by VJ Knipe
“…the first thing a principle does — if it really is a principle — is to kill somebody,” as fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey says in Gaudy Night. [i] From the earliest Penny Blood stories[ii], published in instalments from 1828[iii], through the Golden Age of detective fiction to our modern mixtures of crime with genre, readers remain fascinated with murder
When we read a whodunnit novel, we race the fictional detective, hoping to discover who committed the crime, before they identify the murderer in the big reveal scene. The detective strolls around, finding evidence and saying things like, “I flatter myself that I can distinguish at a glance the ash of any known brand, either of cigar or of tobacco.”[iv] This early fiction provides no hint of a proper crime scene method. The characters just collect evidence. In reality, crime does not work this way, but the cleverness of the detective hooks us.
When police declare a crime scene, a strict procedure must be followed if the evidence is to be permissible in a Court of Law. The actions, in strict order, are Control, Preserve, Record, Recover[v]. To further understand this, you need to know Locard’s Exchange Principle, which boils down to ‘every contact leaves a trace’. If a criminal leaves evidence on a crime scene, so a crime scene leaves evidence on the criminal[vi]. For example, when walking in the woods you leave footprints in the mud, but also mud catches in the pattern on the sole of your shoe.
Crime Scene Investigators search for these traces. However, if random people wander through the scene, they also leave their traces. Therefore, access to the crime scene must be carefully controlled. Cozy mystery, Coming Up Roses by Kim M. Watt describes this need perfectly.
Lucas threw a roll of police tape to Collins and said, “Can you get your suspects out of the house? The whole place is a crime scene, and they seem to be making cheese and pickle sandwiches.”[vii]
Just as crime scene procedure evolves with new science, so too does the detective novel. Outside of fiction, along with a cordon of police tape, there are dedicated entry and exit points, and a common approach path. These devices do not involve magic, but can be used even though the crime is magical. Some of these, at least, must be included to give a gloss of realism to a detective story.
Educated readers are aware of the developments of crime scene procedure and expect reflections of this in fiction. So, writers must work hard to ensure nothing jars the reader out of the story. The first part of the crime scene method, ‘Control’, secures the crime scene, preventing unauthorized entry into the space. Without too many spoilers, let’s take a look at how speculative fiction writers make their stories more engaging by including the correct crime scene procedure of Control.
Past: Too Many Magicians by Randall Garrett
There’s a US educational video from the 1960s discussing how police handle a crime. At 2:49, the video states that two uniformed police officers arrive at the scene first. One remains outside, while the other stands guard over the scene itself, until the plain-clothes detective arrives[viii]. This provides the bare essentials of Controlling the Crime Scene.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Randall Garrett wrote about the fictional detective Lord Darcy. He set the stories in an alternate history world. In these books, a monk in the time of Richard the Lionheart codified the Laws of Magic, which forms the base of all their technology. Fast forward to the 1960s and this modern magical world develops a science called forensic sorcery. This discipline, practiced by Master Sean O’Lochlainn, helps Lord Darcy solve crimes. Forensic sorcery mimics the forensic science of the time.
In Too Many Magicians, published in 1966, Garratt not only has scene guards, but he creates an Aversion Spell. By preventing people from wanting to enter the prohibited area, this spell replaces the police tape around a crime scene.
There was no tangible barrier at the door. There was nothing they could see or touch. But the barrier was almost palpably there, nonetheless. Lord Darcy found that he had no desire to enter the room at all. Quite the contrary; he felt a distinct aversion to the room, a sense of wanting to avoid, at all costs, going into that room for any reason whatever. There was nothing in that room that interested him, no reason at all why he should enter it. It was taboo – a forbidden place. To look from without was both necessary and desirable; to enter was neither necessary nor desirable.[ix]
This paragraph reassures readers that Garrett understands the necessity of keeping the crime scene uncontaminated. The spell is removeable to allow collection of evidence by properly authorized personnel. While the world uses magic, the murderer committed the crime using ordinary means.
Present: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
The video above shows that for many years, a scene guard has been standard operating procedure. While Randall Garrett used magic methods of crime scene control for ordinary crimes, Ben Aaronovitch, in his urban fantasy Rivers of London, utilizes ordinary control methods for crimes committed by magic.
In Aaronovitch’s London, a young police constable, PC Peter Grant, learns about a hidden world of magic, and more importantly how to police that magical society. There are no magical crime scene controls in Rivers of London, and in many cases the crime scenes are not recognized as magic-based until too late. A fact that PC Grant’s superior, Detective Chief Inspector Nightingale, complains about.
‘I wish I’d known this yesterday,’ he said. ‘But we still might be able to pick up a trace.’
‘A trace of what, sir?’ I asked.
‘The uncanny,’ said Nightingale. ‘It always leaves a trace.’[x]
PC Grant’s education starts with how to investigate magical crime. As mentioned above, the crime is initially considered ordinary, and PC Grant is brought in as a scene guard
The Murder Investigation Team had closed off the west of the Piazza by stringing tape across the entrances to King Street and Henrietta Street, and along the frontage of the covered market. I was guarding the church end…[xi]
Marking out the scene of the crime with tape is vital to maintaining the integrity of the evidence. In Rivers of London, a large area of Covent Garden Market is cordoned off by the use of the police tape similar to the first quote from Coming Up Roses. And, PC Grant as a scene guard enforces the exclusion zone. It is while he stands guard at his end of the cordon that he meets a ghost witness and questions it. After that, it is inevitable that he is caught up investigating the magical nature of the crime.
Later books of this series show PC Grant’s attempts to impose regular policing protocols onto magic crimes, as he writes a manual to instruct regular officers on when to call in magical reinforcement.
Future: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
However, speculative fiction does not just include fantasy novels. Even science fiction detective novels must follow the rules for securing viable evidence, if they wish to convince the reader. As mentioned above in Rivers of London, controlling the crime scene also involves questioning ‘eye witnesses.’ Often, a witness’s answers inform how far the cordon needs to be pushed out from the crime scene. Another reason to immediately question witnesses is to prevent cross-pollination of statements when they gossip with friends.
The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal is set in a future with Martian colonies. A rich woman, Tesla, is on her honeymoon cruise on a spaceship to Mars, when her new spouse, a private investigator, is accused of murder. Not all her money can convince the ship’s security that he is innocent, so they investigate. In the novel, Kowal’s descriptions of the crime scene on the space ship could exist on any street today.
…a half dozen other crew members, wearing bright-orange safety vests over server uniforms, followed her into the corridor. Officer Piper gestured to the hall, and two crew members broke off to begin knocking on the doors that were still closed. [xii]
And later when everyone is removed,
…The entire ghastly length of it was empty, which probably had something to do with the yellow caution tape stretched across the end. [xiii]
As in the educational video, uniformed officers secure the crime scene — in The Spare Man the uniform is orange jackets. Yellow caution tape, repurposed from janitorial supplies, marks out the area of interest. The security officer questions and removes the witnesses to another part of the cruise liner, leaving the crime scene clear. As readers, we expect a situation to be dealt with in this way, it bases the fantastical elements on solid reality.
An author does not need to include all of the crime scene methods to convince a reader that correct procedure is taking place, hints are enough. These three examples provide touches of realism, even though the use of Control is in the background. If you are interested in seeing how other stories utilize the gentle touch of crime scene control in the story, you might want to try the non-Eurocentric, steampunk novella The Haunting of Tramcar 015 by P. Djèlí Clark.
Other novels take a different approach using one or more of the four parts of the crime scene procedure to convey a sense of realism. This is the first in a series of articles. The next one will discuss how authors show their detectives Preserving evidence at the crime scene.
References
Aaronovitch, Ben. Rivers of London: Book 1 in the #1 bestselling Rivers of London series (A Rivers of London novel). Orion. Kindle Edition.
Clute, John, and David Langford. "Urban Fantasy." The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Eds. John Clute and John Grant. Orbit, 1997. Web. 16 Oct. 2024. <sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/urban_fantasy>.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Di Lernia Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Garrett, Randall. Lord Darcy (FANTASY MASTERWORKS). Orion. Kindle Edition.
Kowal, Mary Robinette. The Spare Man. Rebellion Publishing Ltd. Kindle Edition.
Mummery D. (2021). Every contact leaves a trace. The British journal of general practice: the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 71(712), 512. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp21X717569
Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night: the classic Oxford college mystery (Lord Peter Wimsey Series Book 12) Hodder & Stoughton. Kindle Edition.
Stableford, Brian M., John Clute and Peter Nicholls. "Definitions of SF". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by John Clute and David Langford. Reading: Ansible Editions, updated 15 June 2020. Web. Accessed 18 February 2025. <https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/definitions_of_sf>.
Stableford, Brian M, Gary K Wolfe and David Langford. "Alternate History." The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Eds. John Clute and David Langford. SFE Ltd/Ansible Editions, 25 Jan. 2021. Web. 16 June 2023. <https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/alternate_history>.
Watt, Kim M. Coming Up Roses - A Cozy Mystery (with dragons): Tea, cake, & devious schemes in the Yorkshire Dales (A Beaufort Scales Mystery, Book 6). Kim M. Watt. Kindle Edition.
Worsley, Lucy. A Very British Murder. Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
[i] Sayers, pp.336-337
[ii] These early Penny Blood stories arise out of a fascination with true crime in the Victorian Era, which the ordinary people would read about in the broadsheets. And even the people who could not read learned the information from a street patterer, whose job it was to stand on street corners and keep up a constant chat on the latest sensational news. Worsley p.66
[iii] Worsley, p.71
[iv] Doyle, p.32
[v] If you want to know more about working a crime scene, I have written an article on that subject. Reading that and, if needed, following up on the references to other works should provide all the information you require. https://mozartcultures.com/en/working-the-crime-scene-control-preserve-record-recover/
[vi] Mummery (2021).
[vii] Watt, p.18.
[ix] Garrett, p.247.
[x] Aaronovitvh, pp 34-35
[xi] Aaronovitch, p.4
[xii] Kowal, location 321.
[xiii] Kowal, location 407
© Copyright 2025 VJ Knipe
About the Author
Armed with a BSc Biochemistry, an MSc Forensic Science, and a thirst for knowledge, Malaysian-born, Scottish writer, VJ Knipe navigates the realm of fantasy with a touch of the uncanny in a handful of published fantasy books and foray into self-publishing. An avid canoeist, cake decorator, and DIY enthusiast, she's also a passionate advocate for autism awareness. Her current work-in-progress is a Police Procedural set on Mars and she has a long-running monthly forensic science article for an online magazine.