This piece is part of my Crime Fiction Expert series, practical advice from people who keep your stories honest.
Brian Price on Why Your Villain’s Plan Won’t Work
You know that scene where your villain presses a chloroform-soaked rag to someone’s face and they instantly collapse, waking up hours later in a warehouse somewhere? Complete nonsense.
“It takes minutes to induce anaesthesia and the victim wakes up soon after the chloroform is removed,” Brian Price tells me. “A pad over the nose and half an hour’s instant sleep is nonsense, and one leading writer of thrillers, set in the US, has used it twice!”
The Science Behind the Stories
Brian’s one of my Crime Fiction Experts, and he brings something unique to the table: 26 years teaching science for the Open University, 12 years with the Environment Agency, time as a pharmacy technician analysing drugs, and a determination to stop crime writers making basic scientific howlers. He even set up a website specifically for this (see crimewriterscience.co.uk) before writing the book on it – literally. Crime Writing: How to Write the Science.
He’s advised the BBC, Peter James, M.W. Craven, Leigh Russell, Zoe Sharp, and me, on everything from toxic waste to ketamine knockouts, plant poisons to DNA mixtures, determining whether a limb was removed before or after death to making diesel explode. He’ll steer you on chemistry, biology and physics relevant to crime, but not CSI procedure or autopsy detail. That’s not his patch. Pure science is his thing, and you can tell from what follows, he has a lot to get off his chest.
“I don’t see the point of writing a whole page about a particular rifle cartridge, or the chemical processes needed to extract a poison from a plant. The latter would be irresponsible anyway and, in the case of ricin, would be a criminal offence,” says Brian.
(Fair point. We’re writing entertainment, not instruction manuals.)
The Poison Problem
When writers contact Brian, poison is usually on their minds.
“Most of my queries seem to be about poisons,” he says. Drug and alcohol interactions and their post-mortem analysis come up quite a bit too. But here’s what writers don’t realise about poisons: “Most poisons are absorbed through the small intestine so it takes about 15 minutes for the toxin to get through the stomach and be absorbed in sufficient quantities to do harm. Even cyanide doesn’t kill in seconds unless you inhale the gas or inject it.”
Your victim dramatically clutching their throat and dropping dead after one sip of poisoned wine? Not happening. They’ve got at least fifteen minutes to make accusations, reveal secrets or call for help. Which, admittedly, might make for a more interesting scene anyway.
The strangest poison query Brian’s received? “The poisoning of someone through the skin after a mud treatment and whether a panther eating part of the corpse would also be poisoned.”
(I was in policing for over thirty years and worked my share of suspicious deaths. Never had to worry about a panther at the scene though.)
Death by Fire (But Not How You Think)
Here’s something that might change your arson scenes: “Most people who die in fires do so through inhaling toxic gases like hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide in smoke, rather than being burned.”
Your victim trapped in a burning building isn’t going to have a dramatic death by flames. They’ll be unconscious from smoke inhalation long before the fire reaches them. Grim, but that’s the reality. And anyone exposed to a significant amount of smoke MUST get a checkup from at least a paramedic.
And talking of fire… “David Mark once asked me how a dead cow could explode. I suggested a stick of dynamite!”
The DNA Reality Check
TV detectives get DNA results back before the ad break. Real life? “You don’t get results back in hours – it can take days, especially if the lab is backed up (the same goes for toxicology in many cases). It’s not cheap either, and police budgets are always stretched.”
But here’s the really interesting bit: “Trace DNA can be transferred from person to person, or place to person, perfectly innocently. Before you can be sure of the meaning of a DNA result you need to ask the questions how did it get there and when?”
Your decisive DNA evidence might not be so conclusive after all. Unless, as Brian notes, “it’s easy in a stabbing with the suspect covered in the victim’s blood!”
Science on Screen
Which shows get it right? Brian gives credit where it’s due: “Traces is pretty authentic (well, it would be as it was Val McDermid who co-created and co-wrote it, with Amelia Bullmore, and has Prof Niamh Nic Daeid as the forensic pathology advisor).”
As for the ones that make him wince? “I would run out of TVs if I threw books at them!” Silent Witness comes in for particular criticism: “The last one which jarred was having someone shot in the shoulder turn up for work a few days later with his arm in a sling and no evidence of the prolonged surgery and long-term damage it would cause.”
And his pet peeve: “Anything which has a detective tramp through a crime scene in normal clothes and shoes while a token CSI in protective clothing gathers evidence is a glaring no-no.”
The Cutting Edge You Can’t Use Yet
New forensic techniques? They might be proven in the laboratory, but it takes years for them to become usable by police forces and accepted by the courts.
But there are some fascinating developments. “It is possible to tell from the sweat in a fingerprint whether someone has deliberately taken cocaine (and metabolised it) or has simply touched the drug with a finger. Also, a recent article described how it’s possible to obtain fingerprints from fired cartridge cases – previously it was thought that the heat from the burning propellant would remove all traces.”
Your futuristic crime novel might not be so far-fetched after all.
Getting It Right Without Getting It Wrong
Brian writes his own crime thrillers (his latest, Fatal Shot, was out on 4th November 2025), so he knows the balance between accuracy and entertainment.
“I try to keep the plot going, with enough technical detail but without doing an information dump. I don’t see the point of writing a whole page about a particular rifle cartridge.”
And some things he won’t share at all: “I wouldn’t provide details of how bombs are made.”
(Quite right too.)
The Writers Who Nail It
When I ask Brian which authors consistently get the science right, he’s diplomatic but thorough: “M.W. Craven, David Mark, Peter James, Mark Billingham, Sarah Yarwood-Lovett to name a few – and, of course, you, Graham!”
(Well, I do try.)
He also notes that Scottish authors like Val McDermid and Ian Rankin “have some impressive experts to call upon,” and singles out those with professional backgrounds: “Kate Bendelow, Kathy Reichs and Tina Orr-Munro. And, of course, Agatha Christie always got her poisons right.”
The Bottom Line for Crime Writers
Brian’s biggest piece of advice? “Don’t go for ‘received unwisdom’ about science – check and ask someone! And if you’re using the internet, check the sources.”
And about those suppressors on revolvers that make them go “phut”? Another bugbear. They don’t work on revolvers at all because the gap between the cylinder and barrel means the sound escapes anyway.
The truth about crime science is that it’s slower, messier and more complicated than fiction suggests. But get it right, and you’ve got authenticity that readers, especially the ones who know their stuff, will appreciate.
Because there’s nothing worse than throwing a reader out of your carefully crafted story with a scientific clanger. Well, except perhaps having Brian Price throw a chemistry textbook at the TV because of your show!
A Chartered Chemist and Chartered Biologist with decades of experience in science and environmental work, Brian Price is the author of six DI Mel Cotton police thrillers. His latest, Fatal Shot, was out earlier this month. Sadly, his publisher died in July, so his reference book, ‘Crime writing: How to write the science’ isn’t available in bookshops, but it’s available directly from Brian if you’d like to get your hands on a copy! For scientific advice on your crime fiction, from poisons to explosions to DNA evidence, visit policeadvisor.co.uk.
