He notes that one writer made several errors in police
procedurals.
Unfortunately, I think Jim might be cursed as a reader by
knowing
first-hand about what authors are making up for readers who
won't have
such first-hand knowledge. Not too long ago, someone
commented about
the realism of a writer's representation of a police
department. In
that case, I knew that the writer had little first-hand
knowledge of
police departments and had just written about a department in
the way he
thought it should be. Thus, if an author writes with
confidence and
authority, and maintains logic and internal consistency, most
readers
won't know any better. To my ear, this sentence--"The bulls
drove me
out to the West Hollywood division and threw me in the
drunk
tank"--sounds as authentic as this sentence--"The bulls drove
me out to
the West Hollywood precinct and threw me in the drunk tank."
We all
know that court cases are usually long and often dull, but
that doesn't
prevent us from enjoying a Perry Mason rerun here and there
(but maybe
we're just suckers for that Della Street and Paul Drake,
depending on
gender and sexuality).
Doug
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