Accidental Deaths by J. S. Marlo

  

Wounded Hearts

"Love & Sacrifice #2"

is now available  

click here 

 

 

  

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

I write murder/mystery/romance novels. As such, someone will be injured or die by the end of the book, and my perpetrators will go to great length to deflect or cover their crime.

In average, 15,000 people die every year following an accident in Canada. Accidents are the 1st leading cause of death in people under the age of 45, and the 4th overall in all age groups after Cancer, Heart Diseases, and Covid-19. Interestingly, if we separate the statistics by gender, accidents are the 3rd leading cause of death in men but the 5th in women.

Since accidents are relatively common, one way to cover a murder is to make it look like an accident. Here are the six major causes of accidental deaths:

- Motor Vehicle Accidents (1st cause in both men & women): one of my perpetrators tampered with a car...

- Fall (2nd in both men & women): it's fairly easy to push someone down the stairs, but the problem is when the victim survives the fall and can identify the perpetrator...

- Drowning (3rd in men, 6th in women): forcing someone to drown without leaving signs of struggle behind is not as easy as it looks...

- Fire (4th in men, 3rd women): fire tends to destroy everything, except what started the fire...

- Suffocation (5th in men, 4th women): pillows come to mind here...

- Poisoning (6th in men, 5th women): the perpetrators in historical novels could get away with poisoning their victims, but nowadays only a handful of substances will not show up during an autopsy, and these few undetectable substances aren't readily available.

My perpetrators won't stop trying to hide their crimes, but they won't get away with it LOL

Enjoy the small blessings that life brings every day & stay safe!

JS

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

 

Life Must Go On

 We've often heard the show must go on, and I guess it's true, Although many shows have been canceled for various reasons, sickness, weather, death. etc. 

Life is never canceled. I recently experienced the death of my brother-in-law, one of my husband's and my best friends. But our loss is nothing compared to the loss of his children, but especially his wife. Our lives will go on with the day-to-day events, shopping doctor's appointments, etc. And their kids will return to work, caring for their families, etc. But his wife, how does her life go on? She's alone, doesn't work, and has nothing to take her mind off him. Nothing to look forward to. Her loss is so much greater than ours. 

Right now, everyone keeps in contact, her kids stop in every day, but how long will that last? Eventually, their lives will return to normal, Their kids demand attention, sports, school activities, interfere, and she's left to fend for herself. 

How does one recover from such a loss? She's never worked, her husband didn't want her to, and at her age what kind of job could she get anyway? Does she even want to work? She's never had a hobby, never made friends outside of her family, she didn't need to she had him. He was her life. Since he retired, every waking moment was spent with him. Everything they did, they did together. He didn't have outside friends either, They had friends as a couple. Their life revolved around each other. 

We did so much together, cookouts, card games, just hanging out. We will miss that. But she will miss it more. I pray she finds some friends, some outlet to help her cope. a hobby, some interest that will help ease the pain as time goes on. Because, yes, life must go on. 

You can find all of my books at BWL 

Weird things happen after death by J.S. Marlo

 

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

I'm currently working on a sweet Christmas story. So far I haven't had to worry about time of death as no fresh body has landed in the snow around my heroine's country house. While I do not plan to kill anyone in my current work-in-progress, the same couldn't be said about my previous stories.

In an investigation, it helps to determine the time and cause of death. We've all heard the terms algor mortis, livor mortis, or rigor mortis, but what do they mean, and mostly importantly how and why do they occur?

Sooner or later, preferably later, we all die, but what  happens to our physical body between the time we die and the time we become dust or ashes?

 By nature, I'm a very curious person and I ask lots of questions. Sometimes, too many. If I'd pursued my degree in science instead of switching to accounting, I would have become a pathologist/medical examiner/coroner, so when I stumbled on an article about the weird things that happen after you die, I couldn't resist reading--and sharing.

- Your cells burst open

The process of decomposition starts just minutes after death. When the heart stops beating, we experience algor mortis, or death chill, when the temperature of the body falls about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit an hour until it reaches room temperature. Almost immediately, the blood becomes more acidic as carbon dioxide builds up. This causes cells to split open, emptying enzymes into the tissues, which start to digest themselves from within.

- You turn white — and purple

Gravity makes its mark on the human body in the first moments after death. While the rest of your body turns deathly pale, heavy red blood cells move to the parts of your body that are closest to the ground. This is because circulation has stopped. The results are purple splotches over your lower parts known as livor mortis. By studying the markings of livor mortis, the coroner can determine when the victim die and if the body was moved.

- Calcium makes your muscles contract

Rigor mortis is when a dead body becomes stiff and hard to move. Rigor mortis generally sets in about three to four hours after death, peaks at 12 hours, and dissipates after 48 hours. It is caused by the pumps in the membranes of our muscle cells that regulate calcium. When the pumps stop working in death, calcium floods the cells, causing the muscles to contract and stiffen.

- Your organs will digest themselves

Putrefaction follows rigor mortis. This phase is delayed by the embalming process, but eventually the body will succumb. Enzymes in the pancreas make the organ begin to digest itself. Microbes will tag-team these enzymes, turning the body green from the belly onwards. As this bacterium breaks us down, it releases putrescine and cadaverine, the compounds that make the human body smell in death.

- You may be covered in a wax

After putrefaction, decay moves quickly to turn the body into a skeleton. However, some bodies take an interesting turn on the way. If a body comes into contact with cold soil or water, it may develop adipocere, a fatty, waxy material formed from the bacteria breaking down tissue. Adipocere works as a natural preservative on the inner organs. It can mislead investigators into thinking a body died much sooner than it actually did.

- You will probably move

This last one sounds strange, and creepy, but apparently a body doesn't just twitch as it goes through the process of decomposition, it can move quite a lot...

Now, this was everything you probably didn't want to know about what happens after you die.

Happy Reading & Stay Safe

JS

Reference: Treehugger.com

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

YOU CAN'T ESCAPE THEM - DEATH, SEX AND TAXES - MARGARET TANNER

SEX, DEATH AND TAXES – MARGARET TANNER

Everyone has to pay taxes; no government on earth is going to let their citizens get away without paying taxes. Taxes on your salary, business tax, death taxes, you name it, they will tax it. Even the humble hamburger doesn't escape the clutches of the tax man.

In romance novels, we don’t talk about taxes. I don’t recall ever having read anything about tax collection.

Sex – yes in all its forms, sweet and tender, just a kiss or two. Hot and spicy, no shutting the bedroom door here, and the really hot stuff that Margaret Tanner doesn’t write. I do commend the talented authors who do, and pull it off so successfully in their erotic romances.

Death – In novels, I consider death to be a great tool in creating emotion and upping the drama. I don’t mean having the hero and heroine die, but the villains and secondary characters. Of course, near death experiences for heroes or heroines is always good.

I have been thinking about this in regards to my stories. I write historical fiction with romantic elements, so death is probably easier to include in these stories. Harder to justify in contemporary romance, unless it is some villain who is hell bent on harming the heroine and to save her life, he has to go.

In bygone days, death in childbirth was quite common. People died of snakebite/disease/illness because they were miles from medical assistance or could not afford to pay for it. Bank robbers, stage coach robbers, cattle rustlers etc. the sheriff could quite legitimately shoot these criminals down without fear of reprisal from their peers, or condemnation from the public.

In war, on the field of battle, soldiers die or are wounded, so we happily accept this in historical romance. We probably shed a tear or two for the gallant warrior and the staunch heroine who waits in vain for him to return. We wouldn’t throw the book against the wall because of this. We just sigh with contentment when another dashing soldier rides into the life of our heroine and she finally gets her happily ever after ending.

I have to confess that in all my novels there is some sex of the medium to hot variety and someone must die. Never a main character, of course, but someone invariably has to go, usually a baddie, but not always so.

As for taxes, I never mention the word in my novels unless it is to say – the heat became very taxing.

My Links:

http://www.margarettanner.com/

http://bookswelove.net/authors/tanner-margaret/

My novel, Falsely Accused, published by Books We Love, has recently won the Historical Section of the Easy Chair Writing Competition. Yes, there is a death or two in this story, but hey, the 1820’s were wild and violent days in a young colony.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEXEVES