A Dictionary of Fictional Detectives
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Gumshoes: A Dictionary of Fictional Detectives Mitzi M. Burnsdale Greenwood Press GUMSHOES A Dictionary of Fictional Detectives Mitzi M. Brunsdale GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brunsdale, Mitzi. Gumshoes : a dictionary of fictional detectives / Mitzi M. Brunsdale. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0–313–33331–9 (alk. paper) 1. Detective and mystery stories—Bio-bibliography. 2. Detective and mystery stories—Stories, plots, etc. I. Title. PN3377.5.D4B78 2006 809.3'7209—dc22 2005034853 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright # 2006 by Mitzi M. Brunsdale All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005034853 ISBN: 0–313–33331–9 First published in 2006 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 For Anne Jones with love and thanks: You made this one possible. CONTENTS List of Entries . ix Preface . xiii How to Use This Book . xvii Introduction: The Ancestry of the Contemporary Series Detective . 1 The Dictionary . 33 Appendix A: Authors and Their Sleuths . 417 Appendix B: Detectives in Their Geographical Areas . 423 Appendix C: Historical Detectives Listed Chronologically . 429 Appendix D: Detectives Listed by Field of Employment . 431 Appendix E: Awards for Mystery and Crime Fiction . 437 Selected Bibliography . 441 Index.....................................................445 LIST OF ENTRIES The Adept (Sir Adam Sinclair) Ella Clah Irene Adler Elvis Cole Rachel Alexander Lily Connor Roy Angel Ben Cooper Carlo Arbati Lord Edward Corinth Owen Archer Frank Corso Jonathan Argyll Nic Costa Spencer Arrowood Dr. Alex Cross Jane Austen Adam Dalgliesh Alan Banks Isabel Dalhousie China Bayles Annie Laurance Darling Goldy Bear (Schulz) Lucas Davenport Martin Beck Inspector Jurrian DeKok Ursula Blanchard Gregor Demarkian Myron Bolitar Justin de Quincy Harry Bosch Peter Diamond Nicholas Bracewell Maisie Dobbs Dave Brandstetter Inspector Espinosa Sarah Decker Brandt Marcus Didius Falco Guido Brunetti Erast Fandorin Arthur Bryant and John May Kate Fansler Brother Cadfael Clare Fergusson Jenny Cain Sister Fidelma Steve Carella Sir John Fielding x n List of Entries Phryne Fisher Britt Montero Dame Frevisse Inspector Morse Sir Baldwin Furnshill Maureen O’Donnell Inspector Ghote Michael Ohayon Gordianus the Finder Gideon Oliver Liz Graham Monsieur Pamplemousse Cordelia Gray Charles Paris Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia Peter Pascoe and Andrew Dalziel Arly Hanks Amelia Peabody Colin Harpur Jimmy Pibble Dr. Tony Hill Joe Pickett Dido Hoare Anna Pigeon Isaac of Girona Thomas Pitt Cliff Janeway Stephanie Plum Benjamin January Mrs. Pollifax Richard Jury Jim Qwilleran Benjamin Justice Agatha Raisin Homer Kelly Mma Precious Ramotswe Irene Kelly Easy Rawlins Julian Kestrel Jack Reacher Duncan Kincaid John Rebus Deborah Knott Arkady Renko Tromp Kramer Dave Robicheaux Loretta Lawson Horace Rumpole Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Mary Russell Anna Lee Ian Rutledge Catherine LeVendeur Father ‘‘Blackie’’ Ryan Pharoah Love Charlie Salter Thomas Lynley Joe Sandilands Marti MacAlister Sano Ichiro Hamish Macbeth George Sansi John Madden Kay Scarpetta Kathleen Mallory Matthew Scudder The Mamur Zapt (Gareth Cadwallader Sara Selkirk Owen) Peter Shandy Kate Martinelli Shan Tao Yun Sister Mary Helen Rei Shimura Sharon McCone Jemima Shore Peter McGarr Kate Shugak Travis McGee Bill Slider Alex McKnight C.D. ‘‘Seedy’’ Sloan Bruce Medway Rabbi David Small Lord Meren Spenser Kinsey Millhone Hilary Tamar William Monk Jack Taylor List of Entries n xi Telemon the Physician Kurt Wallander Luke Thanet V.I. Warshawski Melanie Travis Reginald Wexford Perry Trethowan Holly Winter Anna Turnipseed The Women’s Murder Club Harriet Vane Aurelio Zen Emma Victor PREFACE Detective fiction could only flourish once public sympathy had veered round to the side of law and order. —Dorothy L. Sayers If Dorothy L. Sayers was right, an enormous sympathy—or longing—must exist today for law and order. ‘‘There are more people actively writing crime fiction today than there ever has been,’’ claimed mystery historian Mike Ashley in 2002 (xi), so there must be more people reading about more and more detectives—sleuths, snoops, cops, or hard-boiled PIs—who track criminals throughout a rapidly shrinking world. Proper, genteel spinsters and eccentric aristocrats still haunt British villages and manors, beleaguered cops man squad cars and computers, and tough private eyes roam America’s literary mean streets, but new crime fighters are rapidly joining them in brand-new ways. Contemporary police procedurals, still a major type of detective novel, are becoming noir indeed. Unexpected lead detectives, even a traditional-sized lady in Botswana, are making a go of private investigation; forensic scientists spare enraptured readers no grisly detail of scalpel, forceps, or bone saw; historical figures, real and fictional, from the Stone Age through the Age of Aquarius serve up new insights into eternal crimes; ethnic detectives open doors to faraway places and exotic cultures from the Navajo Reservation to mysterious Tibet; amateur sleuths rely on dogs, cats, birds, even a detecting computer and an incognito velociraptor; and ordinary folk become caught up in extraordinarily outrageous murder investigations. No matter how exotic the detectives, today’s audiences can’t seem to get enough of them. xiv n Preface Beneath the escapist appeal of detective stories, though, lie profound human de- sires: to replace chaos with order, to see that evil is punished, and to probe the mystery of wickedness in the hope of understanding it, and—just maybe—overcoming it. Like Dorothy L. Sayers many years earlier, mystery historian Bruce F. Murphy believes that contemporary detective fiction has grown so dramatically because ‘‘people like to read about what’s bothering them,’’ hence the current staggering proliferation in crime around the world, invading homes by television and the Internet. Murphy attributes ‘‘the emotional center of good mysteries’’ to ‘‘weakness of character and such failures of courage or surrender to temptation as can turn reasonably good men or women into criminals and at worst, murderers ...[and] the well-wrought crime story makes us aware of our intimate knowledge of the archetypal tempter and our horrified fascination with the figure of the fallen’’ (x–xi). These primal responses underlie the burgeoning popularity of today’s detective series fiction. Skyrocketing sales in all facets of the detective series subgenre—books, films, videos, DVDs—testify that series detection both whets and gratifies its readers’ ap- petites. Popular lead detectives usually evolve through highly complex ‘‘back stories,’’ divesting themselves of psychological veil after veil in novel after novel, attracting devoted readerships and producing reliable sales for authors and publishers. Today’s ‘‘incredibly selective’’ publishers are looking for ‘‘hooks’’ that make new authors promotable: off-the-beaten-path occupations and avocations, untapped territories, and cultic potential (Dahlin 27), and they’re getting them. Faced with shelves and catalogs full of the excellence and variety and sheer numbers of contemporary detective series, how can a reader spend his or her reading hours—more precious than dollars—wisely? Intended for general readers, this bio- graphical dictionary of 150 contemporary fictional detectives concentrates on helping readers, especially high school and college students, locate additional stimulating works by familiar contemporary favorites and discover exciting new authors. It also attempts to balance groundbreaking series, some with only a few books so far, against more traditional longer series, and relatively obscure but worthwhile series against widely advertised best sellers. ‘‘Contemporary’’ here indicates series mainly produced after 1970. The Introduction provides a brief history of the detective series genre, including both well-known and less familiar series detectives from the early 1800s to World War I; in the Golden Age between World Wars I and II; and the hard-boiled and procedural periods from the 1940s through the 1960s. At the end of the volume, four appendices arrange the 150 entries into authors and their sleuths (Appendix A); geographical areas (Appendix B); time periods (Appendix C); and detective’s field of employment (Appendix D). Appendix E lists the major literary awards in detective fiction. A Selected Bibliography of general critical and/or historical sources and a list of helpful online resources also appear at the end of the volume. Each biographical entry begins with a heading providing basic data about its detective or a collective sleuth: the character’s name(s); the detective’s profession (because many are crime-solving amateurs); his or her living situation, geographic locale, time period, associate(s), and where relevant, nemesis(-es); significant re- lationship(s); and societal and/or personal concern(s). The expository material that Preface n xv follows includes the author’s aim(s) for the series; a mini-psychological profile of the detective with reference to