Women’s Murder Club book features Valley man

The co-author would e-mail
technical arson questions at night.

By PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — Imagine reading a fast-paced Women’s Murder Club book and there you are, the novel’s arson investigator.

As the jacket of James Patterson’s “7th Heaven” explains, the club pursues two cases — “chasing a deranged killer and searching for a murderer with a taste for fire.”

The seventh book in the popular series set in San Francisco features a homicide detective, medical examiner, assistant district attorney and reporter — all women. It is co-authored by Maxine Paetro.

“Chuck Hanni was an arson investigator, one of the best,” is the introduction readers get in Chapter 17 to a prominent character. In reality, Hanni is a Mahoning Valley resident; in the book, he works in San Francisco.

Hanni’s character has “fine black hair,” so a little dye job will be necessary if he’s asked to play his character in the ABC-TV series “Women’s Murder Club.”

Hanni, a 49-year-old Ohio state fire marshal investigator, told The Vindicator he has “going gray” blond hair.

As a state investigator, Hanni has a territory that skims the Pennsylvania border — Columbiana, Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties. He’s investigated more than 60 fatal fires.

His inclusion in the book sprang from a referral Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, Trumbull County forensic pathologist, made more than a year ago to Paetro, who needed to call on the expertise of an arson investigator.

Dr. Germaniuk has served as technical adviser for five Patterson-Paetro novels and appeared in “The Sixth Target” as San Francisco’s deputy chief forensic pathologist.

“Chuck and I have worked numerous arsons. He’s meticulous, thorough, he leaves no stone unturned,” Dr. Germaniuk said. “We have a lot of talent here in the Mahoning Valley, dedicated public servants like Chuck.”

Dr. Germaniuk said he reads the Patterson manuscripts and proofs them.

“I keep the forensics straight; that’s my passion,” he said. “There’s so much schlock on TV shows. You can educate through an entertaining novel. We don’t use bullets made out of ice — authors look for solid forensics.”

Hanni said Paetro, whom he arranged to meet at an arson seminar, would e-mail him technical questions at night and he’d respond with the answers. The process, he said, was a lot of fun, and he got to read the book as it developed.

“Maxine asked how we determine the origin of a fire, how we determine if it was intentionally set, the rate of fire growth, how someone could set up a homicide using fire as a weapon, and she wanted descriptions, like what the scene smelled like,” Hanni said. “I don’t know how I became a character, but I did.”

Hanni said it was a honor to be recommended by Dr. Germaniuk and “kind of unique” to be a character in a book — “it’s in print forever.”

Two of Patterson’s Alex Cross detective thrillers, “Along Came a Spider” and “Kiss the Girls” were made into films starring Morgan Freeman.

meade@vindy.com