In the beginning...

In the 1960s and early 70s, Randall Garrett wrote short stories about an investigator called Lord Darcy. He lived in an alternate history world when Richard the Lionhearted was not killed on Crusade, but returned home and ruled wisely. In this version of history a monk codified the Laws of Magic. Fast forward to the 1960s and 70s when Lord Darcy worked for the Duke of Normandy as a Special Investigator. All the technology of the modern world is powered by magic. The ordinary police could not be expected to report on the aristocracy, so Lord Darcy worked the cases that required that extra bit of tact, to ensure that the laws applied to both low and high born.

Forensic Magic

But to me, it wasn’t Lord Darcy who was the hero of these stories. Randall Garrett wrote about Forensic Sorcery. Here magic was applied to investigations to uncover evidence, in the same way Forensic Science works in our world of no magic. It wasn’t a case of waving a magic wand and all was revealed. Buildings had privacy spells on them to prevent spying. Each spell worked to uncover one little clue, which the investigator, Lord Darcy, would put together into a case and uncover the criminal. The hero of the hour was Master Sean O’Lochlainn, Chief Forensic Sorcerer to the Duchy of Normandy. His delicate touch provided the evidence.

These books act as a Rosetta Stone to translate between modern Forensic Science and fantasy Forensic Magic.

Forensic Science

I recently read for a MSc in Forensic Science. During the course I came across a book by Crime Writer Val McDermid, Forensics: An Anatomy of Crime.

This is a non-fiction book writing by a fiction author, covering aspects of Forensic Science that are used to uncover evidence of crime. The similarities to work done by Sean O’Lochlainn was apparent immediately. In this book, Val McDermid writes about how Forensic Science helps to uncover evidence to aid the investigators to solve crime. It starts with how a police investigation works by describing how Crime Scene Investigators (CSIs) worked through the evidence when a police officer was shot in Bradford. The covers individual aspects of Forensic Science such as fire scene investigation and toxicology. The book goes into detail of the case that showed that fingerprints were not the be all and end all of forensic evidence.

Disappointment

I read many books both fantasy and real world crime and I have been disappointed in the lack of details in the evidence. If Randal Garrett could create a system of Forensic Magic, why do so many modern books skim over the evidence gathering process and jump straight to the detection part?

I have started to study Fantasy Police Procedurals where they show the smallest hint of proper evidence collection. There must be adequate comparisons.

Comparison

Of course my first choice for a standard in my study are the Randal Garret Stories. If we ignore the two Lord Darcy novels written after Randall Garrett’s death by his friend, there are two short story collections, Lord Darcy Investigates and Murder and Magic, and a novel Too Many Magicians.

These hold a wealth of Forensic Magic Detail.

My second standard must be a non-magic book so of course that is Val McDermid’s Forensics: An Anatomy of Crime. But there are subjects that Val McDermid does not cover, so additional information will come from my course notes, websites of police forces across the world and a wonderful history of crime A Very British Murder by Lucy Worsley.

Lucy Worsley combines the beginnings of the police forces, forensic evidence and crime mystery novels in a very readable way.

Read On

When I find evidence of Forensics in any Fantasy Police Procedural, I will compare them with the Forensic Science of Val McDermid and the Forensic Magic of Randal Garrett and post the results in this newsletter. Eventually, I hope to combine them into a paper.

You can also find my Forensic Science articles here.