Howdunit Book of Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit)

Howdunit Book of Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit)

By: Lee Lofland  

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5

With a career in law enforcement that spanned nearly two decades, author Lee Lofland is a nationally acclaimed expert on police procedures and crime scene investigations who consults regularly with best-selling authors and television producers. Now you can benefit from his years of experience with Police Procedure & Investigation.

This comprehensive resource includes:

• More than 80 photographs, illustrations, and charts showing everything from defensive moves used by officers to prison cells and autopsies
• Detailed information on officer training, tools of the trade, drug busts, con air procedures, crime scene investigation techniques, and more
• First-person details from the author about his experiences as a detective, including accounts of arrests, death penalty executions, and criminal encounters

Police Procedure & Investigation is the next best thing to having a police detective personally assigned to your book!

Publisher: Writers Digest Books

Customer Review: 3 out of 5
A bit bewildered - As the title says, I'm a bit bewildered. I would have ordered this book from all the glowing reviews, but I spent some time looking through it in a bookstore today and was disappointed. Yes, the material is well presented and covers a lot of ground.

However, it is all fairly rudimentary. If you want to understand police procedure, buy a textbook instead, even if it's a tougher read.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
A Must-Have for Crime Writers - Lee Lofland has written the ultimate insiders guide to police procedure, an invaluable cheat-sheet for crime novelists who want their fiction to feel as real as possible. Now every writer has a friend on the force he can turn to for accurate information on how cops do what they do.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Lee Lofland is a great resource for writers - Today's readers are savvy and quick to pick up on inaccuracies, so it's important for a writer to be up-to-date on terminology and procedures. Police procedure, murder investigations, the straight dope on DNA, autopsies, prison terminology, and a whole lot of other areas in the crime and mystery genre, Lofland's book is one-stop shopping. Highly recommended.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Award Winner! - Lee's book is brilliant--filled with every piece of information a mystery writer could ask for. Mystery Readers International agrees--they just gave the book one of their 2008 awards for Best Mystery Non-Fiction!

Congratulations, Lee. You deserve it.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Discovering the right mystery/suspense moves - Lee Lofland brings his experience as a veteran police investigator, who worked his way from an officer in Virginia's prison system, then a sheriff's deputy, a patrol officer, and a detective to Police Procedure & Investigation. According to his web site, Lee solved cases dealing with narcotics, homicide, rape, murder-for-hire, robbery, and ritualistic and occult crimes. He was an undercover officer and even a narcotics K-9 handler. He's certified in the U.S. Department of Justice, Virginia State Police Academy, and the DEA, as well as continuing to be certified in Crime Scene Management and Crime Scene Investigations.

One major thing Lee lets readers know is not everything shown on TV and in the movies is correct or accurate. Much is completely wrong. The material in this book, including photographs and illustrations and detailed information, gives a firm basis for mystery/suspense/detective writers to incorporate reality in their stories and books.

Chapters include "Law Enforcement in America," with a breakdown of local, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies; "The Police Academy," with information about the training and courses found in different jurisdictions; "Police Officers: Their Duties and Equipment," including job descriptions and equipment used.

Personally, I found the chapters "Detectives" and "Tell it to the Judge: Courts and the Legal Process" to the most helpful for me in my writing career at this point, but most of the information is useful and enlightening. An index at the back of the book and appendixes helps readers find itemized material.

Lee presents information in such a way that almost everyone can easily understand what he writes. He shares his mass experiences and research so that readers can know reality and authors can make their writing more interesting, believable, and realistic.

The material on the back of the book states, "Police Procedure & Investigation is the next best thing to having a police detective personally assigned to your book," and I wholeheartedly agree.

I advise that anyone interested in procedure and investigations find, and keep on hand, a copy of this book. Police Procedure & Investigation by Lee Lofland is one of the best written and most usable reference books for readers and writers interested in crime, mystery, police, and law enforcement.

Reviewed by Vivian Zabel

--> Find out more about "Howdunit Book of Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit)" at Amazon.com or Order Now