If the immensely thorough Martin Beck was still active today, I imagine he might well have been involved in cases like this one:
Police in Finland believe they have caught a car thief from a DNA sample taken from a mosquito they noticed inside an abandoned vehicle.
Finding the car in Seinaejoki, north of Helsinki, police saw that the mosquito had recently sucked blood and decided to send the insect for analysis.
The DNA found from laboratory tests matched a man on the police register.
They arrested the guy, who claimed that he was “just hitch-hiking a lift with a man.” Right.
If I was writing a book of fiction involving a case like this, I wouldn’t make it so easy. In my book, the cops would find the mosquito, do the DNA test, match it with a former criminal on their database—and then find that he died five years ago. So how did the mosquito drink his blood? That would be a nice mystery to solve.
Hell, too many ideas, too little time. And there’s also this blog to maintain…
(Link via email from Anand.)