Words For Wednesday-Crime Edition

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Defense Wound:

An injury received by the victim of an attack while trying to defend against the assailant. These are often found on the hands and forearms, because the victim has raised them to protect the head and face. Defensive wounds may also be present on the feet and legs if a victim attempts to defend themselves while lying down and kicking out at the assailant.

The appearance and nature of the wound varies with the type of weapon used and may present as a laceration, abrasion, contusion or bone fracture. Severe laceration of the surface of the hand or partial amputation of fingers may result from the victim grasping the blade of a weapon during an attack. In forensic pathology the presence of defense wounds is indicative of homicide and also proves that the victim was conscious and resisted during the attack. Defense wounds may be active or passive. A victim of a knife attack, for example, would receive active defense wounds from grasping at the knife’s blade, and passive defense wounds on the back of the hand if it was raised up to protect the face.

There Is None Who Know…

Choice & Change

Wrong Number, Right Woman

‘Wrong Number, Right Woman’ is Jae’s best book since ‘Backwards To Oregon’, and that’s saying a lot of an author who has written over 24 books!
This is a heart-warming, feel-good, soul-soothing novel about two women that seem to be complete opposites. I don’t read a lot of romance, but I’d read anything by Jae.

The characters that populate this novel have misgivings and insecurities, just like the rest of us. Denny is painfully shy, Salem has put her life on hold for her daughter, Eliza is flailing her way through first dates…all of which demonstrates Jae’s skill at making her characters relatable.
We are drawn along as Denny and Eliza connect over a misdirected text, as they forge a friendship, as Denny’s walls slowly erode, and the whole time, we cannot help but fall in love with the raw emotions of each of them.

Trust underlies the entire story, and family. And the trust we each search for from the families of our blood, and our choices. In this chaotic and frightening times, we need a literary balm that we can lose ourselves in. ‘Wrong Number, Right Woman’ is that balm for our souls.
If you’re looking for a WLW novel that will leave you with a warm glow when you read the last page, this is the book for you.

Get your copy straight from the publisher today!

Forensic Friday

The first criminal fingerprint identification was made in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1892 by Inspector Eduardo Alvarez.

Fingerprints are still evaluated based on the same descriptions of arches, loops and whorls written by Sir Francis Galton in the late 19th century. Who was Galton, you ask? Charles Darwin’s cousin, and a man who attempted to tie personal and intellectual characteristics to physical traits and heredity. He chronicled his experiments in an 1892 book called Finger Prints. While Galton was ultimately disappointed in his experiments, his technique for examining and classifying the whorls, arches and loops of the human fingerprint caught on with Scotland Yard, who then trained other police departments in the collection and classification of fingerprints.

We all know that fingerprints are formed in the womb. The ridges, whorls and loops that make up our individual prints are formed by genetic factors provided by DNA as well as environmental ones; bone growth, pressure within the womb and contact with amniotic fluid. The patterns on our fingers, palms and feet are formed by our fifth month of development, and do not change barring mutilation by disease, acid or fire.

An interesting side-note to this is John Dillinger, who tried to change his face and fingerprints with acid. After he died, experts were still able to identify him through a few remaining ridge patterns.

Because of the unique circumstances in every pregnancy, and through the contribution of DNA, identical twins can have similar prints, but they’ll never have identical ones. Our fingerprints are completely our own.

Think about that the next time you push open a door by putting your hand on the glass!

Presidential

A WLW book with a female President? Hell yeah!

I was sucked in by the cover, straightaway. You know that advice we hear all the time, “don’t judge a book by its cover?” Pfft! You know we all do it! I admit, I do it too, and I did it this time. Lola Keeley and Ylva had me at the cover.

I was amused by Emily right off. She’s a spitfire with morals and a sense of righteousness a mile wide.
She is definitely someone I want on my side, never mind that she’s fighting for the environment. When she calls out POTUS for being a coward on environmental issues, President Calvin is intrigued by her. They have chemistry from the start, and they share some snappy moments, let me tell you!
The entire time I was reading this book (and it only took me two “sittings” to do so, thanks to being able to read while I cook), I kept thinking that it was like a literary soup made up of three different influences. 1 part “West Wing“, 1 part ‘Madame President‘ by Blaine Cooper & T. Novan, and 1 part something else I could not quite put my finger on.
I didn’t care. I ADORED this story. (Yes, those caps are intentional)

All of the characters lived and breathed, and damn did they drink a lot of wine! There was only one walk-on character I wish we’d seen more of, and that was President Calvin’s mother. There was angst and grief and hope and joy, pine trees and a teenager. There was patriotism and conniving and treachery and obviously political maneuvering that I wish we’d seen a little more of.

In the last few pages of this book, I realized what the missing third influence was on ‘Presidential‘.
“An American President“, starring Michael Douglas and Annette Benning.
This book takes that influential, entertaining and memorable movie, twists it and makes it our own.

‘Presidential‘ is the story I needed now. It reminds us all that there is hope. There is something better than the current administration.
We can reach higher, and until we see one of our own in the White House, we have ‘Presidential’ by Lola Keeley.