About Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes
Starting back around 2005, writers began contacting us with questions about sleuths, PIs, cops, and legal eagles. Fielding those questions led to our teaching online classes to writers and presenting workshops at regional and national writers’ conferences (Left Coast Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, Pikes Peak Writers Conference). Colleen has also written articles about private investigations for magazines, newsletters and online sites such as PI Magazine, Pursuit Magazine, PINow.com, Men’s Health, Romance Writers Report, NINK (Novelists, Inc.), Reflections in a Private Eye, and others.
Teaching courses and writing articles for writers led to our creating this Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes blog in 2009, which we’re pleased to say has been recognized by Ellery Queen magazine as one of the top 3 true-crime blogs, as well as twice being tapped by the American Library Association’s online Booklist site as being a “Web Crush of the Week” during its annual Mystery Months (2011 and 2014).
Our Books
We’ve also written several nonfiction books about private investigations (How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths. How Do Private Eyes Do That?, and Secrets of a Real-Life Female Private Eye. Our most recent nonfiction book is A Lawyer’s Primer for Writers: From Crimes to Courtrooms.
Upcoming Releases
Look for Colleen’s nonfiction book Misdemeanors to Murder: Nothing but the Truth, to be released 2019.
Guns, Gams & Gumshoes 
Patti Abbott said
Would either of you two care to contribute a review of a “forgotten” book to my blog project? You can see it every Friday at http://pattinase.blogspot.com
Me email is on there should you be interested. Thanks.
Dan Jones said
Great site and informative for us.
We run an online news archive at http://www.newslibrary.com.
We know legal investigators use our site for research, but we have not done much marketing to this group.
When and how does a news archive help with legal investigation? What value are old news articles to building a case?
Thanks
Dan
writingpis said
Thanks for dropping by, Dan. To respond to your question, news archives are wonderful for such things as confirming that people lived in a certain place, that people performed a certain kind of work, relationships among people (such as wedding announcements, births, deaths), character history (for sentencing purposes in capital litigation), establishing heirs, finding contact information (let’s say a person wrote an article and their website or phone number is in the byline), establishing income and business histories, sometimes finding if someone is selling off property or other items (that is part of litigation), and more. Great question, and we hope you visit Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes again.
Ann Musso said
I’m reading “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigation” by Steve Brown and noticed you had interviewed him. I want to contact him and wanted to see if you had his email. Currently I work under my husband California PI license with him, but I want to attend school as there is so much still for me to learn and then hopefully, get my own license. There are so many “schools” out there, I was hoping for some opinions from other PI’s on what to look for in training. Your website looks great; can’t wait to read!
writingpis said
You can look up Steven using Google (Steven Brown+private investigator). We would imagine your husband, being a licensed California PI, would have resources who can recommend qualified PI schools in your area. Otherwise, we suggest you check out PI Magazine or Pursuit Magazine for their recommendations.
Ann Musso said
Yes, I do have recommendations from my husband, however, I find it prudent to get opinions from others in the industry.
ReadersHeaven said
Hi, nice to meet you !
Sean said
A friend showed me the link. Great site. I’m a pulp writer who does some 30s gumshoe writing, and I’ll definitely be back. I’ll add you to my site’s links, if that’s okay with you. And feel free to visit mine as well. It’s called Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action — http://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com. (Which is why my friend sent me your link, I’m sure.)
writingpis said
Thanks for dropping by. Just checked out your blog. Very cool. We’ve added you to our links as well.
Sean said
Thanks. That’s awesome.
Black Raven Investigations said
I found your blog by accident and I am very impressed!
I think it’s great that your both husband and wife and still able to work together. I’m not too sure if me and my wife could pull off a similar situation!
If it’s ok with you, I would like to add your blog to our list of private investigator resources at: http://scottish-pi-network.com ?
If your interested, we would consider exchanging links on http://blackraveninvestigations .
Either way, you have a new reader!
Writing PIs said
Glad you enjoy the blog. We’ll add your blog link in a few days (we’re on deadline right now for another project).
Best wishes, Writing PIs
Becks said
Hi! I love your blog! I have a question and I can’t find your email, so I’m asking here: could a minor hire a private detective?
Writing PIs said
Hi, thanks for writing! We’re going to address your question in today’s post.
Jim Jack said
Hi,
We recently created an infographic which highlights the dos and don’ts of surveillance along with a lot of other great data and statistics related to private investigators. Thought I would reach out to you as it might be of interest to your readers.
Here’s the link http://www.pvteyes.com/blog/pushing-the-limits-the-dos-and-donts-of-surveillance-infographic/
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
Best,
Jim
Writing PIs said
Great infographic–thanks for passing it on!
Rose Robbins said
I am SO HAPPY to have found this site! GREAT information. I have a question for a book-in-progress and have been scouring the internet for an answer. If someone’s dog is killed, inside their home, while they are gone, and it’s obvious that it wasn’t an accident (he was stabbed, the poor baby), does the dog’s body get removed as evidence, like a person’s? And if so, how long is the dog’s body then held? Would it be disposed of, or given back to the owner?
darinhartley said
Hi Colleen and Shaun! Great blog and I wanted you to know I am using your book, A Lawyer’s Primer for Writers: From Crimes to Courtrooms, as a resource for my first novel, Streets of Blame. I am actually serializing it on my blog, www,seriallynovel.com. I have had four non-fiction books published and want to be as accurate as possible for the courtroom parts of the book, and it is an amazing resource. I am reading it on the Kindle and I love all the links to other resources! Kudos. Darin
darinhartley said
Actually http://www.seriallynovel.com
Writing PIs said
Thank you for your nice note! We’re glad the book is useful for your research, best of luck, Colleen & Shaun