20 Favorite Fictional Detectives

Recently, someone asked me who my favorite fictional characters have been. Many of them were detectives, mysteries being my main source of entertainment. So below is my very subjective listing of favorite fictional detectives:

1 and 2. The Bobbsey Twins and Encyclopedia Brown. These were among the first books I remember reading, and they’ve influenced many a mystery lover.
3. Sherlock Holmes. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887, this detective is timeless. He still captures our imaginations, as can be seen by the current-day reincarnations (Robert Downey Jr. on the big screen and Benedict Cumberbatch in the current PBS series) and inspirations (the TV series House). There are many Holmes purists, but I like to see even the modern-day adaptations.
4. Inspector Morse. Colin Dexter wrote 13 novels, but mostly we know Morse through the TV series, and the late actor John Thaw. Even Colin Dexter admits that Thaw became, for him, Morse. Intellectually snobbish, pig-headed, often sharp with underling Lewis, and always unlucky in love, Morse was redeemed by his great intellect, humor and moments of vulnerability.
5. Inspector Robbie Lewis and DS James Hathaway. A spinoff from Morse, Insp. Lewis is more down-to-earth, working-class, but with a sharper edge in the new series, following the murder of his wife. Hathaway, tall and good-looking, is the intellectual here, but without the snobbery. It’s become one of my favorite PBS shows.
6. Insp. John Rebus. Ian Rankin’s creation is smart -- and smart-alecky. His demons are alcohol and women (divorced, and also often unlucky in love). Like Morse, he’s unorthodox and always battling his bosses. And like Morse, he’s also a loner and strangely vulnerable. Rankin retired him after 17 books in Exit Music. He’s been portrayed by John Hannah and Ken Stott on TV, but neither really seemed like Rebus to me. In this case, the books are definitely better.
7. Insp. Adam Dalgliesh. Ah, the poet-detective from New Scotland Yard, the silent but sensitive man. P.D. James created him in 1962 with Cover Her Face. In 2008, James, now 90, wrote what may be her last Dalgliesh novel, The Private Patient. The slowly-aging Dalgliesh is now facing retirement and married. Originally portrayed by Roy Marsden on TV, Martin Shaw took over the role later -- and, to my mind, is Dalgliesh.
8 and 9. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Some may criticize Agatha Christie for weak characterization, but she did give us two of the most well-known and well-loved detectives: private investigator Poirot, a retired Belgian police officer living in London (first seen in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920) , and amateur detective Jane Marple, the elderly spinster of St. Mary Mead (first seen in The Murder at the Vicarage, 1930). David Suchet has long portrayed Poirot on TV, and now it’s hard to picture anyone else. Miss Marple has been played by many actresses, most notably Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie.
10. DCI Jane Tennison. This ITV production (Prime Suspect) featured Helen Mirren portraying a tough-as-nails detective who often put work before family, and who slid into alcoholism as the series progressed. So well acted by Mirren, Tennison almost doesn’t seem fictional. The series is said to have served as inspiration for The Closer in the U.S.
11. Adrian Monk. Portrayed by Tony Shalhoub on the USA Network, this obsessive-compulsive private eye was funny -- and also heart-breaking, as a lonely former San Francisco police detective who now worked on his own. His two aims in life: find out who killed his wife and return to the police force. A wonderful cast backed Shalhoub: assistants Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram) and Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) and Lt. Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford). I still miss this show.
12. Spenser. The character created by Robert B. Parker in his books came to TV with Robert Urich. I liked the books, but I really loved the TV series. Spenser is the detective you would want to date: tough and good-looking, but a gourmet cook who can quote poetry. Alas, he already had a girlfriend.
13. V.I. Warshawski. This Chicago private detective, created by Sara Paretsky, is tough, independent and no-nonsense. A little grittier than some other female detectives, and maybe a little harder to love.
14. Kinsey Milhone. In some ways, a cousin to Warshawski, although not as tough. The California detective is smart, athletic, principled -- and only owns one good dress, a black number she can scrunch up in her purse and still wear. At least Kinsey (written by Sue Grafton) has stopped giving herself haircuts.
15. Kate Shugak. Another tough woman, she’s a native Alaskan (Aleut) created by Dana Stabenow. Shugak, once an investigator for the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office, now works alone and finds herself in all sorts of situations, going undercover on a fishing boat and posing as an old field worker.
16. Samantha Kinsey. Ok, this TV detective is really light-weight, but I was hooked on the show (Mystery Woman on Hallmark) nonetheless. I could see myself as Samantha (though she was probably better portrayed by Kellie Martin): a murder mystery buff who owns a bookstore and whose hobby is photography. And, of course, always happening upon a situation where she could sleuth. Nothing that good ever happens to me. Maybe if I owned a bookstore?
17. Lt. Columbo. There were no whodunits in these TV shows -- as viewers, we knew who the killer was -- but it was still great to see the seemingly-bumbling but really-brilliant Columbo (Peter Falk) solve the case.
18. Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. I saw the TV series (Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton) before every picking up one of Rex Stout’s books, and it was a case of a TV series influencing me to later read some of the books. Nero is an overweight gourmand who pays more attention to his orchids than to people, but can solve a case without even leaving his brownstone. He has his assistant, Archie, for all the legwork. The A&E series is said to have closely followed the books.
19. Aimée Leduc. Now here’s a female P.I. quite different from the others I’ve mentioned. For one thing, she lives in Paris and dresses in vintage Channel and Dior, even wearing high heels while chasing bad guys (or being chased). But she’s tough in her own right. Created by Cara Black, Leduc is half-American, half-French (there’s also a mystery surrounding her mother). She has a great sidekick in René Friant, a dwarf and computer expert.
20. Leroy Jethro Gibbs and the rest of the NCIS cast. One of the best TV shows today -- underrated, in my opinion. Great characters, great mystery story lines, a dark undercurrent, yet with lots of humor. This really is an ensemble cast, although Gibbs (Mark Harmon) is at the heart of it.

Who are your favorite fictional detectives?

Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin

Protagonist: Det. Insp. John Rebus
Setting: Edinburgh
Rating: 4.5


In this, the sixth novel in the Rebus series, Rankin really gets things humming along. Rankin, who has said before that he’s tried to show the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Edinburgh, gives us the touristy Edinburgh Festival – and a murder right underneath the noses of festivalgoers. Literally. A young man’s body is found in the underground St. Mary’s King Close, tortured and shot six times.

When it seems that Scottish nationalists and extreme hardline Irish groups are involved, Rebus is seconded to the elite Scottish Crime Squad, since he’s had previous army experience in Belfast. This suits Rebus just fine – he can travel between the two offices without his superiors knowing what he’s really up to. In the meantime, Rebus, as a favor to a priest, has also ventured into the Gar-B, a notorious housing project in Edinburgh. These two threads tie eventually. Also making an appearance is Rebus’ nemesis, “Big Ger” Cafferty, an effective alter ego for Rebus.

Along the way, there are a few more murders and Rebus serves as a punching bag for almost everyone – the bad guys, the good guys (a fellow police officer) and a lawyer with whom he’s unwisely flirted, even though he’s living with Dr. Patience Aitken.

A very good entry in a great series.

The Black Book by Ian Rankin

Protagonist: John Rebus
Setting: Edinburgh
Rating: 4.6

How can you not like a book in which the first line of Chapter 1 is: "It all happened because John Rebus was in his favourite massage parlour reading the Bible."

Much happens to Rebus in this book, the least of which is a nice relaxing massage. He's thrown out by his live-in girlfriend, Dr. Patience Aitken, so he moves back into his own flat. But because he's been renting it to students, Rebus ends up on the couch. Even a small storage room is being used -- his brother, a former drug dealer, has just moved into the apartment, as well.

Professionally, one of his detectives, Brian Holmes, is beaten up badly while he's unofficially investigating a 5-year-old murder and fire at the Central Hotel. Rebus gets hold of Holmes' black book, filled with notes of the investigation, and starts to look into it himself, bringing more problems his way. Not only is Rebus dealing with the bad guys on the outside, but within his own department there are those who are out to discredit and thwart him.

This fifth book in the series also introduces Detective Constable Siobhan Clarke, an important character in the series. And Morris Gerald Cafferty, a major antagonist throughout the books, plays a big part in the book. I've liked the previous books, but with this one, the Rebus series seriously starts to ramp up.

Rankin -- and maybe another Rebus?

The last author to speak to our group was also the biggest name in mystery writing in the U.K.: Ian Rankin, a funny, engaging speaker (shown here with tour guide Ros Hutchison). We'd studied Rankin and his first book, Knots and Crosses, before meeting him -- a book very much inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (which, while set in London, is really modeled on Edinburgh). In this first book, we have Rebus, a character who has involuntary flashbacks and doesn't allow himself to explore his consciousness, therefore "hiding" himself, as our study leader Carol Kent describes it. Both books have a deeply flawed character with a dark side, and both feature young girls as victims. In Knots and Crosses, the plot even converges at a gothic library.

If you read Knots and Crosses with Jekyll and Hyde in mind, you get that right away. But reviewers of that first book didn't, prompting Rankin to write a second book: Hide and Seek, the title hammering home the point. "We all have a mix of good and bad," Rankin told us at a lunch at the Scottish Book Trust in Edinburgh. "As P.D. James says, we're all capable of murder."

Some other tidbits from Rankin:

"There are two things I like about being an author: You are omniscient and omnipotent. You have the power of life and death over your characters. At the same time, as well as being godlike, you are childlike...you are still playing pretend."

Rankin calls himself an "accidental crime writer," not having meant to write a crime novel when he first started, although he wrote in his notes for that first book that "the hero may be a cop." Now, he loves writing in this form: "I love the sense of pace, a strong pacing narrative. I love the games you can play with the reader, that questions are answered. You get a comfort from that which you don't get from real life."

Although readers like to think Rankin is like Rebus, "Rebus is not at all like me," Rankin says. "I'm a wishy-washy liberal. Every book is an internal argument between us [himself and Rebus]....He's horrible Mr. Hyde so I can be nice Dr. Jekyll."


What is said to be the final Rebus novel was published this week in the U.K.: Exit Music, which immediately climbed to No. 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list. Scottish detectives must retire by the age of 60, and Rebus has reached this age in the books. However, cold case detectives can be older, and Rankin left the possibility open of someday returning to either Rebus or Siobhan (Rebus' younger female partner). Saying he had several other projects in the work, Rankin added that "it may be a couple of years before I can go back to [Rebus] with a blank slate, and see if I can do anything with Rebus of Siobhan."

So who knows -- we may not have seen the last of Rebus.