“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” Neil Armstrong
Happy October friends!
Fall is here, and it’s time to announce the release of my new novel Between Us. If all goes well, I plan to release my novel in November 2020; I hope, before Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for special pricing only available to Harper Gale Book members.
To keep in touch in-between newsletters, I created a Harper Gale Books FaceBook page. Have you seen it? Please hop on over to @harpergalebooks and LIKE my page. You can also mingle with fellow members, interact with me, or post something fun or exciting about mystery/suspense novels.
This month I want to share with you the fascinating work of Frances Glessner Lee (who had no formal education or degree), yet she founded the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard in 1936. Years later, the State of New Hampshire appointed her the first female captain of the police department. Unable to resist a good mystery, Ms. Lee convinced her supervisors that she could teach the art of investigating crimes using her ability to analyze material evidence and her experiences creating miniatures dioramas!
Frances Glessner Lee constructed a series of crime scene dioramas, which she called The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death–still used in forensic training today. The eighteen Nutshell dioramas display an excellent level of detail: pencils work, lamps turn on, window blinds move, and drawers open. She even took great pains to knit miniature sweaters and doilies.
Ms. Lee created her crime scene dioramas using news reports and discussions with police officers and morgue employees. Her goal for the collection is not to solve the crime, but to teach how to observe details and search for possible clues to use in the investigation. If you’d like to learn more about the Nutshell Dioramas, click the link to the Death in Diorama website. The same website shows four dioramas scenes with a witness explanation and hints for the officers to observe. I posted two of them here, the other two I’ll share on FaceBook.
Finally, as promised, look out for next month’s newsletter, where I’ll include chapter one of my new novel Between Us!
Please share my website harpergalebooks.com with your friends and tell them about my gift to all new members!
Harper