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

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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."


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With Missing Persons in hand you'll find the types that commonly become PIs - ex-cops, macho criminal wannabes, reporters; the easiest people to find (men, property owners and professionals) and the hardest (women, scoundrels and those with common names); profiles of the missing and profiles of those searching; how and why people hide; what can be gleaned from public record; secret and not-so-secret databases; and the lowdown on interviewing, surveillance and the benefits of a good scam. Missing Persons goes beyond the basic search, and details the process of looking for someone, typical clients and the reaction once the missing is found. There's more than a presentation of facts here. Faron backs up her clues with anecdotes from Rat Dog case files. As with any good whodunit, Faron's engaging style and true-life adventures will have you turning pages. In short, every gumshoe's search should begin here.


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