Methods of Murder

I've written about researching methods of murder before and I often consult my faithful book, The Crime Writer's Handbook - 65 ways to kill your victim - in print.  However, I also look for other means that will set a challenge for DI Andy Horton in the Solent Murder Mysteries, Inspector Ryga in the 1950s set series and Art Marvik in his undercover operations for the UK Police Marine Intelligence Squad.

Crime writers  are generally nice people - honest - and do not enact the gruesome crimes they write about. Researching various methods of murder is interesting, sometimes disturbing and always revealing and fascinating.  Although poison is favoured by many crime writers - Agatha Christie was big on this - there are other means, as sadly many of us know from the news.

However, this is fiction and in THE BOATHOUSE MURDERS, a DI Andy Horton Solent Murder Mystery, I set myself the task of having a victim killed by a crossbow shooting.

Detective Inspector Andy Horton is assigned the case of a missing person: Jasper Kenton, a private investigator.

Kenton was on the trail of a man whose wife thought he was having an affair.

Then Kenton’s naked body is discovered on a stretch of private beach on the Isle of Wight, wrapped in sailcloth.

The autopsy reveals Kenton was shot with a crossbow at close range.

Horton becomes embroiled in an investigation that has major personal ramifications and he has no choice but to withhold vital information.

Here is what I uncovered

• The crossbow has been used as a means of death in suicides, almost always in males.

• The weapons used can be high-performance precision crossbows with telescopic sights and hunting bolts.

• The parts of the body involved are often the facial/head and thorax.

• The bolt can remain in the body. However if the killer removes the bolt and advanced decomposition takes place this can alter the wound patterns making it more difficult to determine the type of weapon used. ( Dr Gaye Clayton would be on to this!)

• Examination of crossbow injuries can be difficult because they are similar to other incised wound patterns, for example a sharp force such as a knife or a gunshot wound. ( Another one for Gaye to work out).

• The external morphology is strongly dependent on the type of tip used. Multiple-bladed hunting broad heads produce radiating incised wounds, whereas conical field tips produce circular to slit like defects. ( More tell tale clues on the victim for Gaye to relay to Andy).

THE BOATHOUSE MURDERS is about secrets, lies, exploitation and murder.  Secrets can be kept for years, as they have been by those involved in the murder investigation in THE BOATHOUSE MURDERS but it is one person’s determination to expose a secret and exploit it for his own gain that rips apart the fabric of many lives.  Once a secret is exposed nothing is ever the same again.  This is a challenging case for DI Andy Horton and is partly set on the Isle of Wight.  Not only does Andy have a complex case to solve but he gets some shocks and a step further forward in the hunt for the truth behind his mother's disappearance when he was a child.

Read more about the setting of THE BOATHOUSE MURDERS