I don't think we've done that one before. So many to choose from. Feel free to add your favorite stories, books, film or TV adaptations, too.
My choice is easily Sherlock Holmes, and my favorite story is "Silver Blaze," where the dog did nothing in the evening.
I love the 'hard-boiled' private eyes like Phillip Marlowe and Mike Hammer, along with the 'little gray cells' of Hercule Poirot, but Holmes will always be my favorite.
Harry Bosch is great. Titus Welliver is good playing the part in the Amazon Prime series based on the books.
Sherlock Holmes is the legend, I’ve read the books multiple times
Also a fan of Myron Bolovar & Win Lockwood from Harlan Coben’s books
Otherwise Arkady Renko
Or Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee from the New Mexico Series by Tony Hillerman. The books are steeped in one of my favorite places...the six hundred miles circumference around the Four Corners where New Mexico/Arizona/Colorado/Utah meet.
Agree on Bosch...terrific show.
Also Kurt Wallander...Swedish series that's also terrific and a BBC variation with Kenneth Branagh.
I liked Longmire (for the same reasons as the New Mexico series but set in Wyoming)
Not for everyone but I really liked that series
Haha, came back to this thread to ask the same thing.
Hope you are well jrud. Hang tough in tough times
Hope you are well jrud. Hang tough in tough times
Im embarrassed to admit it but as much as I read I only learned of the character from the movie, then went back and started going through the books. I was psyched to see just how big the series is.
And likewise, hope you and yours are safe.
Don't know if you'd consider him a detective, but Agent Pendergast is badass.
And Jake from "Chinatown"
I agree, Bill. The Smiley trilogy was exceptional. Walter Mosley's writing can sometimes do the same...not in the Easy Rawlins books, but especially in the 1st Socrates Fortlow book, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned.
Len Deighton's trilogy was pretty darn good too.
Maybe because it was part of a crazy lineup of awesome shows that had me skip class in college more often than not.
White Shadow
Magnum, PI
CHiPS
A-Team
then go to lunch - that was a typical day in college.
Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation...
Spade: What do you want me to do - learn to stutter?
There's a worldly blackinsh tone to the works, and the "methods d'emploi" is typically the same to solve each murder: dig into and understand the victim, and you will arrive at how and why and by whom the murder occurred.
Good stuff. Good food scenes too, if brief compared with the Nero Wolf series.
Bosch is great though.
Rockford Files? Probably the greatest PI show ever.
What separates Delaney from all the rest are his eating habits.
Before Delaney solves any of the Deadly Sins he must make himself a sandwhich which Sanders goes into great detail with regard to all the toppings and fixings.
Inevitably I must put the book down and fix myself something to eat before I can re-engage.
I almost always put on weight when reading about whatever Deadly Sin Chief Delaney resolves to solve
John Corey from the Nelson DeMille series.
Harry Bosch from the Michael Connelly series, which I'm working through now.
Bill2, you might enjoy Stallion Gate from Martin Cruz Smith. Some mystery, fact and fiction mixed in to your geographical preference.
What separates Delaney from all the rest are his eating habits.
Before Delaney solves any of the Deadly Sins he must make himself a sandwhich which Sanders goes into great detail with regard to all the toppings and fixings.
Inevitably I must put the book down and fix myself something to eat before I can re-engage.
I almost always put on weight when reading about whatever Deadly Sin Chief Delaney resolves to solve
I read The Case of Lucy Bending when I was a kid and loved the Edward X series. Did you happen to read his last book? I started but just couldn’t continue, very strange story line, disturbing really.
It's recommended to read the books in the order they were written, as you can see both the Character and the Author growing in sync with each other.
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I haven't read that one
I found them to be hard to put down type of stories.
I am getting hungry just thinking about them...
And Phillip Marlow in the Big Sleep.
Awesome movie.
“Then she tried to sit on my lap while I was still standing up”
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Another enjoyable read are the William Arrowood books written by Mick Finlay. There have only been two with the third soon to be released, but how can one not like a detective series with the tagline: "London Society takes their problems to Sherlock Holmes. Everyone else goes to Arrowood."?
Arrowood is the antithesis of Holmes, despises the great detective and has his own Watson & Lestrade to catch the bad guys.
Speaking of which can anyone point me in the direction of something similar? I feel like everyone else I tried is missing tremendous one liner quips like Demille can pull off. They always seem forced, or wrote by some dork.
Nero Wolf...old school quixotic genius by Rex Stout. PC snowflakes need not apply.
They are my two favorite literary detectives.
From film my all-time favorite is probably Elliot Gould as Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye. Such a great movie - couldn't recommend enough.
Philip Kerrs Bernie Gunther
Quote:
and his car
Rockford Files? Probably the greatest PI show ever.
Such a good show.
He is not to be confused, BTW, with the Siesta Key, Florida, writer John D. MacDonald, whose detective, Travis McGee, is also of the hard-boiled, flawed but incorruptible ilk.
Good call on Luther, brilliant show
I also like inspector Jules Maigret from the Georges Simenon stories.
Grew up reading and rereading the Holmes stories, still pull one off the shelf occasionally.
And of course Sam Spade. I've read the story and watched the movie often enough to practically recite the lines along with the actors.
He is not to be confused, BTW, with the Siesta Key, Florida, writer John D. MacDonald, whose detective, Travis McGee, is also of the hard-boiled, flawed but incorruptible ilk.
Yes, the two MacDonalds - always confusing which was which, but they're both good.
LOL Classic
Lots of good selections above. I'll throw in a few more:
1) Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher). Probably the best Supernatural detection series, there are multiple books, well written, and a great read!
2) Dirk Gently (Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)
3) Dr. R. Quincy, M.E., perhaps the first TV show to include hard forensic pathology science to solve crimes. Great show!
Speaking of which can anyone point me in the direction of something similar? I feel like everyone else I tried is missing tremendous one liner quips like Demille can pull off. They always seem forced, or wrote by some dork.
There's nobody quite like Corey, but you'd enjoy the Virgil Flowers character in the John Sandford books.
He's quirky and has his own ways of doing things.
I'm a big fan of both characters.
And agree about DeMille. He's on the downward slope.
Bosch is incredible. One of my favorite all time series
Nero Wolf...old school quixotic genius by Rex Stout. PC snowflakes need not apply.
They are my two favorite literary detectives.
Dresden deserves a +1
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I think he's lost some on his fastball recently. Does a tremendous amount of research on each book, so I learn a little bit as well, and he writes tremendous one liner quips.
Speaking of which can anyone point me in the direction of something similar? I feel like everyone else I tried is missing tremendous one liner quips like Demille can pull off. They always seem forced, or wrote by some dork.
There's nobody quite like Corey, but you'd enjoy the Virgil Flowers character in the John Sandford books.
He's quirky and has his own ways of doing things.
I'm a big fan of both characters.
And agree about DeMille. He's on the downward slope.
Thanks MOOPS, got plenty of time to read now, definitely going to check it out.