Missing Persons: A Writer's Guide to Finding the Lost, the Abducted and the Escaped (Howdunit Series) (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Fay Faron first discovered her proclivity for detective work when the houseboat she'd just bought sank in Sausalito's Richardson Bay and it behooved her to track down the boat's elusive previous resident. She is the founder of the Rat Dog Dick Detective Agency (seriously!) in San Francisco, and a regular guest on Oprah!. She has written an informative, entertaining, nay, hilarious guide for anyone writing about detectives and missing persons (MPs). Missing Persons tells us who is most likely to become a private investigator (PI), who is likely to go missing (or merely misplaced), and who would want to find them (hint: "the working PI's motto often is 'The client is not always right and often is not even sane.'"). We learn how and why people hide their whereabouts, and how to go about locating them. While 95 percent of a PI's work is done sitting at a desk, says Faron, "sooner or later your detective has to actually get off his duff and go out into the real world and burn up some calories." This is called "gumshoeing," and includes such scintillating activities as surveillance ("newspaper reading, coffee drinking and bladder rending") and dumpster-diving ("although I'd sooner admit to wearing Tan- In-A-Bottle to my high school reunion, I will concede there are lots of treasures to be found in day-to-day debris"). The appendices list PI licensing requirements by state and state laws regarding taping telephone conversations and such, so you don't make a fool of yourself. Faron works in fabulous, unbelievable examples from her 15 years in the business and lines such as this, about one MP who was discovered to be alive, not dead: "Dr. Mort had not, in fact, taken a dirt nap."

Product Description

A guide for writers of fiction, on techniques used to trace missing persons, intended to help the writers make their plots more accurate and believable. In the HOWDUNIT series.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089879790X
• ISBN-13: 978-0898797909
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #259,749 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, thorough, and great fun, October 10, 2000

By	P. Lozar "plozar" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is one of the highlights of the "Howdunit" series: it's not only informative and thorough, but it's great fun to read too. Besides being an experienced and successful PI, Faron is a lively writer who knows how to choose an anecdote to make a point, so the book is engrossing as well as useful. She clearly knows the business inside and out, so she covers aspects of the subject that most of us don't know exist, and her remarks on the seamier sides of the PI's job are priceless. She occasionally seems to remember that she's writing a book for mystery authors, and tosses in a few suggestions for plots or episodes that I found rather pointless, but these don't detract from the general helpfulness of the book. Her more "reference"-oriented final chapters are less entertaining, but I greatly appreciated her summaries of what kind of information is available from a particular source and how easily accessed it is: many books that purport to give information on how to find people are just unselective lists of sources without commentary. And her state-by-state breakdown of PI licensing laws and legal information was great: I'm working on a couple of mysteries set in the state where I used to live, and her guidance was very helpful. I hope Faron keeps the book updated: the Internet has transformed searching (for people or information), and some of her suggestions are already out of date. But, as a whole, this book is a terrific "checklist" of how and why people go missing and how to look for them, and well worth reading.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Missing Persons Reference or a Way to Get Away?, January 5, 2001

By	FictionAddiction.NET - See all my reviews

It's supposed to be a reference to find the lost, abducted and escaped. But the tips could help you become a missing person!

Some of the most interesting sections include:

"How People Purposely Hide Their Whereabouts"

"The Four-Step Formula for Finding Someone"

"Profile of the Lost Family Member"

There's so much more to this book than you can imagine. You're sure to find it a nice collection to your reference library.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watch out for the Rat Dog, July 30, 2000

By A Customer

Faron strikes again in the Missing Persons volume of the Howdunit series. Faron's advice on tracking people down was extremely helpful to me, both as an aspiring writer and a police officer (Faron gives tips on locating the hidden that they definitely don't teach you at the Academy...simple, easily-overlooked stuff that involves very little research). Faron's laid-back writing style and personal anecdotes make this an entertaining, as well as informative, read.