private detective who blogs?

[HH Johnson]

Are there any mystery/detective novels where the private detective blogs?


Not an occasional thing, mind you. The blogging should be integral to the story.

Could someone name some novels where the private detective blogs?

[Kate Thornton]

It's a very cool idea - I'd read this type of book - so much could happen related to the blogging.

If there aren't any, there should be!

[Clair Dickson]

I've barely come across any stories where the private detective uses the internet (and all the wealth of informatino there!) let along blogging.

This is a cool idea. You might be onto something... though I wonder, what would the PI blog about? Cases would be OFF LIMITS. Even if they changed names, a former client (etc) who came across the blog might still get pissed about information told in confidence being put on the internet. Just my thoughts... which may o r may not have anything to do with the story you're writing. =)

[gothicangel]

I like the idea.

Although is it how the crime is discovered; or are they blogging about how the investigation is playing out?

Done well it could be crime fiction's Bridget Jones; done badly it could be tedious.

[gothicangel]

[quote=Clair Dickson;3258194]I've barely come across any stories where the private detective uses the internet (and all the wealth of informatino there!) let along blogging. quote]

I've thought about this before; and wondered why.

My *detective* uses the internet to find out about the victim (i.e facebook/Bebo) and I use webcams; youtube style website. It's a lot of fun.

[Chase]

My amateur sleuth is deaf and 'blogs his observations as the puzzle unfolds.

[Clair Dickson]

Sadly, I think that few fictional detectives use internet because there seem to be few young(er) internet savvy people writing detective stories. (I sear to god, all the young people are over writing fantasy and urban fantasy!;-)

I mean, I never read about modern PI's using IP tracking or hacking email accounts or anything cool like that. But then again, I know very few forty or fifty (or older) year old people (and fewer who are women) who know anything about this sort of technology themselves... and that's the ages of Grafton, Parestky, and Evanovich. On the other hand, I know a few young guys who know this tech stuff... and none of them write, or hardly read any mysteries.

Be careful having a character blogging about a current case... this is just a huge can of worms as far as privacy.

[gothicangel]

Sadly, I think that few fictional detectives use internet because there seem to be few young(er) internet savvy people writing detective stories. (I sear to god, all the young people are over writing fantasy and urban fantasy!;-)

I mean, I never read about modern PI's using IP tracking or hacking email accounts or anything cool like that. But then again, I know very few forty or fifty (or older) year old people (and fewer who are women) who know anything about this sort of technology themselves... and that's the ages of Grafton, Parestky, and Evanovich. On the other hand, I know a few young guys who know this tech stuff... and none of them write, or hardly read any mysteries.

Be careful having a character blogging about a current case... this is just a huge can of worms as far as privacy.

Maybe we are the beginnings of a new breed of crime writer?

[wombat]

Are there any NON fictional detectives who blog? Now there'd be a useful thing to read.

[Gillhoughly]

I just finished a Dick and Felix Francis mystery where the detective used the Internet to help research things.

But blogging? I doubt a real-life PI would bother.

PIs have an obligation to be DISCREET for their clients.

Check the ads in the yellow pages and count how many times "confidential" appears. Blogging about cases, even with the names changed, will send them out of business so fast you can feel the breeze.

If it's the lone wolf PI solving a murder, that's another thing, but blogs are available for ANYONE to read, including the killer. You can't trust that the killer won't find a way to get on the PI's "friends" list.

The reason why you don't find this sort of thing done by the big names is not because they're old and don't know about computers.

Please--they write on them, send e-mails, manage websites, and blog themselves--they don't use them in their books because it's not interesting.

Their detectives are OUT running around, getting into trouble, chasing bad guys, being shot at, having sex with sultry femme fatales, vamping male suspects, being hassled by the cops, etc. because that is way more interesting than a PI updating his blog at a coffee shop with a wireless set up.

Maybe the blogging PI does all the hazardous stuff too, but when does he have time to blog about it?

Prior to blogs there were personal diaries. You didn't see books about detectives stopping to write in those, either.

Of course a lot of mystery books are in 1st person, so we suspend belief and go with the flow on the adventure. A blog is in 1st person, too, so it is a natural progression for new writers with a symbiotic relationship with their computers.

But being able to convince an editor that the device will work for a whole book is another thing entirely.

Now I can think of a way to use a blog that could work:

.Blog entry (Date, time, etc.) I went to visit Benny the Booger, we had coffee. He had some great stories to tell.
Chapter One


Benny the Booger was sprawled on a park bench, wearing a dirty white t-shirt that got even dirtier when I dumped the remains of my cold coffee on his head. He sputtered, yelped, and started to rise, but I kicked his legs out from under him and stepped on his chest.

"Hey, Benny, how's tricks?" I said, smiling down.

"You!" I ain't talking, you--"

"Now, now, don't scare the squirrels with rough language. I just want to know where Dougie the Digger is hanging out."

[gothicangel]

I've yet to read a novel where a detective uses Facebook et al to build up a profile of a victim.

I know for a fact this is the first port of call for police in the real world.

[RJK]

Again Gillhoughly beat me to the punch (and did a better job than I would have).
What part of the word 'Private' don't you get. A private detective, by the nature of his relationship with his client, must keep the information confidential.
I'm guessing the criminals in Stirling are a little better grade and far more computer literate than the ones I dealt with. Most of the criminals I dealt with couldn't operate a computer if their lives depended on it. That was over 10 years ago, perhaps the newer generation is a little more savy.

[gothicangel]

I'm twenty seven so I think anyone of my age and below is computer savvy. I would think you would be a social outcast otherwise; social lives today seem to revolve around the internet; mobiles; blackberrys and i-pods.

Lets use 'happy slapping'. The people responsible know how to use digital cameras on a mobile phone; use the software necessary to turn it into a file that can be loaded up onto youtube - that's more than I can do!

However my antagonist has been a professional man. So he is extremely computer savvy.

[Clair Dickson]

I think the facebook/ myspace/ cell phone thing is a lot bigger amongst young folks than some older folks realize. Most of my students are so attached to texting and using their cell phones that I'm waiting for their skin to fuse with the phones. They are also constantly on myspace, browsing and uploading pictures, things like that. It's even a little mind-boggling to me, and I'm a just two months shy of 28. I mean, these kids can spend hours and hours either just texting or browsing myspace. And they put such personal information on these sites that a savvy investigator in 2009 (etc) would be a complete idiot not to use this as a source of information.

As for blogging, I don't know about that. But since so many young people thinking nothing of writing their whole lives, from what they ate for breakfast to who they slept with at night on the internet, an amateur sleuth might make that mistake. A private investigator, would, I agree, only make that mistake once. After that they'd be in another line of work. All it takes is ONE person to connect the investigator to the public display of case information (it's quite possible and often easy to look up who owns certain domain names, for example) and the PI would be out of work for good.

[RJK]

I'm not saying they're not out there, but a criminal dumb enough to tell the world what he did on myspace would not make for a very interesting antagonist. A PI would use Myspace to gain information about witnesses, victims, and people on the perifery. Of course he'd check to see if he had one of the dumb criminals, police do it all the time. I investigated a burglary where the suspect left his picture ID card behind. That one wasn't too hard to solve.
A private investigator uses every available source of information. As mentioned earlier, that's not what makes for an interesting story, his interaction with other people makes the story a story.