by Rich Thompson
After some lively feedback
about last month’s jail tour, the December meeting got down to business. All
2004 Chapter officers were unanimously reelected, with an added “well done” to
President Bobbye Johnson. Members should note, however, that neither Bobbye nor
this writer will be seeking another, 2006, term, so people should start thinking
about who may be willing to fill those vacancies when the time comes.
There will be no speaker or
program at the January meeting. Instead, the whole meeting will be devoted to
planning the year’s activities and generally getting better acquainted. The
format of sharing program responsibility among as many members as possible,
rather than saddling one or two people with prime responsibility, seems to have
worked well in 2004 and will be continued next year. Also to be continued is
the practice of designating a book for discussion for every meeting.
In January, we will discuss
two books, since we didn’t have time at this meeting to get to the designated
December book, No Man Standing, by Barbara Saranella. The new
book for January will be Hostage by Robert Crais. It’s about a
gang of out-of-control smalltime criminals who take an affluent suburban family
hostage in their own home, not knowing that the family is mob-connected. It has
been made into a major motion picture (title uncertain,) to be released late
this year, so the timing was seen as fortunate. Regular readers of Crais’ work
will also recognize it as being from the period after 1999, when his writing
took a dramatic upturn in quality.
No other books were picked for
2005, but the following list was suggested for further discussion and selection
at the next meeting:
Carnage at the Committee,
by Ruth Dudly Edwards
Maisie Dobbs,
by Jacqueline Winspear (historic, set in 1929 London)
A Play of Isaac,
by Margaret Frazer (historic, set in 1434 Oxford)
Bone Harvest,
by Mary Logue
Monkeewrench,
by P. J. Tracy (contemporary thriller, winner of this year’s Anthony for
Best first Novel)
Los Alamos,
by Joseph Kanon (historic, set against the making of the first atom
bomb, in 1945. Also contains a very well-written love story.)
The Blue edge of Midnight,
by Jonathon King
Sleep Tight,
by Anne Frasier (contemporary Minneapolis serial-killer novel.)
Owl of the Desert,
by Ida Swearingen
Additional authors
recommended, without any specific book suggestions, were L. T. Fawks,
Robin Borcell and Kit Uhrmann. (Apologies for any possible
misspelling.)
Our speaker for the night was
Sgt. Brian Carlson of the Minneapolis Police Department, currently working as
one of six detectives in their Sex Crimes Unit. (For you police procedural
writers out there, the hierarchy is: patrolman, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant,
captain, inspector, deputy chief, and chief.) The Unit handles cases of rape,
molesting, stalking, peeping toms, indecent exposure, child pornography, and
“predator registration.” They do not handle cases of child assault involving
other family members; these are assigned to a special Child Abuse Unit. In
2003, a total of 981 cases were routed to the SCU. Of these, 720 were actually
assigned (261 were improperly routed in the first place) and 163, or 23%,
resulted in charges being filed. Some files are almost immediately “redlined”
as being unworthy of investigation or impossible to pursue. Others may remain
in “open” status for a long time, waiting for DNA evidence or sometimes simply
waiting to find the suspect. As with all types of criminal cases, being “Gone On
Arrival” can be an effective defense, so much so that Minneapolis has a special
VCAT team that specializes in finding and arresting people.
In a rape case, the first
concern is to preserve any evidence that might disappear. If there is a suspect
in custody who has to be released or charged in a specific time, this takes on
special urgency. The second concern is to talk to the victim, to see if a case
can be pursued. Rape can only be prosecuted if the victim is willing to press
charges. This is in distinct contrast to domestic abuse cases, where the
prosecution does not require the consent of the victim at all. After the
victim, the police will do Q&A with any witnesses. Finally, they will confront
and possibly arrest the suspect. They may have a “PC Pickup” order, (PC for
“Probable Cause,”) or an arrest warrant, which is stronger. If there is only a
PC, the suspect is immune to arrest while he is inside his residence, and the
police may resort to all kinds of ruses to lure him out. They may also have a
search warrant for the person of the suspect, which usually means a court order
to take a DNA sample.
In both the arrest procedure
and the later interrogation, the police are allowed to lie to the suspect, up to
a point. “You can’t tell a lie that would make an innocent person feel guilty
or plead guilty,” says Carlson, “and you can’t make any promises. Anything
short of that is fair game.” All interrogation rooms have hidden audio and
video recorders and all interrogations must be at least audio-taped, by
Minnesota law. “But you can be sneaky about it. NOTHING is off the record in
an interview, whether the cop says so or not.”
Most rapists are not terribly
bright, and the interview can help when the physical case is weak. “Denial can
often help a rape case--stuff like, ’I don’t know her, never met her, wasn’t
there,’ etc. That’s a lot easier to disprove than a claim of consent.”
Nonviolent rape done with the use of drugs is very, very difficult to prove.
All traces of the drug itself disappear within 11 hours of ingestion, and
without a witness, it’s impossible to prove who administered the dose. The
lesson is simple and clear, says Carlson: “Never leave your drink unattended
and never get in the car.” Fewer than 10% of sex offenses involve total
strangers, and of the other 90%, date rape is by far the most common.
One other piece of advice for
us: “You don’t want to publicly use the word ’serial’ with a rapist, ever.
This is bad, bad PR. Stuff will come down on us like you couldn’t believe.”
Okay, we won’t. At least, not in nonfiction.
As with so many of this year’s
speakers, we were sorry we couldn’t give Sgt. Carlson more time.
by Rich
Thompson
The business meeting for
November was virtually nonexistent, since we were not at our usual location and
didn’t have an appropriate time block or setting for it. While we were waiting
for our guide, we did do a very abbreviated discussion of the book for the
month, Till the Cows Come Home, by Judy Clemens, who combines her
life’s dual passions of dairy farming and motorcycles in her work. Few members
had read the book. Those who did reported a better story than the corny title
and the topic of cow culture might imply. The premise of the mild-mannered
dairy farmer as amateur sleuth, with her biker friend providing muscle,
apparently works well, in a book that is witty and smooth. The one complaint
was that the ending seemed abrupt and even a bit incomprehensible, “almost
sci-fi.” Next month’s book is No Man Standing, by Barbara Seranella.
Our tour guide for the evening
was Margaret Pedersen, PHN, who is the Chief of Nursing at the medical center of
the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center, a.k.a Jail, (hereafter referred to
as simply the HCADC.) Our tour was of the entire HCADC, not merely the medical
facility, and it included both the old and new jails, which are connected by
tunnel. The old building is now used for “short term housing,” i.e. for holding
prisoners who have to wait for court to convene, so they can be formally
arraigned, or are temporarily in limbo for some other reason. Those whose fate
is already linked to the criminal justice system for a longer period go straight
to the new building, to begin assimilation.
The two buildings present a
significant contrast between traditional and modern approaches to adult
detention, though the spotless and shadowless corridors that our group moved
through were much alike at both sites. The old building is “linear” in layout,
which means it has multiple barriers and a lot of physical distance between the
inmate population and the guards. This allows the inmates a lot of opportunity
to “plot and plan in private,” as well as encouraging an us-versus-them
mentality in the guards, which can lead to occasional or even institutional
prisoner abuse. When the new HCADC was opened, several of the long-term guards
opted to take early retirement or a transfer, rather than adapt. In the new
building, most inmates are housed in dormitory-style “open housing mods”
(modules,) where sixty prisoners are separated from a single guard, at a
desk/console in the center of the commons area, only by a red line on the
floor. He has no physical barrier to retreat behind and no weapons. The
incentive is for both guards and inmates to act in a respectful and adult
manner. If the inmates act up, they will be sent to much less pleasant, more
traditional, solitary cells. And if the guard becomes abusive or cruel---well,
the possibilities are obvious.
As one would hope, the insane,
chronically violent, drunk, drugged or suicidal inmates never get to the general
population of the “mods.” An extensive and multilevel screening process begins
with the receiving officers at the sally port and continues right through
booking. The first determination, and the one that our guide is most intimately
concerned with, is determining whether an arrestee needs medical attention
before the regular booking process can even begin. Some of the more obvious
cases are gunshot or knife wounds, broken bones, and dog bites. (“Hey man, I
didn’t know them cop dogs bite! Ain’t they supposed to be trained just
to growl, like?”) There may also be people who need immediate medical
isolation, such as TB carriers. Less dramatic are people who need, or say they
need, to take prescription drugs which they don’t necessarily know by name and
may have obtained under an alias or even on somebody else’s prescription.
Figuring out what they really need can be a daunting task, but one that has to
be done.
After those in immediate
medical need are separated, the screening process continues, with
“classification officers” identifying the gang members, violence-prone perps,
crazy people, etc. Those who are clearly suicidal or who otherwise cannot be
trusted to continue through the booking process in an orderly fashion are put in
the AD-SEG (administrative segregation) cells, more popularly known as “hangar
cells,” since another name for crazy people is “frequent fliers.” Suicides
are also given special clothes - “pickle gowns” or “banana blankets” - which
have no zippers, buttons, or other hard fasteners or cords. Also in the tiny
AD-SEG cells may be persons in severe alcoholic withdrawal. Contrary to popular
thinking and film and literature depiction, alcohol withdrawal is much more
dangerous than heroin withdrawal.
It should be noted that people
who are picked up for public intoxication, but have done nothing else wrong,
usually do not go to the HCADC in the first place. They go to the Hennepin
County Detox Center, which is not really part of the criminal justice system.
People who have committed a crime while drunk or stoned are another matter.
Being drunk, as such, is not a crime in most Minnesota cities, including
Minneapolis and St. Paul, but being drunk and disorderly is a
misdemeanor. This can be a rather fine distinction on the part of the arresting
officer, and one that he or she may try to pass off onto the receiving officer
at the HCADC.
“Some arrests are incredibly
bogus,” says Pedersen. “Sometimes the officer just needed to get the guy out
of that setting, to defuse a bad situation. If we refuse to take him as a
patient, he might get released right there, at the sally port.”
Actual booking is another
radical departure from old stereotypes. Perps who are reasonably well-behaved
walk themselves through a large part of the process, starting with watching an
orientation video on a large TV monitor, to tell them what to expect and how to
act. “We treat people like competent adults,” says Pedersen, “and to some
people’s surprise, they mostly respond by acting that way.” Inmates get their
own orange uniforms and take themselves to be photographed and fingerprinted, a
largely automated process. Fingerprinting is now a photo process, done on a
machine much like an oversized Xerox, with no ink and instant computer matching
for wanted felons.
Some perps, of course, are
already familiar with the process. Just as there are career criminals, there
are also career inmates. Some just want to get in out of the weather and get
regular meals and others have more venal motives. “Being a career prisoner is
not a bad thing. We have a population that makes a living suing the County.
They know that Hennepin always settles, even in ridiculous cases.” These are
mostly perps whose offenses are deliberately not severe enough to get them sent
to a State prison. Major felons, on the other hand, who are in jail while they
await trial, may get sent to St. Cloud Prison for three months of orientation,
which will ultimately count as time served. Then they will return to HCADC for
the rest of the trial process, often to the general population mods. “Some of
our nicest prisoners are murderers,” says Pedersen. (James Joyce once made a
similar comment about death-row convicts, referring to them as, “...fellas what
never done a crime in their life except murder, and that only once.”)
The staff officers are mostly
young, though they certainly seem well-trained and poised. This is because
HCADC is the entry-level duty assignment for all officers. Everybody does a
year tour of duty here before he or she can become a patrol cop or detective.
Some, of course, will decide they want to stay on as regular guards, but this is
not the norm.
Physically, the inside of the
HCADC is little like what we are used to seeing on TV or film, probably for
perfectly valid cinematographic reasons. The place is simply not very
sinister-looking, and most directors of photography would find it visually
uninteresting. Except for the extra-heavy doors with their tiny view plates, a
lot of the interior could be part of any military, medical, research, or
industrial institution. Watch stander stations, of which there are many, are the
same subdued-lighting cubicles with multiple video monitors and control panels
that would be familiar to night watchmen and factory operators everywhere. Only
in the old jail does one get any feeling of menace. There we see a few
dungeon-like sandstone walls and some original “Basic Adult Detention” cells,
with visually satisfying abbreviations on the doors like “BAD #22.”
Bad, indeed, even if it
doesn’t look it. And a wonderful, informative tour. Our heartfelt thanks to
Margaret Pedersen.
Next month, we will be back in
business at the same old stand and the usual time: 7:00 PM, December 7, at Once
Upon a Crime. We have a lot of business to take care of, including election of
officers, selection of books for next year, and suggestions for speakers and
programs. It’s also the deadline for getting your membership dues included in
Ellen’s mailing to the national Sisters organization. And we have an excellent
speaker, Sgt. Carlson of the Minneapolis PD sex crimes unit, so block out the
time slot now. Better yet, plan on bringing a guest.
by Rich Thompson
It was unanimously decided to
keep our Chapter dues at $10. So with the increase in the national dues, total
membership cost to our members will be $50 for 2005. Dues and a membership list
get mailed in to the national organization the first of the year, so Ellen is
collecting payments now. Any new members who may sign up in the next two and a
half months will effectively get the remainder of 2004 free.
It was also unanimously
decided to change the date of the November meeting to one week later than usual,
or November 9, to avoid any possible conflict with the national election. The
meeting will be a tour of the medical clinic of the Hennepin County Adult
Detention Center, and unless noted otherwise in our President’s regular reminder
email, we will meet at the site at 7:00 PM. Detailed directions for getting
there are in the October newsletter.
In other new business, it was
decided to publish, in the newsletter, a review of Artemis Fowl: The
Eternity Code by a sixth-grade student at Longfellow School, in St. Paul.
This is the result of a program by Caroline Thompson, wife of our secretary,
Rich Thompson, to use mysteries to promote general interest in literature in
grade school students. So far, the program looks like an unqualified success.
Our book selection for October
was In the Bleak Midwinter, by Julia Spencer-Flemming. It was
read by about six members, who all had high praise for it. The main appeal
seems to be the romantic interest, and occasional professional conflict between
a small town police chief and the main character, a woman Episcopal priest and
ex-military chopper pilot. This continues for several books in the series, we
are told, with the promise that book number five (as yet unwritten) will finally
decide whether or not the romance turns into a consummated affair and book
number six will wrap up the series once and for all.
We had no speaker this month,
and we spent the remainder of our meeting time sharing lists of favorite authors
and books.
See you all in jail in
November. Don’t neglect to vote!
by Rich Thompson
Business discussion at the
september meeting was mainly about the programs and speakers for the rest of the
year. There was some shuffling of schedules and some uncertainty, and as of
this delayed writing, 9/26/04, we still do not have a confirmed speaker for
October. We will, however, have several items of business to deal with,
including nomination of officers for 2005, suggestions for 2005 books, and the
question of dues and of the November meeting time (see below.)
In November, we will be
touring the Hennepin County Jail, but it has been pointed out that our regular
meeting date falls on election day, so we may want to back the date up one week,
to November 9. Either date is available to us, and we will make a final
decision at the October meeting.
In December, Marilyn
Victor will be getting us Sgt. Carlson, of the MPD Sex Crimes unit. At that
meeting , we will also firm up our book selections for next year and hold formal
election of officers.
Our other business topic was
dues. The national sisters in crime organization has raised their annual dues
from $35 to $40 this year, hardly surprising, as they have been constant roughly
since the invention of paper money. The question before us is whether to
continue to add on our $10 markup for local chapter expenses, making the total
tab for our members $50, or whether to reduce the markup in order to keep the
total fee constant. Opinions varied. Some feel that an increase may cause some
members to drop out. Others pointed out that while $10 per member seems to be
adequate for our modest expenses, we haven’t been amassing any huge surpluses of
cash and shouldn’t be trying to pare our budget down. the issue will be
formally decided in October. as usual, members who have a strong opinion but
can’t attend the meeting should email one of the Chapter officers before the
meeting.
Bobbye Johnson asked for and
got some volunteer help with the production of the Chapter bookmarks.
Our book selection for the
rest of the year remains unchanged from those reported in the last newsletter:
In October, we will
read In the Bleak Midwinter, by Julia Spencer Flemming, in
November, Till the Cows Come Home, by Judy Clemens, and in
December, we will read No Man Standing, by Barbara Seranella.
Our book selection for
September was Heartland, by David Wiltse, and it produced a lively
and varied bunch of reactions. While only two of us claimed to like the book as
a whole, several people found specific aspects of it worthwhile. As much as a
book critique, it was perhaps an interesting survey of the primary reasons that
various readers choose their fiction. Those who are highly plot-oriented
disliked the book a lot, finding the murder puzzle contrived and obvious and
several scenes artificially tacked on. Others thought the character development
was very well done, even though they didn’t enjoy the book overall, and still
others liked the clever dialogue. Nobody thought the action scenes were well
done, and some members thought the whole book was much too dark.
Our speaker for the evening
was author Mary Logue, who shared with us her method of creating fiction
and some advice on finding a publisher and an agent. Mary has written two
stand-alone mysteries, Red Lake of the Heart and Still Explosion,
and five mysteries in her Claire Watkins series, Blood country, Dark Coulee,
Glare Ice, Bone Harvest, and Widow’s Weeds, which is not due out
until 2005. She has also done two books of poetry, a young adult novel
called Dancing With an Alien (which she says got it’s title from an
overheard conversation among teenagers at a bakery in Prescott, Wisconsin) and a
nonfiction book about her grandmother called Halfway Home. The latter
was produced with the help of a research grant from the Minnesota Historical
Society, and it probably set the pattern of intensive research and probing into
historical mysteries that Mary has used ever since. She is currently working
on the sixth of the Claire Watkins books and is also collaborating with her
husband, Pete Hautman on a mystery series for middle-school readers.
Mary is quick to acknowledge
that there is no one ”right way” to approach writing, and her own way even
changes somewhat from one book to the next. Generally, though, she does no
actual manuscript production at all until she has “THE BIG IDEA” down pat. This
usually means a year or more of research and brainstorming, before doing any
actual smooth writing, though she does keep a notebook “with lots of pockets”
for each book. During the preliminary stage, though, she keeps no notes at
all. “My brain is a sieve,” she says. “The things that fall away should.”
When she finally gets down to the writing,, she uses an outline for each
chapter. She used to try to do an outline for the whole book, but found that
she couldn’t adhere to it. And she is very much not in step with writers like
Sue Grafton and our own Ellen Hart, who insist on the need for doing a set
minimum amount of writing every single day, without exception or excuse, nor
with the many writers who begin major works with no idea where they will end.
(Tony Hillerman, for example, says he has literally drawers full of wonderful
first chapters for which he never did find a “big idea” or a finish.) The key,
obviously, is for each writer to find the way that works for him or her.
Mary also likes to work with
broad themes, “the nugget that I want to wrap the book around.” In one (sorry,
I didn’t get the title) she explores the theme of rural isolation and how the
remoteness of traditional farm life can focus the good or evil in people’s
hearts. In another, she explores the theme of poison as a “woman’s weapon.”
She also likes to have at least one secondary theme. Someday, she hopes to do a
book around the topic of deer hunting. She grew up in Lake Elmo, she says, and
was never aware of this particular bit of cultural insanity in small Midwest
towns.
On acquiring an agent, her
advice is to “check Pub Weekly for agents who have gone out on their own. Try
to find five agents who have represented your favorite authors and write to tell
them you love their work. Do not compare your book to another one or
yourself to another author. You have no idea what a pain that writer may have
been as a client.”
Next Meeting
is Tuesday, October 5, 2004, at 7:00 PM, at Once Upon a Crime. Bring a friend
and come prepared to discuss dues, books, and officers.
by Rich Thompson
There was no new business at
the June meeting. The meeting program for the rest of this year was the main
topic of discussion, and the schedule may be modified to include a tour of the
Hennepin County Adult Detention Center (better known as the County Jail) in
either November or December. Details will be firmed up at the September
meeting, after our regular summer break.
Plans continue for an
expanded, showpiece edition of All points Bulletin. Ellen kuhfeld also
noted that she has run out of short stories. Anything that relates to a crime
and is in the range of 1,000 to 3,000 words is acceptable, and a great intro
opportunity for any not-quite-published authors out there. Ellen would also
like to include a short history of Sisters in Crime in the next issue. Ginny
Harris agreed to do a write-up of the first meeting of our own Twin Cities
chapter. Submissions are solicited for the history of the national
organization.
Book selections were also made
for the rest of the year:
As reported earlier, in
September we will discuss Heartland, by David Wiltse. This is
a stand-alone novel about a Secret Service agent who loses his partner and his
nerve in a shootout with a garden-variety crackpot. He returns to his childhood
home, a small town on the Wheat Belt prairie, to heal up physically and
emotionally. But all the problems that he left there years earlier are still
waiting for him, and worse yet, the locals now see him as some kind of hero who
should also clear up the evils of a school shooting, a possible kidnapping, and
a rural drug trade. This is very solid writing, with strong characters and
exactly appropriate dialogue. It has been praised by readers of greatly
differing tastes.
For October, we will
read In the Bleak Midwinter, by Julia Spencer Flemming.
For November, we will do Till the Cows Come Home, by Judy
Clemens.
For December, we will read No Man Standing, by Barbara
Seranella. This is one in a rather offbeat series about an
author/auto-mechanic/amateur-sleuth, and it is another book that seems to be
appreciated by a very broad audience.
Also recommended but not
selected were The Jasmine Trade by Denise Hamilton, a former
reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and Heart of the Hunter, by
Dion Meyer, newly translated from the Boer version (it is set in South
Africa) and soon to be released in hardcover only. Carl Brookins has seen an
advance copy of this one and recommends it very highly.
Our book selection for June
was The Courier, by Jay MacLarty. It got mostly lukewarm
responses that ranged from “brainless, fun, with lots of peril and really
bad bad-guys,” to merely, “It was okay.” Some readers appreciated the
insider look at an unfamiliar business, that of the international courier, while
others found its frequent leaps in time jarring and distracting. Two people
said they look forward to MacLarty’s next book, when presumably he will have
mastered his craft a bit better.
Our speaker for the evening
was Ann Marie Gross, a Forensic Scientist III for the Minnesota Bureau of
Criminal Apprehension (BCA) and an internationally known expert in the field of
DNA analysis. She brought a highly polished and professional lecture to the
meeting, if a bit fast-paced for those with no prior background in the topic of
DNA.
On the more familiar ground of
blood analysis, Ms. Gross gave us the interesting fact that not even bleach will
completely remove a bloodstain, and classic luminol detection may actually work
better on old stains than on recent ones. It has been effectively used on
stains as old as 20 years. But luminol or phenolphthalein is only a
“presumptive test,” or one that identifies the nature of the material. More
tests are needed to determine the species from which the blood came, and more
yet for a specific blood type. And until DNA testing came along, that was as
far as the laboratory could take us.
DNA testing is relatively new,
of course, with the first testing in the U.S., the “RFLP” method, only dating to
1991. PCR, the process that made modern DNA testing possible, came along in
1993. (PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction, which is not a test, as such,
but a way of expanding, or “amplifying” a very small initial sample into a more
usable quantity. This is the process that makes a lot of modern testing
unavoidably slow, but it also makes it possible to operate on microscopically
small samples.) In 1994, “DIS80” and “Polymarker” technology (which some
readers of police procedurals may know as “gel electroflouresis”) came along,
and in 1999, we got STR (Short Tandem Repeats) analysis, which can be performed
on any size sample. In 2003, we got “Y-Strand” analysis, which is more limited
than the other mappings but can be performed in as little as 36 hours. Sometime
next year, we here in Minnesota are expected to get the capability for full
testing of mitochondrial DNA, which is that part of DNA that comes from one’s
mother only.
Unlike the earlier forensic
revolutions of fingerprinting and blood typing, however, DNA testing has been
slow to gain acceptance with juries in criminal cases. In many ways, Ms. Gross’
lecture made this easier to appreciate. Little about either the substance
itself or the process of analyzing it appeals to the instincts of a
non-technical person. In Great Britain, where people are arguably more inclined
to accept the conclusions of a professional expert , DNA analysis has been used
successfully in many criminal prosecutions. In the United States, with its
cherished tradition of questioning all authority, it has been less effective.
Notably, the jury in the O. J. Simpson trial found it easy to embrace the
arguments of defense attorneys who told them it was perfectly all right to
ignore or discount the technical DNA testimony that they almost certainly hadn’t
understood anyway. Gross found the evidence “completely adequate.” The jury,
obviously, did not. Or they chose not to.
Comparisons with
fingerprinting are inevitable. With fingerprints, the assertion that no two
people have an identical set is backed up by the anecdotal evidence of millions,
perhaps by now billions, of consistent examples. With DNA, there is no such
backlog of data. Instead, we have the statistical assertion that the total
number of possible DNA structures is greater than the population of the world by
at least two orders of magnitude. Compelling to a scientist, less so to a
layman. Furthermore, with fingerprints, we have a nice, concrete image that
anyone can look at and compare for him or herself. And even though we are
accustomed to hearing about the number of “points” of similarity, we do also
occasionally get a print that is an identical, one-to-one, match with that of a
defendant. With DNA, this can never happen. The kind of technology that
Michael Crichton described in Jurassic Park, where DNA samples (from
ancient animals, in that case) are quickly mapped in their entirety and even
modified by computer, is pure fantasy. No such process has ever been done in
the real world, except with very simple animals, such as fruit flies and lab
mice, and then only with massive expenditure of laboratory time. The comparable
“Human Genome Project” is still incomplete, occasional press releases
notwithstanding, despite years of labor-intensive effort. And even at that, it
is generic, rather than person-specific. There may never be a comparable
mapping done for specific individuals. Instead, the best we can get is a
partial mapping of a complex structure, presented in a non-pictorial form which
requires an expert to interpret for us.
If all the above sounds
negative, it shouldn’t. DNA testing is one of the most potent and unambiguous
forms of identification ever devised, made more so by the astonishingly tiny
amount of sample material required. Microscopically small samples of skin cells
or dried sweat are now fair game for the laboratory scientist and can
definitively answer questions such as, “Who wore this garment?” or even, “Who
gripped this weapon?” The classic maxim of fiber and dust analysts, that ,
“every human contact leaves a trace,” has never been more true. And the
problems of data base size and speed are being resolved. As much as anything
else, it is a question of gross facility size and processing capacity. The
State of Virginia now collects DNA data on all convicted felons and has
accordingly set up the machinery for processing massive numbers of samples.
Other states will certainly follow. And as with fingerprints and firearms,
bigger and better systems of classification and cross-referencing will be
evolved. The current databases are the CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) and
the NDIS (National DNA Index System,) and they are already evolved enough to
have produced “cold hits,” i.e., matches with no evidentiary prelude. And the
amount of data stored in them literally grows daily.
Next
Meeting
is Tuesday, September 7, 2004, at 7:00 PM, at Once Upon a Crime. Bring a
friend.
by Rich Thompson
President Bobbye Johnson
convened the May meeting at the usual time, and we quickly moved to solidify the
program schedule for the rest of the year:
Our June speaker will
definitely be Anne Gross, an internationally known DNA expert and a technician
for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which recently moved into its
new and expanded facility. This is expected to be a popular meeting, and
members with specific questions for Ms. Gross would do well to bring them
written out succinctly on note cards, as she likely will not have time to deal
with all of them.
In July and August
, of course, there are no meetings
For September , mystery author Mary Logue is confirmed.
For October , Pat Dennis will try to get the head of security for Mystic
Lake Casino.
In November, we will have Margaret Pederson, the head of
the Medical Department at the Hennepin County Jail.
For December, Mary Monica Pulver will again try to get us a Minneapolis
police officer.
There are still no book
selections for October, November, or December. Bring your final suggestions to
the June meeting, or email them to one of the Chapter officers, if you have a
strong preference but can’t be there. The presently selected books remain:
June
- The Courier, by
Jay MacLarty
September -
Heartland, by David Wiltse
The next issue of
All points Bulletin, containing the June meeting minutes, will be a special,
expanded edition, to be used as handouts and mail-outs, to promote the Chapter.
With two extra months to prepare the edition, Ellen Kuhfeld is hoping for an
impressive array of submissions from our members. Reviews, articles, short
stories, and even poetry are all welcome, as are cartoons and other artwork.
Note that Ellen is now doing cover art in color, but submissions in a reasonably
limited palette range are preferred, to keep the cost of color inks down.
This is a unique opportunity,
kids, and a wide open format, so dust off those unprinted literary or
journalistic jewels, stifle those reservations, and send in your works. Ellen
will sort it all out; that’s what editors are for.
Our book selection for May was
Red House, by K. J. A. Wishnia. It would be fair to say that it
was not merely badly received, but intensely disliked by everyone who sampled
it. (That’s with the single exception of this writer, of course, who had the
audacity to recommend it in the first place. I foolishly thought it was highly
original, darkly witty, very fast-paced, and well crafted.) The few who
finished the book thought the plot was hopelessly fragmented and unfocused, the
characters incompletely drawn (i.e., their pasts are merely alluded to, never
detailed,) and the first-person, present-tense narrative was jarring to the
point of being offensive. The very gritty narrative voice was not specifically
mentioned, but since many members read only a short part of the book before
rejecting it, presumably that was a major source of rejection, also.
Our speaker for the evening
was Dr. David Sonogels, a microbiologist with a Minneapolis-based company
called Medafor, Inc. Dr. Sonogels says he first became interested in
microbiology because of his love of fly fishing, which brought him into contact
with many of the insects that can carry infection and disease. (Encephalitis,
for instance, originally thought to be a “horse disease,” is carried by many of
the types of mosquitoes that frequent river banks.) Generally speaking, he has
found that here in the U. S., “in the bell-shaped curve of life, you are safe
from most viruses.” This is due more to good engineering than to any kind of
working public health system. Chlorinated drinking water is a potent weapon
against all sorts of deadly diseases, and in this country, it has become
virtually universal. Outside the U.S., five to ten million people die each year
from strep pneumonia, to pick an example, which is readily transmitted by
infected drinking water. Here, it is virtually unknown. On those rare
occasions when it does occur, it responds well to penicillin. (Travelers
abroad, by the way, where the quality of the tap water is uncertain, are advised
that Pepto Bismo, no less, kills quite a variety of foreign viruses. This is
important, as even brushing one’s teeth with non-chlorinated, unsterilized tap
water can be a source of infection, though usually not a fatal one.)
Speaking to the writers in the
group, he advised that murder by infection is not easy and in most cases
probably wouldn’t work. Even the military has found that effective delivery of
a major infectious agent is impractical, uncontrollable, and unpredictable.
Being parasites, few dangerous microbes, (“opportunistic pathogens,” in the
jargon of the trade,) can exist for long outside a host organism. Some, such as
encephalitis, actually have a two-stage host cycle, meaning that the pathogen
has to infect some other species before it becomes dangerous to humans. And the
mechanics of infection by contact with a diseased organism, while occasionally
effective, have a big element of chance. Only injection is a really certain
method of lethal infection, and of course, that usually requires the knowledge
and consent of the victim.
There is also the problem of
dosage. Even in a highly artificial, urban environment, we are all regularly
exposed to non-lethal doses of most known, common pathogens and have built up a
degree of immunity to them (biologists would say we “have a background” with
them.) So a lethal exposure to anthrax, for instance, has to be massive enough
to overwhelm our existing resistance, which is not easily done. A letter bomb
full of anthrax culture may make for exciting headlines, as indeed it did, but
it’s not really an effective weapon.
A more workable plot device
for a murder might actually be a deliberate overdose of penicillin in response
to a non-lethal exposure to a pathogen. Penicillin is exposure-sensitive. Too
little, or not enough follow-ups, can mess up the bacterial “kill curve,” and
actually result in strengthening the remaining pathogens. But too large an
initial dose can also result in “anaphylactic shock,” which is the same as the
reaction some people suffer to bee stings. The antidote is also the
same--something called epinephrine--but unless it’s administered in fifteen
minutes or less, death is certain.
Worldwide, penicillin is still
the mainstay antibiotic, despite what we have all heard and read about
drug-resistant viruses. The reason is economic, rather than technical. To
develop a new drug and get it all the way through the rigorous and extensive FDA
approval process typically costs about $900,000,000.00! Pharmaceutical
companies are not inclined to spend that kind of money to make a drug that has
only occasional application, as opposed to something that patients will have to
take for the rest of their lives. If there was a “golden age” of unselfish
research into the development of useful and needed drugs, it probably ended at
least thirty years ago.
Dr. Sonogels passed out
samples of Bleed-X, a first aid hemostatic (clot-promoting) powder made by his
firm. In return, of course, he received our thanks and the much-coveted Sisters
in Crime mug.
Next Meeting
is Tuesday, June 1 (immediately after Memorial Day,) at 7:00 PM, at Once Upon a
Crime. Bring book recommendations.
by Rich Thompson
The switch to Once Upon a
Crime as our regular meeting place continues to be popular with the members, and
the April meeting was well attended. We found ourselves with little formal
business to conduct, however, apart from reminding people that due to an
unavoidable cancellation, we are in need of a speaker and a coordinator for
June. Also still open are November and December. As of this writing, we do not
know if SPPD Officer Sheila Lambie will be able to reschedule with us.
As it has been shifted several
times since the first posting, it is worth recapping the schedule for the rest
of the year:
May
- Microbiologist Dr. Sonogels will speak on “Things That kill.”
June
- Open. In the past, we have filled speakerless meeting slots with open
readings by member-writers, reading by all attendees of old time radio mystery
scripts, and conference reports. We will have to pick one, or something else
altogether, at the May meeting.
July
and August - Summer
break; no meetings
September
- Mary Logue, mystery author and S in C member.
October
- Still tentatively scheduled for Ann Gross, a DEA lab technician.
November
and December - still
open, with the possibility that Officer Lambie may be able to fill one of these
spots.
Book selections for the rest
of the year are:
May
- Red House, by K. J. A. Wishnia
June - The
Courier, by Jay MacLarty
September -
Heartland, by David Wiltse
October, November,
and December - none selected yet.
Our book selection for April
was Tell No One, a stand-alone suspense novel by Harlan Coben,
about a young pediatrician who begins to receive email from his (dead) wife.
The mail is convincing and authentic, though he is in no doubt that she was
brutally murdered eight years earlier, by a person or persons unknown. And of
course, the new email carries the strict admonition, “Tell no one!” even though
the authorities have reopened the old case. The book was read and completed by
an astonishing two-thirds of our meeting group, attesting to the appeal of the
premise and Coben’s ability to methodically build dramatic tension. Building
believable characters is also one of his strong points, though some readers
noted that this book is much better in that category than his earlier series
novels. Less impressive is his ability to set a strong opening “hook,” and
readers are advised to stay with the book despite a somewhat weak prologue and
slow starting pace.
Our speaker for the evening
was Mary Joe Pehl, who recounted her “deconstructionist postmodern approach to
employment,” which ultimately led to her being a script writer for Mystery
Science Theater 3000 for over ten years. The program--not to be confused
with the older Mystery Science Theater (sans 3000)-- consisted of silhouette
puppets heckling some really bad old black-and-white movies. Writing the lines
for the puppets was a group effort, previewing the movies and stopping them
whenever somebody on the team had a clever bit of sniping to insert. “It took
all day to get through a single film,” she says. “It wasn’t the greatest job,
in some ways, but I got health care and free pop and a business card which said
‘Writer.’ And I needed that card, because I’m a terrible liar--I can always
tell when I’m lying.” After the show folded, Mary Joe migrated to New York,
where she finally got to make use of her degree in communication and journalism,
by teaching writing workshops. It was also obvious from her presentation that
she has been a standup comedian at some time in her checkered career. Either
that, or she really did cherish the opportunity last year to speak at a writers’
symposium at Minot, North Dakota. We hope and trust that she liked speaking to
us, as well. Her talk was very entertaining.
Mary Joe’s first book, called
I Lived With My Parents and Other Tales of Terror, is due out in about a
month, appropriately enough, from Plan Nine Publishing. Details are available
from their web site, at www.plan9.org.
Next Meeting
is Tuesday, May 4, 2004, at 7:00 PM, at Once Upon a Crime.
Upcoming
Conferences
May 27 to 30 is the 5th annual
Mayhem in the Midlands, in Omaha, Nebraska. This is a smaller conference
than most of the nationally known ones, and is often referred to as the
friendliest of all of them. This year, the guest of honor is our own Kent
Krueger. Registration cost is $80. Go to <www.omaha.lib.ne.us/mayhem/> for
details.
June 12 is the 9th annual
Flatirons Blunt Instrument workshop for mystery readers and writers, in
Boulder. Colorado. Registration is $65 for Sisters in Crime members.
Go to <www.trulydonovan.com/rmcsinc>
for more information.
by Rich Thompson
Our March meeting was well
attended and lively, though it was hard to be sure of that initially, due to
overlapping with an author presentation and signing by Harley Jane Kozak.
Ms. Kozak is not, as was reported earlier, a Twin Sisters member (she belongs to
the Los Angeles S in C chapter,) but she claims honorary Minnesota citizenship
by virtue of having a mother who lives in Duluth. Mom wasn’t at her
presentation, but a lot of other relatives were. Her debut book is Dating
Dead Men, a comic crime novel, and if it is as witty and upbeat as her
presentation, it should be worth a look. Kozak is another former film and TV
actress who has turned to writing as a second career, a category that we seem to
be seeing a lot of lately. The regular business meeting followed the signing.
Robyn Van Horn
was unanimously elected to replace the departing Nancy Wikarski as our chapter
Vice President. Robyn is a familiar figure in the chapter, being a longtime
regular attendee, sometime program coordinator, prepublished novelist, and
serious book collector. Robyn’s father, Donus Roberts, is also a collector, who
gave us an excellent presentation last year on the art and strategy of acquiring
mysteries. Robyn will be a valuable addition to the executive board.
Our April speaker will
be Mary Joe Pehl, formerly a writer for Mystery Science Theater,
as reported here earlier. Our May speaker is microbiologist Dr.
Sonogels, and her topic will be “Things That Kill,” which we understand to
be both poisons and microbes. November and December are still in search of
coordinators and speakers. We also currently have no book selections for
October, November, or December. Please note that you do not have to be a
regular attendee to suggest a book, especially if it is one that you are
enthusiastic about. Email suggestions to Ellen or Bobbye are welcome.
Our book selection for the
month was Fearless Jones, by Walt Mosley. This is a departure
from Mosley’s highly successful Easy Rawlins series, and so far, it doesn’t seem
to be a good venture. While Mosley remains one of the half-dozen or so absolute
masters of gritty and witty dialogue, the book lacks the cleverness and energy
of his earlier work. Only one person in the Chapter finished the whole book,
and nobody admitted to recommending it. Next month’s selection is Tell No
One, by Harlen Coben.
In other
business, the Chapter unanimously voted to reimburse Ellen Kuhfeld for the toner
and cover paper used in preparing the All Points Bulletin, and Bobbye Johnson
reported on her progress in creating bookmarks and possibly business cards to be
handed out at bookstores and libraries, to promote the chapter and its
activities. Ginny Harris will write the copy and Mary Monica Pulver may do the
art work. We will probably also select one issue of the newsletter per year to
use as a promotional handout.
Our next
meeting will be Tuesday, April 6, at 7:00 P.M., at Once Upon a Crime.
by Rich Thompson
Despite bitter cold, icy
streets, and the traffic and parking problems of an ongoing official Minneapolis
Snow Emergency, sixteen hardy souls showed up at Once Upon a Crime on February
3, Groundhog Day plus one, for a lively and interesting meeting. As promised,
we had more space cleared out for us this time, plus a somewhat better seating
arrangement, and the meeting proceeded smoothly. There were a few changes and
one correction to the schedule for the coming year.
The April program is
still being coordinated by Pat Dennis, but she will be getting us Mary Joe
Pehl, rather than Lee Adams. Mary Joe is another alum from the now-defunct
TV program, Mystery Science Theater. We do not know what her topic will
be.
We still do not have the name
of our speaker for May, but we know that it will be a microbiologist.
Mary Logue,
the author who was to have been our June speaker, has had to reschedule
for September. With luck, our June speaker will be Saint Paul Police
officer Sheila Lambie. She is being recruited and coordinated by
President Bobbye Johnson, not by Nancy Wikarski, as was erroneously reported
here last month.
All other program events and
book selections remain as reported in the January minutes.
No action was taken on the
matter of filling the Vice President position being vacated by Nancy Wikarski.
Our book selection for the
month was Open Season on Lawyers by Taffy Canon. This is a
stand-alone novel, though the author has written two series, one in a
travel/mystery format and one series of legal thrillers. The promotional
premises of Open Season are perhaps unfortunate. Both the title and the
flap summary imply that it is a comic crime novel, which may lead to its being
bought and read by a lot of people not likely to appreciate it. In fact, there
is nothing comic about it. It is a straightforward serial killer novel, with
the signature twist that the victims are all lawyers. The killer is a man whose
mother has been cheated, at least in his eyes, by a sleazy lawyer, and he
embarks on a sort of categorical revenge, devising ways of killing his victims
that are “appropriate” to their misdeeds. We are allowed a certain measure of
sympathy for the killer, but the author does not indulge in the all too familiar
device of letting us inside his twisted mind. Some readers found this a
refreshing change. At best, though, the book earned lukewarm praise, with
phrases like “pretty good dialogue” and “fairly tight plot” being tossed
around. Nobody disliked the book, but nobody found it really memorable,
either. Next month's selection is Fearless Jones, by Walt Mosley,
who also happens to be a featured speaker at Left Coast Crime this February.
Our
speaker for the evening was Tom Murdock, who is a chemist for Medtronic
Corporation and an “operational responder” with an organization called the North
Metro Chemical Assessment Team. This group investigates and evaluates all sorts
of hazardous sites, including airplane crashes and industrial accidents, but the
focus of Mr. Murdock's talk was illegal methamphetamine labs. When the federal
DEA or a local law enforcement agency busts a meth lab, the SWAT team goes in
first, to clear out all the hostiles. Then the Assessment team goes in, to
assess the chemical and bio hazards and decide how to neutralize them. Only
when they give the okay can the crime lab team move in to collect evidence.
Anoka County is the current Minnesota hotbed for meth lab sites, but there are
few areas in the state where they are totally unknown. Partly because of the
ease of setup, meth manufacture has become a widespread and totally egalitarian
operation. Illegal labs have been found in the trunks of cars, in trailer
parks, tents, motels, farm buildings, and $350,000 homes.
When the
labs are raided, they literally reek hazard. Most of the materials used to
manufacture methamphetamine - also known as ice, speed, crystal meth, and in its
purest form, glass - are toxic or corrosive or flammable or reactive to some
degree, some of them explosive. And almost every step of the manufacturing
process is dangerous, every intermediate product toxic. Added to this sinister
mix is the person of the “chemist,” or “cooker” himself. Cookers are virtually
always also users, who learned the process incompletely or even incorrectly from
somebody else. Like coke, meth is a highly addictive euphoric drug which also
produces progressive mental and nervous deterioration. User/addicts have many
of the traits of chemically induced insanity: extreme paranoia, involuntary
nervous tremors, high energy, sleeplessness, and even occasional trips into
aimless, irrational violence. Being highly paranoid, they set numerous booby
traps and alarms around their labs, including homemade land mines called “toe
tappers,” made from shotgun shells and PVC pipe, and acid baths which will
produce cyanide gas if tripped. Also because they are paranoid, they do not
label any of their vessels of reactive fluids and do not throw away any of their
mostly toxic trash. Being sleep-deprived and perpetually wired, they also make
mistakes, and the mistakes are often disastrous and deadly.
Meth labs
were virtually nonexistent in Minnesota as recently as ten years ago.
Nationally, meth use was a minor drug problem until about fifteen years ago.
Since then, it has grown geometrically, spreading from Mexico and the US
Southwest, which is still the only source of large-scale manufacturing
operations, into the north and east. The gangs controlling the traffic are all
Mexican in origin, with our own local representatives being the Latin Kings
and Brown For Life. But most of the traffic in the Midwest is not
centralized or organized. Most meth labs are amateur operations, started by
users, alone or in small groups, who could no longer afford to support their own
habits. Information on how to make meth is readily available in libraries, on
the street, and on the Internet. For $20, you can even buy a book online called
Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture, Fourth Edition, by “Uncle
Fester,” which purports to be all the information necessary.
Chemically, there are many possible ways to make methamphetamine, but two
specific methods have become the bootleg lab standards. They are called Red
P, which is also called by the misnomer of Cold Process, and Nazi
Dope (and yes, that is the name of the process, not the product or the
maker.) Both methods start with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, which is the
active ingredient in some nonprescription cold remedies, including Sudafed. To
make a one-ounce batch of final product, which equates to 300 “hits” and a
street value of $3000, one needs about $50 worth of ingredients, including 1000
cold tablets, usually ten or twelve packages. For this reason, many drug
stores will no longer sell more than two packages to a single customer.
Apparently, nobody even tries to synthesize the ephedrine from scratch.
Both
processes begin by crushing the cold tablets and putting them in a water
solution, so the insoluble tablet binder can be filtered out. The binder
interferes with with the rest of the reaction, so it has to be removed. At
this point, the two processes diverge. For Red P, the solution is mixed
with iodine in any of several forms and red phosphorous (HI) which gives the
mixture its characteristic red color and the process its name. HI can be
obtained by scraping down ordinary matches or distress flares or from mail-order
chemical supply houses, though most “chemists” are loath to give out a mailing
address. For those with the right connections, it can also be taken from the
tips of military tracer bullets, made for machine guns. The new mixture than
has to be heated, often overnight, to a temperature of 140 to 150 degrees F,
which gives us the term “cooking meth.” Cooking is when the chemical
conversion of ephedrine to methamphetamine actually takes place. All the rest
of the elaborate process is merely concerned with refinement and extraction.
Cooking is also the most dangerous part of the whole manufacture process. If
the temperature goes too high and the mixture boils, the product will be free
phosphene gas, which is instantly lethal. If it heats too quickly, it can also
explode, covering everything in the area with an acidic solution that looks
exactly like blood.
The
highly acidic, cooked solution has to be neutralized with a strong base, such
as lye, which also neutralizes the un-reacted HI. The oil that floats on top of
the resulting mess is “freebase,” or pure methamphetamine gel. In this form, it
is extremely hard to divide or use, and it has to be further processed to get it
into its more familiar crystalline form.
There is
some flexibility in the rest of the process, but the most common method is to
mix the freebase with Coleman lantern fuel, which allows it to be extracted from
the water solution. Toluene or ether will also do very nicely. Then, hydrogen
chloride gas is bubbled through the solution, usually made by a crude generator
that uses table salt and drain cleaner in a gas can. The solid which then
precipitates out is crystal meth. Sometimes this doesn't work very well, and
the crystallization has to be done all over. And of course, after each phase
of the process, there are excess chemicals and byproducts to be filtered or
drawn off and disposed of. When a meth lab is finally shut down, the cleanup of
the chemical wastes can cost as much as $15,000.
The
Nazi Dope method starts with the same cold pills, ground up and put into
aqueous solution. But instead of iodine and red phosphorous, it uses lithium,
usually obtained from radio batteries, and anhydrous ammonia, often stolen from
farmers. The byproducts of ammonia corrosion give the mixture a distinctive
blue color. The cooking and extraction follow more or less the same procedure
as with Red P, albeit complicated by the fact that anhydrous ammonia is a gas at
normal room temperatures and can only be stored in a pressure vessel or under
high refrigeration. Until it gets dissolved in the anhydrous ephedrine
solution, it is very tricky to handle. As one might expect, this makes Red P a
more popular process. The signature debris of the two types of labs are large
quantities of Drano or lye at the Red P sites and large quantities of lithium
and ammonia at the Nazi Dope labs.
The final
result of all the above is a lump of crystal meth which is anywhere from 30% to
70% pure. What the customer gets in the remaining fraction is anybody's
guess. The product can be smoked, snorted, injected, or ingested.
For those
who want more information but are not inclined to pay Uncle Fester $20 for his
book, the DEA web site, simply www.dea.gov, is highly recommended. It has
history, demographic information, traffic data, recent case histories, profiles
of major DEA fugitives, and much more.
Along
with his PowerPoint presentation and numerous handouts, Mr. Murdock brought a
table full of actual seized lab apparatus. It was a very impressive production,
and a real shame that we couldn't give him more time. He was, of course,
rewarded with a priceless Sisters in Crime mug and our sincere thanks.
Our next
meeting will be Tuesday, March 2, 2004, at Once Upon a Crime. Our speaker is
author Harley Jane Kozak, who is a Twin Sisters member. This will be our
first instance of having a meeting coincide with an author reading/signing, and
something of an experiment.
We are asking
members to come to lend support to our colleague's venture. The regular
business meeting and book discussion will follow at about 8:00. Consider the
following quote, and come join us:
“My point
to young writers is to socialize. Don't just go up to a pine cabin all alone
and brood. You reach that stage soon enough anyway” ~ Cyril Connolly
by Rich
Thompson
Our first meeting of the new
year was also our first use of Once Upon a Crime as our meeting place. Our new
hosts did not anticipate quite as many members as we had, and space was a bit
tight, but we generally found it quite satisfactory. Next month there will be
more space cleared out for us. There is also a back room, which we will use on
nights when the bookstore is having an author signing by someone who is not our
featured speaker for that night. It is generally agreed that just because we
are meeting at a bookstore, we do not want to cancel other programs just to
provide a bigger audience for author events.
The program lineup for the
rest of the year has just a few more slots filled in than a month ago.
February
- Tom Murdock, chemical engineer and meth-lab expert from Medtronic Corp., is
confirmed.
March - we will
have a talk and possible reading by Harley Jane Kozak, a professional actress
turned novelist, whose first book is Dating Dead Men.
April - No change.
Pat Dennis is getting us Lee Adams, from Mystery Theater.
May - Still
unannounced. Wendy Nelson is coordinating.
June - Author Mary
Logue is confirmed. June Long is coordinating.
September - Not
firm yet, but Nancy Wikarski is hoping to get us a female Saint Paul Police
officer, Sheila Lambie.
October - Carl
Brookins is looking into the possibility of getting Ann Gross, who is a
laboratory technician for the DEA.
November and
December are still open for suggestions and volunteer coordinators.
There was also some discussion
of getting a forensic artist, Ingrid Holley, but nothing definite has been
planned. Pat Dennis also said she will look into the possibility of getting a
professional “repo man” for a speaker. Really.
We also made monthly book
selections for part of the coming year. All are available in paperback. OUAC
is offering us 15% off on these books, though at the time of the meeting, the
February selection was still on backorder.
The February selection is
Open Season on Lawyers, by Taffy Canon
In March, we will do Fearless Jones, by Walt Mosley
In April, we will do Tell No One, by Harlen Coben. (This particular work
has been well received by people with an amazingly broad range of reading
tastes, and it should make for an interesting discussion.)
In May, we will do Red House, by K.J.A. Wishnia
In June, we will do The Courier, by Jay MacLarty
For July, we picked Heartland, by Davis Wiltse, with nobody thinking to
point out that we don’t meet in July. Presumably, this one will be discussed at
the September meeting. This is another one that has been enjoyed by readers
with a wide range of interests.
The stunning news of the
evening was the imminent departure of Nancy Wikarski, our Vice President and
very able past Secretary. Nancy is moving back to her home town of Chicago,
which will be, to say the least, a bit too far for her to commute to our
meetings. We wish her much success and happiness in her new home and thank her
deeply for her long and excellent service to the chapter. You will be missed,
Nancy.
Pat Dennis’ theme-oriented
short story anthology, Who Died in Here?, is hot off the presses, and she
will be having a pub party at OUAC on Saturday, January 31, 2004, from 1:00 to
4::00. Early response to the book has been very favorable, and a second volume
seems likely in the future.
Six members had read Eleven
Days, by Donald Harstad, which had been our December selection but wound up
not getting discussed at that meeting. Reaction was generally positive, though
some readers questioned the authenticity of extremist Satanic cults in the
middle of Iowa. It seems as though Harstad wanted to shock his readers with
revelations of how dull and predictable the Midwest farm belt is not, and he may
have taken some liberties to do so. Or if his material is in fact based on his
own experience as a small-town Iowa cop, he did not manage to invoke the “ring
of authenticity” in the book. This is also, reportedly, the “easiest” of his
several books, but also the least polished.
Our regular January book,
Shop 'Til You Drop, by Elaine Viets, was read by only two or three people.
A few members said they found the title and premise just a little too precious,
and they didn’t even look the book over. Those who read it said it is witty,
fast-paced, and very original. There was actually a disagreement over whether
it was a “laugh-out-loud” book, or merely a “chuckle-out-loud” one. It’s
about a woman with a dark and murky past who takes a job in a Rodeo-Drive-type
boutique, as a way of going to ground. The author is a former clerk at Barnes
and Noble, and she includes a lot of customer anecdotes.
The meeting concluded with
Carl Brookins giving his unapologetically idiosyncratic lecture on the history
of crime and adventure fiction. He covered the evolution of the genre, from
the Saga of Gilgamesh, in 2000 BC, more or less linearly to his own
Superior Mystery, in 2002. He also handed out a very thoughtful and useful
bibliography of trendsetting mystery works, with dates and notes.
Interestingly, his view of the future of the genre includes the decline of New
York as the “bright center of the universe.” With its five increasingly
inward-looking, conservative, and monopolistic publishing houses, New York can
no longer filter or even evaluate the enormous volume of new voices and works
being produced. The gap is being taken up, it seems, by a geometric rise in
the number and vitality of small, independent presses. An interesting trend, at
the very least, and possibly a cataclysmic one.
Our next meeting will be
Tuesday, February 3, 2004, at 7:00 PM, at Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th Street,
Minneapolis. Bring a friend.
