When the police look for a criminal, especially a murderer, they often ask witnesses for a description of the person they might have seen. As we all know, witness descriptions are notoriously inaccurate; sometimes, though, there is something distinctive about a person’s appearance that makes that person memorable. That’s one reason investigators ask about distinguishing features (e.g., tattoos). Investigators also use distinguishing features like tattoos, moles, and other features to identify victims who are found with no ID. And sometimes those features can be very helpful. Of course, in crime fiction, they can also be misleading…

Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Crooked Man begins as Sherlock Holmes comes to Dr. Watson’s surgery late at night to ask his help on a case. Colonel James Barclay, late of the Royal Munsters, has been murdered at his home, and his wife Nancy is suspected. From all appearances, the couple was devoted to each other, and there was no reason for her to kill her husband. However, the police haven’t found any other suspect. Holmes, though, has found evidence that someone else was there on the night of the murder. He also learns that not long before the murder, Nancy and a friend were coming home from a charity event when she was waylaid by a deformed – ‘crooked’ – man who seemed to know her. They spoke a few minutes, and then Nancy and her friend went on their way. It was after that conversation that there seemed to be an argument between the Barclays which, according to the police theory, led to the murder. Once Holmes hears of this man and his distinctive appearance, he puts together what the evidence tells him with the description, and he finds out the truth about Barclay’s death.

In Agatha Christie’s Lord Edgware Dies, Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings investigate the murder of the 4^th Baron Edgware. His wife, famous actress Jane Wilkinson, is the prime suspect, but she says she was at a dinner party on the night of the murder, and twelve people are prepared to swear that she was there. As Poirot is looking into this crime, he’s approached by famous actor Bryan Martin, a friend of Jane’s. Martin tells Poirot he’s being shadowed by a man with a gold tooth. He claims it’s been going on for a bit and asks if Poirot can find out who the man is and what he wants. Poirot asks him a few questions and agrees to look into the matter. It turns out that what Bryan Martin tells Poirot plays a role in the story, and it’s interesting to see how the man with the gold tooth fits in with the rest of the plot.

Peter Robinson’s Cold is the Grave sees Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Alan Banks caught in a difficult position. Emily Riddle has left home and gone missing. Her father, Chief Constable Jimmy Riddle, is devastated of course, and does what he can to try to find her. But his efforts aren’t successful until the day his son sees nude photos of her online. She’s changed her appearance, but she has a signature tattoo that makes her identifiable in the film. With that information, Riddle goes to Banks to ask him to find Emily. The difficulty for Banks is that Riddle has done his best to sabotage Banks’ career. So Banks is loathe to trust him. Still, this is a missing young woman, and Riddle is a father; Banks can appreciate that. So, he agrees to investigate, and finds himself drawn into a case that takes him to some of London’s seamiest places.

In Andrea Camilleri’s Wings of the Sphinx, the body of a young woman is found near a local landfill. She has no identification and no personal items with her, so it’s going to be hard to establish who she is. The only distinctive feature about her is a tattoo of a sphinx moth on her shoulder. Inspector Salvo Montalbano doesn’t know what the tattoo means, but he asks his friend Nicolò Zito, who works for a local television station, to broadcast a picture of it. Not long afterwards, Montalbano is able to connect the dead woman with a group of Eastern European women who’d come to Sicily to find work. That link helps Montalbano find out who the woman was and why and by whom she was killed. You’re right, fans of Gail Bowen’s The Wandering Soul Murders; tattoos figure into that story, too.

Sometimes a tattoo is especially helpful in identifying a person. That’s what happens in Anya Lipska’s Where the Devil Can’t Go. In one plot thread, Detective Constable (DC) Natalie Kershaw goes to the scene when the body of a young woman is pulled out of the Thames. The dead woman has no identification, but when Kershaw looks more closely, she sees a heart-shaped tattoo. It’s amateurish and doesn’t look like it was done locally. Kershaw also sees that there are two names enclosed in the heart: Pawel and Ela. It isn’t much to go on, but it’s an important start for Kershaw. Gradually, she learns that the dead woman might have been part of London’s Polish community. If so, Kershaw need a contact within that community. The best person for that is unofficial ‘fixer’ Janusz Kiszka. At first, neither trusts the other. But as they come to see that Kershaw’s case is probably related to a problem Kiszka is trying to solve, they learn to work together. In the end, they learn the truth.

Whether it’s a mole, a tattoo, or some other distinguishing feature, investigators find it much easier to identify victims and suspects if they have something to go on when they begin their search. And it’s surprising how much you can learn from those features.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Tom Petty’s Into the Great Wide Open.