A professional approach to murder

Aug 29 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

Murders most foul will join microscopes and quills at a conference about how thriller writers and forensic scientists can fight real crime. David Charters reports

IT WAS a meeting of promise on a sullen day, whose sweating warmth darkened the cobbles beneath the sinister black hook, which once hoisted goods to the upper storeys of the brick warehouse.

There stood the little lady. She has created some killers down the years – but now her shoulders sloped slightly to the brush of the visitor, whose pearl necklace glowed on lightly-scented skin.

The stranger had come to this place to talk about grim secrets hidden in the soil.

Together, they walked a few yards to the cafe/bar, where an old man, sitting alone, cradled memories in his drink.

And then in the enthusiasm of conversation, the spectacles slipped slowly down the noses of these two women of brilliance, as they faced each other across the altar-white cloth on the table. Both had journeyed through the murk of human depravity.

Suddenly, their eyes fasten on the sugar bowl.

“There are more organisms in a teaspoonful of soil than people living on this planet,” says Dr Lorna Dawson. “They are the bacteria, the fungi, the little mites and the protozoa, which live in the water in the pores of the soil and feed on the fungi and are part of the trophic food-web in the soil.”

These were the words of the forensic scientist, being heard by Margaret Murphy, the acclaimed crime novelist.

They are working together on two sessions devoted to crime, as part of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s Festival of Science being held in Liverpool between September 6 and 11.

These sessions, on September 9, are to be called Murder, Mystery and Microscopes. The first runs from 1.30pm to 3.30pm at Liverpool University’s main lecture theatre. The second runs from 6pm to 8pm at the Blue Coat chambers, off Church Street.

Participants will analyse areas in which crime fiction and forensic science already overlap, while discussing how they could co-operate more in the future.

Margaret and Lorna will be joined by a splendid team. On the fiction side will be Val McDermid, whose characters include Lindsay Gordon, the lesbian journalist; Kate Brannigan, the private investigator; and Tony Hill, the clinical psychologist, brought to the TV screen in the series Wire in the Blood, starring Robson Green.

With Val and Margaret will be Peter James, prize-winning crime writer and film producer. His novels, include Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead. He was executive producer of the Merchant Of Venice (2004), starring Al Pacino. He also created Bedsitcom (2003) for Channel 4, in which four boys and two girls were brought together to live in a loft apartment, with cameras following their lives.

On the science side are Lorna, senior research scientist and head of the forensic soil group at the Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen; David Miller, spatial geographer from the institute; Professor Sue Black, a forensic anthropologist from Dundee University; Professor Dave Barclay, retired lecturer and a specialist in physical evidence and cold case reviews; and Phil Nobles, an expert in computing forensics from Cranfield University, Befordshire.

Of course, unseen in the room will be such figures as Jane Marple, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Detective Inspector Rebus, Sexton Blake, Inspector Wexford, Adam Dalgleish, perhaps even old Dixon of Dock Green – as well as the ghostly cast below ground, whose departures stimulated both forensic science and crime fiction.

There is nothing we like better in Britain than a good murder to make the fine-china tremble – whether the body is found amid the garbage of an Edinburgh jigger, the gentility of a vicarage, or the spreading burial grounds of Midsomer.

It is probably our favourite form of fiction, but underlying that is reality. Murders do happen and catching the culprits could be vital to our safety.

BUT the forensic scientists, who have made possible huge advances in crime detection, are not always the best communicators of their own findings and knowledge.

Crime novelists, on the other hand, are superb at communicating mood, character, drama and horror, but they are not always so keen on facts.

So in Liverpool fact is reaching to fiction in a true meeting of minds.

“Fiction is a very good way of informing the public about science,” says Margaret. “Science is a bit like maths. A lot of people feel are wary of it and maybe even frightened of it. With fiction you can introduce aspects of science that are both interesting to the public and easily understandable, so they contextualise in a situation that is interesting and people can sneakily get to know a lot of science by reading fiction.”

“Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes) did this really well,” says Lorna, who is married to a doctor and has three children.

“He did a lot of work on finger-printing and the chemistry of forensic science, which engaged a lot of people and was really at the cutting edge. Soil is used in A Study in Scarlet.”

Margaret smiles as she recalls the story’s denouement.

“Our idea is for the specialists to come in analyse and respond to a particular fictional piece,” says Margaret.

“For example Phil Nobles will respond to a passage from my book, Now You See Me, which deals with computer crime.”

During the sessions, the scientists will apply their specialist knowledge to passages from the books of the crime writers.

Do the writers get close to real life? “There is a great difference between some of these vehicles of communication,” says Lorna, who has been at the Institute for 20 years, having graduated in geography from Endinburgh University – near the drinking haunts of her favourite fictional detective, Ian Rankin’s John Rebus. After that she was awarded a PhD in soil science at Aberdeen University.

“You get very good authors like Margaret, who makes absolutely sure that she gets the facts right. On the other side, you get the sensational type of movie, which gives crime fiction a bad name. The CSI effect, as it is known,” she continues.

“It is up to the integrity of the scientists and the authors to ensure that we do present the truth – not to scare the public but to inform them and make them feel safe and secure. Sometimes things happen, but there are good methods of detection, which are accurate and robust.

“Soil is a trace-material, which is left behind. It’s on your shoes, your trousers, the vehicle wheel arches. It brushes on your jumper. Now we have methods of analysing a very small amount of material. That material can hold fibres, hairs and glass, which can lead to other clues of investigation. The soil itself has information on the minerals. These can tell you where it has come from, where that car has been.”

Soil contains huge variations, even in neighbouring gardens, which can help the police.

Lorna has taken part in serious crime investigations, both at the scene and in laboratory examinations.

“The community of micro-organisms is the soil’s DNA,” she adds. “It gives you a community profile of the minerals present and a community profile of the organisms there.”

This is for purposes of comparison, but it cannot provide matches like human DNA. “It is still an under-used technology. Detectives use DNA first, understandably, because it is conclusive, but soil can be vitally important to investigations,” she adds in perfect Scottish tones, a little softer than those of Miss Jean Brodie.

Margaret feels that the longer novel, rather than the film or TV series, can draw on the details of science.

Although crime fiction does not directly help to solve crimes, it can engage young people, exciting an interest in forensic and other branches of science, which hook into our understanding of the world.

Whether you split the atom or write of murder on the village green, you never know when you might need a magnifying glass or microscope.

davidcharters