No, I’m not killing anyone in real life. But when writing about injuring or killing someone, there needs to be a level of realism. Experts in every field often subconsciously judge fiction – TV, movies, and books – for their realism. My dad is a former police officer and heavily scrutinizes police procedural fiction: ‘that wouldn’t happen’ or ‘it takes longer than a couple days to finish a murder investigation’ or some other detail that needs to be manipulated for the time (or page) constraints of piece of fiction.
Despite time and page constraints, accuracy does matter. There are ‘fast acting’ poisons where the effects can be felt in only a few hours while others take days. Some so long that the victim may not be able to associate the illness to the point in time at which the initial poisoning took place.
Why am I researching poisons you ask? A work in progress, of course! It is all still in research and drafting mode, so I won’t say much more. My detective character is in for some complex investigating when it comes to this.
Since this is by no means a ‘how to’ of any kind, I won’t be listing any of poisons or how my characters plan to use them. This particular line of inquiry has been interesting. I’ve learned of some ‘new’ (to me) poisons as well as various ways to use others I knew of already. I’m trying to create situations that aren’t so overdone that the reader will find it boring or typical and want to skip over things.
What is your favorite method of murder? Is there a poison or weapon that you think is overdone – or maybe not used enough? Tell me about it on Facebook!