a dialogue I would like to start on this platform is Favorite Fictional Detectives
I grew up in a Poirot household but fell deeply in love with Albert Campion at a formative young age and I am also forever proselytizing to anyone who will listen about the Richard Jury books by Martha Grimes
I grew up in a Poirot household but fell deeply in love with Albert Campion at a formative young age and I am also forever proselytizing to anyone who will listen about the Richard Jury books by Martha Grimes
Comments
I was there when she made the jump from fanfic to original, and her boys are a delight
all of you have immaculate taste and everyone swapping rec lists has delighted me
1) “does X count?” the answer is always yes, there are no rules, I just want you to sell us on what you like
2) thank you all for reminding me how much I loved Encyclopedia Brown
3) RED HOT TAKE: “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” is top of my Crime Noir With Angsty Romance list
Lupin (Diop) is my favorite ongoing TV show. The character is supernaturally clever and relentless, yet warm and human in a way that book Lupin hasn't been IME.
I devoured those book, even as I ranted back at them about several things.
Someone needs to sit those folks down for a frank talk about polyamory.
Beyond that, there’s an excellent Mary Russel series (by Laurie R. King) that has Sherlock as a side character! It takes place (canonically) after the Sherlock stories.
This man's codename?
Looker
A bespectacled, unfailingly polite version of Colombo, in my mind, from a long-running tv series called "Aibō" (or Aibou), "Partners".
Also, his "signature" - "Mō hitotsu dake"; "Just one more thing" - !! *swoon* He is the best teacher!
She's the adventurous person I aspire to be, and she wins because she has the right friends. And she's ditzy. I love her so much
Mine was Nate the Great, not sure many here would know it 🤓
However, going to court the ire of many and say I really enjoyed Kenneth Branagh's Poirot.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/6073/amanda-cross/
Walt Longmire - Craig Johnson. The books are FUNNY, I have no idea what went wrong with the TV series.
Also Flavia de Luce, from Alan Bradley's books (Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie)
Prof. Gervase Fen by Edmund Crispin (mostly the first four books)
Wimsey, of course.
The Thursday Murder Club
Will think on it more, I know that isn't all.
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/amelia-peabodys-egypt-elizabeth-peterselizabeth-peterskristen-whitbreadkristen-whitbread?variant=41143390830626
(Apologies if someone has already mentioned these.)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3260
I’m quite a fan of Oliver Clark - The Wizard Detective. He’s pretty neat.
*cough*
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-1OrM9Rb0G8SXSTF61CVvHEwIqoo7rM4&si=Qn43xQy13q622VkX
Arriving
On
The
Scene
A series by Louise Penny
I was fortunate to be able to listen to audiobooks at work for over a decade, and read lots!
So funny.
Comics: Eel O’Brien (Plastic Man), Ralph and Sue Dibny (the Elongated Man and Wife), The Flash (Barry Allen specifically), The Question (either Vic Sage or Renee Montoya), John Constantine, Lois Lane (investigative journalism counts!), and all the Robin’s and Batgirls.
Partly for the love of language, partly for love of eating and cooking, partly for the banter, and partly for the historical view of the US if you read the entire series, which covers the 30s through the 70s. Wonderful package all told.
https://library.bc.edu/exhibits/2019/10/golden-spiders/
Harry Dresden
Ilona Andrews
Lisa Shearin
Seanan Mcquire
Patricia Briggs
Lawrence Block
Donna Andrews
Lindsey Davis
Faith Hunters Soulwood
And older 70s series called Banacek
There was an essay I read about the specific use of the Latin: at the beginning of GN he expects her to say no, but by the end it’s yes.
I have lured k1 into reading Sayers. I have not respected boundaries in that I have snuck into rooms and deposited Lord Peter books on bedside tables.
Peter Wimsey is a comic character, largely because of his ridiculous dialogue, but with Harriet Vane, esp in ‘Gaudy Night’, the sexual tension is intense
Besides that, Shawn Spencer and Columbo are pretty far up the list.
Stuart Palmer (author )
Hildegard Withers
Craig Rice (author)
John J Malone
Delano Ames(author)
Jane &Dagobert Brown
The whole screwball series by C. & G. Little
They were married a year later and happily traded mysteries back and forth until my mother died several years ago.
- Erast Fandorin (by Boris Akunin)
- Simon Brenner (by Wolf Haas)
(English translations are available)
I also like Lynley and Havers, which is a bit annoying because I don't enjoy Elizabeth George's writing outside of them.
2. Horace Rumpole
3. Bernie Gunther, although I had to stop reading those around 2015 (historic echoes and all)
TV
- Miss Eliza Scarlet from Miss Scarlet (PBS)
- Jimmy Perez from Shetland (BBC)
- Charlie Cale from Poker Face (Peacock)
Book
Veronica Speedwell
I grew up on Columbo and The Rockford Files. I still want a gender swap Simon and Simon reboot.
I loved Scott and Bailey. Loch Ness was only 6 eps and Laura Fraser is always excellent. Oh and Ripper Street is outstanding.
Both Toby and Juno have found family, plus a troubling penchant for self-sacrifice and getting in over their heads.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, set on the moon in a time where humans are trying to get along with aliens and not doing too great.
https://kriswrites.com/order-kriss-retrieval-artist-series/the-retrieval-artist-series-in-order/
They're not pure SF mysteries, but I think Murderbot acts as a detective often enough for its books to count.
https://youtu.be/INiC-1G1cmU?si=9Lmw8JCZjkEBKhBu
https://jacquelinewinspear.com
Andrew Cartmel's Vinyl Detective series is pretty good (not quite a detective, but not not one)
as is the Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London series (magic and that, along with police detective-ing)
Top 3 (in no particular order):
- Jessica Fletcher
- Columbo
- Encyclopedia Brown
Either Data's version of Sherlock Holmes in various episodes of STTNG -
Or the kids in "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler".
But my FAVORITE favorite is, of course, the inimitable Miss Phryne Fisher.
And tomato sandwiches.
First appearance in "The Honjin Murders": https://search.worldcat.org/fr/title/1109168817
(Slightly to the side of your prompt, yes.)
I am but a neophyte... Totally taking notes here.
Nero Wolf
Travis McGee
Inspector Gamache
Miss Marple
Tom Thorne
Dave Robicheaux
plus so many more
All of them!!!
TV: Adrian Monk (Monk), Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks)
Film: Benoit Blanc (Knives Out/Glass Onion)
Video Game: DuBois & Kitsuragi (Disco Elysium)
If Albert Campion was gay, and instead of an ex-con employee, his sidekick is a former WWI trench fighter with trust issues. Set in a book store!
Glorious 20s fashions!
International crime syndicate!
and (unlike Campion) Sex!
And oh god, the opening paragraph of Vanished Child. My favorite opening of any book ever, even more than Tristan Shandy and Moby Dick.
It’s a vanished world, but was modern when written.
His widow was Jane Haddam/Orania Papazoglou, author of the Gregor Demarkian series.
My favorite now would have to be a tie between Mary Russell and Phryne Fisher.
my parents loved those books
Allingham’s narrative style is so good and it’s particularly luminous in that one
(Actually, I don't know why, but so many of my favorite sleuths are clergy! You've got your Father Brown, your Brother Cadfael, even your Rabbi Small as long as you skip the Monday book...)
http://coraharrison.com/category/reverend-mother-series/?doing_wp_cron=1729469808.7775070667266845703125
I mean Wimsey obviously but who doesn't love him?
Dana Stabenow’s Kate Shugak (set in Alaska)
Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie (UK)
Also a big fan of Poirot and Marple, as well as Inspector Morse, Columbo, and Cadfael. I keep meaning to read Maigret, my Dad very much enjoyed them.
I have them all on DVD but nothing beats when I was a kid and the fam would watch Columbo episodes on VHS that my parents recorded off the TV from reruns in the 80s
iconic