I thought that I’d start showcasing some of them here. I love that the blog owners do this simply for the love of good fiction.
So, if you haven’t been here already, visit …
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