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Detective Jamboree 1/29/2015 7:40:58 AM
This post originally appeared on thunderalleybcp.com
A good detective is the key to any quality mystery story.
The detective is your guide through the feverish labyrinth constructed by the author. He or she presents the reader with all the clues necessary to untangle the problem at hand. And for those who can’t quite come up with the solution, the detective is there to provide it, wrapping up all the dangling threads.
Any literary detective tends to be observant and good at deductive reasoning. Usually a book detective will have an additional edge that elevates him or her beyond all the flatfoots running about.
Who are some of the most memorable detectives?
THE DETECTIVE: Sherlock Holmes
OCCUPATION: Consulting Detective
TRADEMARK: Britishness
TOOLS: massive IQ; literal precision; clever disguises; cocaine addiction; existential ennui
In his written adventures, the world’s most famous detective never seemed to actually don the cap and deerstalker that became his movie trademarks. Many Sherlock Holmes stories centered around the search for an intellectual puzzle thorny enough to momentarily rouse Holmes from his near-comprehensive torpor. Once on the hunt, Holmes could become surprisingly animated. He’d mix it up with a villain, plunge into the slums of London and don one outlandish disguise after another. Brazen crimes and Irene Adler seemed to be the only things to truly get his blood pumping. Some days he could barely work up the steam to cut Watson with a withering remark.
THE DETECTIVE: Kinsey Millhone
OCCUPATION: Private Investigator
TRADEMARK: Brashness
TOOLS: lockpicks; index cards; library access; harmless lies; disregard for strict legality
Being a P.I. in a medium-sized California town has its ups and downs. Kinsey Millhone has her productive and fallow periods, like any small business owner. With a mostly decent relationship with the local cops (only some of whom she’s dated), an inability to quit on a case, a sarcastic streak and a refreshing lack of vanity, Kinsey is pretty good at ferreting out hidden secrets. She’s old school, running down names in phone books and other public sources at her local library, before knocking on doors, sometimes pretending to be someone else. If her method has the unfortunate side effect of almost getting her killed a lot, her near 100% case clearance rate bears out her efficacy.
The former Belgian police inspector carved out a nice retirement as a celebrity crime-stopper in Jazz Age England. His exotic peculiarity was his ticket into the drawing rooms of London and the home counties. His affable manner and seeming harmlessness disarmed more than one suspect, many of whom were prone to underestimating the vain, fastidious little man. While everyone around him tended to freak out, Poirot had an admirable ability to remain calm. Indeed, he had a penchant for soothing necessary information out of skittish witnesses. Combined with his ability to see the often-subtle connections between random bits of observation, it’s no wonder he foiled more than one vile crime. And looked dapper every step of the way.
THE DETECTIVES: The Women’s Murder Club
OCCUPATIONS: Police Detective, Medical Examiner, Assistant D.A. and Crime Reporter
TRADEMARK: Unity
TOOLS: guns; scalpels; confidential informants; case law; margaritas; cancelled dates
San Francisco is a big, beautiful city. It also seems to be a favorite destination for serial killers. How else can a gang of justice-minded ladies like Lindsey, Claire, Yuki and Cindy fight evil but by tossing around ideas over a pitcher of frozen drinks? It’s not all nachos and margs, though. Two of them have been shot (and former member Jill went and got murdered), plus their loved ones have an unfortunate tendency to become collateral damage. But with heaping sides of gossip, romantic indecision and female bonding, the Women’s Murder Club has helped rid the Bay Area of its most violent psychos. They’re often too busy catching bad guys to be able to go on dates anyway.
THE DETECTIVE: Batman
OCCUPATION: Billionaire Industrialist; Superhero
TRADEMARK: Singlemindedness
TOOLS: cutting edge technology; stealth; grim determination; emotionally crippling childhood tragedy
What’s an insanely wealthy young heir to do after witnessing his parents’ brutal murders? Become a masked crusader for justice with a costume motif calibrated to scare the piss out of criminal weasels. With his day job as the owner of a massively successful multinational corporation, Bruce Wayne has access to all the tech he needs to analyze clues. Having trained in a wide array of disciplines, he can slip into just about anywhere to gather the info he needs. And if things go pear-shaped, he can almost always punch his way out. Though perhaps depositing all his adversaries in the same asylum for the criminally insane was not his best idea. Nor was his succession of pre-teen partners.
THE DETECTIVE: Miss Jane Marple
OCCUPATION: Spinster/Busybody
TRADEMARK: Propriety
TOOLS: tact; free time; extensive knowledge of domestic minutiae; inability to take a hint
For a small British town, Marymead certainly had more than its fair share of locals with a depraved, criminal streak. Since the local rogues usually targeted people close to them, the resident spinster who knew everything about everyone was a natural to look at the clues and figure out who had the best reason to want to kill someone. Her comprehensive knowledge of British domestic customs and mores dating back to the Norman Conquest might not have done her much good elsewhere, but in a provincial small town, it often helped her finger the perpetrator and still have tea served on time.
THE DETECTIVE: Sam Spade
OCCUPATION: Private Eye
TRADEMARK: Hardboiledness
TOOLS: guns; fists; a thick skull; extensive network of underworld contacts; functional alcoholism
If you think “hardboiled,” you have to think of Sam Spade. He traversed the Bay Area of The Depression and chased down leads from mooks, gangsters and stoolies who had info he needed. He’d hunt a murderer even if he didn’t especially care about the victim. Like, say, if the victim was his business partner and had a wife Spade wanted to bang. Recovery of rare and random objects d’art was not a problem. An extra-durable cranium came in handy, what with all the blows to the head the man seemed to take.
THE DETECTIVE: Kay Scarpetta
OCCUPATION: Medical Examiner
TRADEMARK: Seemliness
TOOLS: medical and legal degrees; forensic technology; stubbornness; powerful friends
As the medical examiner for Virginia and frequent member of multi-agency task forces, Kay Scarpetta often has found herself at the center of the hunt for a serial killer. In spite of her upper middle class bearing, she’s perfectly willing to comb through a grisly crime scene to turn up the minute bit of evidence that will bear crucial information from further examination. With contacts in local and national law enforcement, Kay has a tendency to identify brutal killers just before they strike again. Her workaholic tendencies are alleviated by the fact that being in a relationship with her is an almost guaranteed path to an unpleasant death. Her platonic cop buddy has somehow been spared.
THE DETECTIVE: Albert Campion
OCCUPATION: Gentleman Problem Solver
TRADEMARK: Irreverence
TOOLS: flexibility; creativity; social standing; lack of vanity; inexhaustible supply of college friends
Albert Campion, a rebellious aristocrat, made his way in the world as a “gentleman problem solver.” Nothing vulgar. While people had the unfortunate tendency to get dead in his general vicinity, he had a knack for preventing additional murders. He deployed a fatuous and inane manner to court underestimation. A nearly unflappable façade only occasionally cracked enough to show a real human being underneath. His aristocratic origins didn’t prevent him from consorting with the least savory criminals in the Greater London area. All the better to use them to stop more serious crimes.
THE DETECTIVE: Jessica Jones
OCCUPATION: Private Investigator; Occasional Superhero
TRADEMARK: Cynicism
TOOLS: surveillance; tenacity; murky ethics; super powers
After an unsuccessful stint as a costumed heroine, Jessica Jones decided that super strength and the ability to fly didn’t mean she had to be a hero. So she redirected her energies toward a seedy investigation business. She was good at finding people who didn’t want to be found and was especially useful at thorny problems from those in the super-powered community. Motherhood and marriage to Luke Cage brought her into the Avengers’ orbit. Currently she’s involved in a community supheroing/hero-for-hire sort of arrangement.
Spenser rarely went wrong in assuming the worst of the people who hired him. They might not have been guilty, but they usually were far less forthcoming than they could have been. Fortunately, Spenser’s old school approach meant he’d stick close to his subjects/targets until someone tried to kill them, then track them from there. It wasn’t the safest approach, but he turned out to be surprisingly hard to kill. A classy psychologist girlfriend, friendship with the toughest enforcer in the underworld, a surprisingly cordial rapport with the cops and the ability to whip up an award-worthy dinner out of scraps kept him on the winning side.
THE DETECTIVE: Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown
OCCUPATION: Child
TRADEMARK: Precociousness
TOOLS: magnifying glass; reference materials; police chief father; cloying morality
Yeah, Encyclopedia Brown was the kid that other parents pointed to and said “Why can’t you be more like him?” Perhaps he inherited some good observation skills and deductive instincts from his police chief father. Maybe he just liked being a know-it-all killjoy who ruined the fun everyone else was having. Maybe he needed therapy for his compulsive need to be right about everything. Fortunately, his buddy Sally kept him from getting his ass kicked as much as he probably deserved. Purloined marbles and stolen quarters would not remain missing for long with this annoying dweeb on the case. Was Bugs Meany the real villain here? Perhaps not.
