Not sure where to go next with your crime novel? Sunday Times bestseller and former police inspector Clare Mackintosh answers your questions on law, forensics and procedure.
Q Am I right in thinking that the use of the word ‘detective’, both as a form of address (eg ‘what are you doing, detective?’) and in a character’s name eg ‘...said detective Smith’) is purely an Americanism and would not be appropriate in a UK-based story?
Peter Corbett, Frome