Customer Reviews

Private Eyes: A Writer's Guide to Private Investigating (Howdunit Writing)

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Very few of us get the opportunity to experience the actual day to day environment of the "cops and robbers'" world. "Private Eyes" does a very good job of showing us what goes on in the everyday life of the private investigator, as well as the police detective. Written jointly by two professors of creative writing and an ex-policeman turned private investigator, this book offers an interesting and helpful insight into the profession of crime investigation. Writers need to be factual in their descriptions. After reading this book I found myself editing some of the relevant data I had erroneously included in my novel. It pays to do good research, and this book worked well for me.

As a licensed and practicing private investigator, I can tell you that this book does not describe the experiences shared by 90% of real life PIs. Much of what is written appears to have been embellished by either the authors or the consultant to be more dramatic and exciting. For example, Mr. Blythe describes how local law enforcement would encourage private citizens with problems to go directly to his home, no matter what time of day or night. Come on! No officer whom I have ever met would do such a thing! Mr. Blythe describes how easily PIs can obtain a full credit report on someone. Very illegal in 99% of the cases!!! This is a great book if you are looking for ideas of how to get your PI in legal hot water. Other than that, check out Greg Fallis' book in this same series for reliable info.

After reading some of the other reviews, I am compelled to write again. This book contains almost no information relating to what really happens in a PI's life! The book is being marketed as a resource for mystery writers to show what goes on "behind the scenes" when working cases. I am here to tell you that if what the authors described really happened, the PI would likely find him or herself in court being sued and/or being placed under arrest for violating local, state, and Federal laws. I don't know where the authors found this "consultant" but the stories he shares quite frankly make me ill. This book does nothing but perpetuate myths and lies about the industry.

I have to say that I was really disappointed with this book. For the most part, the book is nothing more than stories of the personal experiences of a real PI. While real life stories can certainly help a writer, I would have perferred a little more facts regarding the legal aspects of private investigating and a little more information on private investigating in general instead of just mostly reading about one PI. I came away from this book not knowing much more than before I read it. I really wouldn't recommend buying it. I'd suggest purchasing JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM instead. I found it to be much more informative than this one.

Unless you just have to own every single book in the Howdunit Series, I'd really recommend skipping this one. It did help me out a little but, for the most part, I found the information contained in this book to be useless. The authors spend way too much time talking about real PIs and their experiences. It's as if the writers are saying that you should base your fictional PI and his experiences on the real ones in this book. Do the authors not realize that a person can be sued for that? The authors even waste several pages of the book to do nothing but give physical descriptions of real PIs. The book actually takes the time to state that the average height of PIs is 5'10'' and the average weight is 175. Why exactly is that important? A PI can look like whatever a writer wants him or her to look like. The PI can be a little green man from Mars if the writer wants him to be. Although if the PI is a Martian, then the writer obviously isn't shooting for realism and doesn't need a book to help them be more realistic in the first place. The authors also spend too much time stating that what we see on TV isn't completely realistic. Like anybody with half a brain can't figure that one out on their own. The book contains very little about laws and regulations, which was what I was looking for. A few accounts of personal experience are fine, but I feel that the book would have been much better if there had been a lot less of that and more about each state's regulations and other things such as that. I just found this book to be a complete waste of money and time. I wouldn't recommend it.

Hal Blythe and others' PRIVATE EYES for the Howdonit Series is a general overview of the profession. It is bland reading, but does give the writer some insight for further research. It is not a book to follow blindly when construction a mystery built around a PI protagonist.
At this date of fifteen years after publication it is due a major rewrite to update technology and techniques. If the time period fits your work it can help, because nothing is more frustrating for a reader than to find new methods in a period work.
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