Crime Fiction or Science Fiction?

Crime fiction writers depend on information from cops to make their stories plausible and realistic. This may be true but movies and books also affect how cops act. In my case movies have affected me in a different way. The last crime movie I watched was Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. I liked it on a number of levels. Professionally, emotionally and the confused Karmic injustice. I’m not saying realism is paramount to making me like a book or movie. Story and characters are the key but sometimes I get frustrated when an author thinks that TV provides all the insight into the world of crime that they need too write a book.

Some of the crime fiction books out there should, more accurately, be classified as Science Fiction. Here are a few simple clues to decide if what you’re watching or reading is crime fiction of science fiction.

If a cat solves the crime it is science fiction. I don’t know what your experience with cats is but in my world my kids ignore them, I feed them and they sleep like twenty-two hours a day. My cats never really struck me as ambitious enough to solve a crime. In one book a cat fires a pistol. How is that possible? They don’t even have opposable thumbs. If you’re reading a book where a cat does anything more than provide companionship it’s science fiction.






If a character in a book or movie can shoot or fight without ever practicing, it is science fiction. James Bond is a great character. I love Bond movies. The real Bond. This guy, not the others. They are purely science fiction. I don’t think I need to argue the Bond point but sometimes I read about these cops who twist guns out of people’s hands on a regular basis while working eighty hours a week, raising kids, staying married and still having enough time to eat. In the real world very few cops study any martial art. They get some simple training from their agency and a refresher once a year. Maybe. The cops who do attend their own karate classes are the ones who realize they don’t want to have anything to do with close combat if they can avoid it. A cop may, in fact, twist a gun out of someone’s hand in real
life. Once. It does take speed but it takes a lot of luck too. Plus the opportunity. Most cops never have a gun pointed at the from arm’s distance. Believe me, it’s easier to shoot from cover and wait for help.

If a character in a book uses the phrase, “Bring him in alive,” the book is science fiction. Unless it’s set pre 1970. Today the goal of every manhunt or arrest is bring everyone back alive. Unless that’s not feasible. If a bad guy is threat to the cop or someone else’s life then deadly forced may be used. If, for whatever reason, no one wants to bring the criminal in alive then that is left unsaid. But no cop will risk his life because the guy that is being arrested might have important information. If they pull a weapon and the cop has no choice. He won’t be brought in alive.

The last thing, and I admit this is a personal issue but true none the less. If someone in a book or movie racks the slide of an automatic pistol just before going into action, that is the dumbest cop or criminal in the country. Today’s semi-automatic pistols are designed to carry a round in the chamber ready to go. If someone is racking the gun that means they were walking around with a useless weapon. If they know enough to pull the slide back to charge the weapon then they will do it as soon as they are ready to stick the gun in a holster. This one tactic is science fiction because I refuse to believe any cop is really that stupid in real life.

Now let me say there is nothing wrong with science fiction or horror for that matter. Horror movies have influenced me as much as crime fiction. I won’t go into a dark attic first. Even armed. I run at the sound of a growl no matter how much firepower I’m carrying. And if some old lady says she'll put a curse on me if I arrest her, she’s pretty much free to go.

But that’s just me.