The Crime Writer's Reference Guide: 1001 Tips For Writing The Perfect Murder by Martin Roth is a detailed resource especially intended for aspiring authors of mysteries, suspense thrillers, action/adventure crime novels, true crime stories, and police procedurals novels. Individual chapters cover what a writer most needs to know in order to avoid common errors and misconceptions when writing about crime, criminals, police, courts, and prisons. A highly recommended basic primer, this edition of The Crime Writer's Reference Guide is enhanced with a new Foreword and updated information supplied by Rey Verdugo, a former police officer, a top criminal investigator, and a technical consultant for film and television projects.

The premise of this book appeals to every screenwriter that is ready to enter the world of crime and investigation, a book written for screenwriters regarding the world of crime. This book is the ultimate starting point for creating a believable world for thrillers, mysteries, and other related crime dramas.

Written by Martin Roth with adaptations from Sargeant Rey Verdugo, this book grabs hold of you at page 1 by offering the 10 most common mistakes writers will make regarding police work. So, Is "taking a suspect down to the precinct for questioning" an appropriate phrase to use in your screenplay?

Then, the Crime Writer Reference Book states the different types of crimes and possible motives for creating such crime. It allows you, the writer, to explore any possible scenario and making that scenario accurate.

As a screenwriter, there's a slew of reference guides available...but I must say this one is really a must-have. Regardless if you are writing an article, novel, non-fiction, TV or film-- if it has any reference to crime in it at all - do yourself a favor and pick up this guide. Because I do not have "Criminal/police" info readily available, this guide allows me (and my characters) to sound more credible and authentic. Another item I'd like to mention is the layout -- very easy to refer to -- lists of crimes, motives, firearms, etc. Saves me time and enhances my stories! Great book -- Highly recommend.

This is without a doubt my favorite writing/reference book. If I was on a desert island with just one writing book, this one would be it (and I have 2 copies). The many lists on a wide variety of genres makes it a perfect brainstorming tool you can use over and over for fiction or scripts.

I love this book! If you write ANY type of fiction, this is a great tool to have for those days slow days infront of a blank screen.

In The Writer's Partner: 1001 Breakthrough Ideas To Stimulate Your Imagination, television script writer Martin Roth draws upon his many years of experience and expertise to present a compendium of quick and easy "things to do" to get started with a writing project, or embellish one already underway. From ideas for character development and plotting, this invaluable resource goes on to address genre categories including science fiction, horror, romance, comedy, sports, crime, westerns, and more. A truly "user friendly" text is further enhanced with appendices on "Web Wordage"; "National Hockey League Teams"; and "Additional Sports League Official Offices". The Writer's Partner is a valuable and practical addition to any writer's reference shelf.

Need character names? Occupation ideas? A list of possible protagonist's motivations? More importantly, need to find this and more quickly and with ease, maybe a dash of description about what's important about their use in your work? Then this is the book for you. It's a great writer's block-buster and square-one resource for people teaching writing courses. Put it on the shelf closest to your writing desk.

This book is filled with poetry and, if you give to it, it will give back to you.

Not only is Philip Roth perhaps America's greatest living novelist, he is one of the nation's very best literary critics as well. This book is a compilation of essays and interviews he published before 1974. Included is his piercing analyses of the accusations of anti-Semitism made against him as well as "Writing American Fiction", the classic essay where he declares that the novelist's imagination can't possibly keep up with the extravagance of American reality. Also included is the short story/essay "Looking at Kafka" which may be the best thing ever written about that quintessential modernist author. Roth has written enough criticism in the years since this book was published to assemble a whole new volume: please, we badly need an update!

I used this book for our Mother-Daughter book club and the girls thoroughly enjoyed it (all age 9). Out of the five girls, only one girl didn't like it, and we believe it's because she and Melanie were too much alike. During the book club, they enjoyed talking about the poems Melanie wrote and trying to say the Italian words. They related tremendously with Melanie and they were all very excited to discuss her adventures through Italy.

Meet 10 year old Melanie Martin, your average american kid and child travel critic . Melanie keeps a travel journal when her folks take her and her 6 year old brother Matt on a trip to Italy. Remember those family vacations you used to take as a kid? Well trust me, when you travel with Melanie, it'll all come rushing back at you.

Melanie's accounts of plane travel, Italian culture ("Almost everyone here speaks Italian-even kids"), and her goofy adventures with her family (at a museum she plays a game with Matt to "Point out the Naked People") will have you in stitches. Ms Weston is not only a funny writer, she's a mom and it serves her well in her accounts of family behaviour. This book reminds me of my own family trips when I was a kid (hey, when I was 11, my folks took me to Italy too! I can't say I appreciated it as much as Melanie did, but then maybe she should have joined us for the ride!)

Funny, breezy and filled with the easily believable dialogue of a ten year old (complete with doodles on the pages!) This is a great book for would-be travelers of all ages.

The book, The Diary of Melanie Martin is a great book toread. I liked how Melanie had all kinds of different adventures inItaly. I liked that at the begining of the book Matt and Melanie were like total enemies,then at the end they seemed to be like best friends because they were getting along so well. I liked all the book's characters and how the story represented a trip to Italy. My favorite part of the book was when,they found Matt whom had gotten lost in the museum because, from there Melanie and Matt became really, really , kind and nice to each other and they stayed that way for the rest of the book. I enjoyed this story a whole lot and I know that other kids besides myself will enjoy it to.

I am really intrigued whenever I read a brand new mystery or suspense thriller, which is why I thought about writing mystery short stories. Hence, I purchased this reference book in hopes that it will inform me about everything I need to know behind law enforcement. It does give details on the legal system, the police force and criminals. The author discusses crimes and has a lists of weapons. It does provide minor information on police procedure and "cop talk." In addition, there are extensive lists on books to look at for more information. However, this book does have its flaws. It only contains brief paragraphs on some topics, so don't rely entirely on this book for information to write your novel or short story. It is a detailed book, but does not include as much info. as I had originally hoped.

I have to agree the book was very complete. It was a bit more than I could often use in my romance writing but trust me... if I needed even the smallest crime detail, it was in there.

This book is your guide to the police department. No more countless hours of interviewing the police to learn about procedures and organization.

There's a complete list of weapons terms, fundamentals of investigation, even police and crime slang. While it's interesting enough to read the whole way through, you can flip right to the source you need. There are even rules of evidence and organizational charts to help make your writing more "real."

I was recently pointed in the direction of these husband and wife novels by a fellow reviewer here at Amazon, who read, and loved, The Laughing Policeman. I figured I would start at the beginning of the series, as Roseanna is the first "Martin Beck" mystery written by the Sjowall/Wahloo team, and I was not disappointed.

The book takes place in Stockholm in the early 1970''s where a young woman's body is found in a lake, near the locks of a major waterway. The police at first have no leads, there is no identification on the body, and they have no clues whatsoever as to the identity of the victim, nor who might have killed her. Over the course of the novel, the crime is ultimatley solved through meticulous police work, including some false leads, which in this reviewer's opinion comes reasonably close to how homicides are solved in the real world. Interrogations and surveillance of the suspects have a gritty, realistic feel which is not lost at all in the translation from the authors' native Swedish.

What I found most surprising about the book, especially given the fact that it was written by a husband and wife team, is the utter lack of personality given the main character Martin Beck. Beck is married and has kids, and yet when in the midst of an investigation he seems so engrossed in the details of the crime that he barely speaks to his family, comes home essentially to sleep, and is always battling a cold. I don't think 3 sentences of true dialogue were exchanged between Beck and his wife all novel. This wouldn't be so odd, except that there are repeated scenes in his home, he just is so absorbed with the mystery he ignores all extraneous matter until the crime is solved.

Overall, I thought this was a taut, suspenseful novel and I look forward to periodically sampling other Martin Beck mysteries from this writing duo.

The first in a series of ten detective novels intended to portray the decay of modern Scandinavian society though the lens of the police procedural. Written by a husband and wife team, (Sjowall and Wahloo), the books are excellently plotted and written, with an eye toward detail and realism.

In this first book, the emphasis is more on introducing the characters and their methods, with very little political or social commentary. The protagonist is the hapless Martin Beck, a homicide detective with the Stockholm police force, trapped in a loveless marriage at home and stultified by inept bueracracy at the workplace. His escape from the tedium of existence is his quiet, unstated, love of police work, particularly his own methodical approach to homicide.

This book introduces us to Beck, and follows his patient investigation into the rape, bludgeoning, and subsequent drowning of an American tourist named Roseanna. It is one of the best in the series; in fact, its probably one of the greatest crime novels ever written. Start with this book and read the rest of the series. You won't be disappointed.

The nude body of a young woman is dredged from the bottom of a Swedish canal, and Martin Beck, a homicide detective with the Stockholm Police Force, spends the rest of "Roseanna" doggedly looking for clues and trying to solve her murder. Authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo supposedly set out to write ten books featuring a homicide detective (Beck), and showing the ills of modern society in the process. Roseanna was the first of the ten books, one per year, that came out in the late sixties and early seventies. But what Sjowall and Wahloo may have succeeded in doing is something a little different - revealing a genius for characterization and story, so that by the tenth book ("The Terrorists", sadly out of print), one looks at Beck and the other recurring characters like old friends. But Roseanna is great reading, whether basking on the beach or in bed on a dark and stormy night. One roots for Martin Beck, a creation every bit as compelling as S! ! am Spade, Travis McGee or Phillip Marlowe, as he stubbornly pursues his seemingly impossible task. And one also has to thank Black Lizard for having the courage to re-issue these masterpieces of crime fiction. Enjoy!

Yes, this is very dated, but that makes it an interesting historical artifact. Yes, this is over-the-top, but it's over-the-top in an entertaining way. It's a light piece of comic fluff you'll finish easily in one sitting. I disagree, by the way, that one could in this manner satirize convincingly any American president. There has to be some core truth to exaggerate. In particular, I don't think Bill Clinton could be successfully subjected to this kind of treatment. There are only so many yucks you can squeeze out of Monica, and nobody ever REALLY cared about the affair anyway except (presumably) the principals and those vicious Republican corporate stooges (worthy of Nixon's Watergate henchmen) out to get Clinton by hook or by crook. It would also be difficult to subject Bush II to this kind of treatment, but for a different reason. Nearly everything Bush II does and says is ALREADY an exaggeration. The satirical Madison, Wisconsin weekly, The Onion, for example, ran a piece about Bush II immediately after he had...um...secured, let's say, the presidency with this headline: "Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over". Okay, nice try, but, where's the exaggeration? The economy is in a tailspin; the surplus was handed over to the very, very wealthy and large corporations; pretty much all environmental protections are being systematically dismantled; and we are perpetually and permanently, it seems, at war. That's just not funny. In any case, read this book, but don't assume it typical of Philip Roth. It's very much a "one-off", as they say.

This is wild, satirical look at the Nixon administration and it is hilarious. Roth scalds Nixon and his felonious cronies with absurd scenarios and commentary. Ultimately every presidential adminstration could receive similar literary treatment for their vapid pronouncements and high and mighty attitude, but the Nixon persona lends itself perfectly to such an exercise. Clinton is a likely candidate for a future effort. If you are a political junky you particularly should enjoy this presidential farce.

I have a great affinity for this book for a few reasons, the biggest being there is no longer such scathing political satire that is created in so many layers like this little missive from Roth. The media, literary world, and even the OpEds in many newspapers forget the power wielded and the passion invocked by a well-crafted satire instead of mud slinging and innuendo. The story of Trick E. Dixon and his fervent and funny fight for the sanctity of human life as well as the right to kill anyone who disagrees is the perfect paradox of politics. The persona of Richard Nixon, love him or hate him, is the perfect foil for this kind of dialogue/novel and it is an eerie historical note when so very much of the spirit of Trick E. Dixon was soon to be exposed in our own president. If you vote, read this book. If you don't, shame on you!

When did you last have a very strong feeling of the present moment, and a simultaneous, visceral understanding of how that moment fits into the context of life? Writing or reading Haiku poetry has a way of stimulating that feeling. The form is so condensed that it can feel sharp and sudden, like the sound of a balloon popping. This little book is a wonderful introduction to Haiku and also inspires the reader to experience the powerful effect of creating Haiku; after all, the folks who wrote the Haiku's collected here are ordinary Joe's like you or me who all decided to just start writing one Haiku each day.

The Haiku Year is much more than a delightful collection of interesting poems. It's also a very interesting window into the lives of seven friends. It's a bit like seven personal photo albums all mixed together, which gives it an enticing, voyeuristic feel for the reader. It's also a bit like a puzzle; did the person who wrote the Haiku about the cold pain of an ending relationship also write the one about the exhiliration of new love found?

I highly recommend this book as a gift to yourself. Do you know someone who would be very surprised to receive from you a fresh, red rose? Give them this book instead (or along with).

One of the hardest things to do - as a writer - is to keep things succinct. It is so amazing that the group of writers who had 'a haiku year' all manage to beautifully express moments of their lives in a few lines.

Though the poems vary in perspective and subject, they convey equally strong emotions. This book is enough to make you want to gather your own circle. And it's small size makes it easy to bring with you wherever you may travel - whenever you are in need of 18 words of affirmation, frustration or love. It's one of the few books I make sure is near my desk at all times.

sometimes i think of my father as an aging hippie- a rusty van plastered with bumper stickers, a very liberal viewpoint, and long hair.

the haiku year doesn't conform to haiku norms, but it isn't about aging hippies. it's a simple approach to the lives they lead.

i have much respect for my dad, and this book is everything about him and and his friends that i love.