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Steve Rush is an award-winning author whose experience includes tenure as homicide detective and chief forensic investigator for a national consulting firm. He was once hailed as “The best forensic investigator in the United States” by the late Joseph L. Burton, M.D, under whom he mastered his skills, investigated many deaths alongside Dr. Jan Garavaglia of Dr. G: Medical Examiner fame.
Steve’s book, Kill Your Characters; Crime Scene Tips for Writers, was a 2023 Silver Falchion Award Finalist for Best Nonfiction.
Reviewed by Liz Konkel for Readers' Favorite
Kill Your Characters: Crime Scene Tips for Writers by Steve Rush is an ideal resource for mystery and crime fiction writers and contains crime scene tips that will help authors improve their writing. The book breaks down crime scenes and provides useful information and prompts that take advantage of Rush’s first-hand knowledge derived from years as a detective and forensic investigator. The goal is to empower writers by giving them the information to make their books into page-turners. The book will no doubt allow writers to answer important questions by making available the facts surrounding a character’s death including evidence, weapon, investigation, and suspects. The vivid details, advice, and prompts will help create realistic scenarios that will lend reality to mysteries and crime fiction.
The goal of the book is to help seasoned writers to strengthen their writing skills and allow beginners to break into the mystery genres with vivid and accurate details that will help to establish a credible plot. The book is broken down into key aspects such as the crime scene, investigation, and evidence which will provide useful data and visuals. The book is beneficial whether you are writing cozy mysteries or murder mysteries with facts that will permit your PI (private investigator) or AS (amateur sleuth) to put together a case. These facts show how to place the details in a concept-conflict-climax story structure which allows you to set up the inciting incident, the offender’s identity, and the investigation. Further details include wounds, autopsy reports, and various causes of death.
The book contains writing exercises and prompts that take what you learn from the chapters and apply it to the beginning stages of writing, such as whether the facts support the scene’s integrity, red herrings, and prompts that help set the scene. The book also has fill-in-the-blank worksheets that cover suspects, venue, and cause of death. A time of death table is included that details the stages of body decomposition. These features make this book one of a kind and a must-have for a writer’s shelf. An empowering read, Kill Your Characters is the go-to handbook for writers looking to step into the mystery genres with thorough details that will make writing murder mysteries and crime fiction a breeze.
