Detectives A-Z

[DrNefario]

I've been toying with the idea of a crime fiction challenge based on an alphabetical list of the lead investigators' names - Alleyn, Bosch, Campion, Dalgliesh, etc. I have quite a lot of crime fiction in my TBR, and this seemed like it might be a fun way to get through some of it. But as with all alphabet-based lists, I'm completely stumped by X.

Does anyone know of a fictional detective whose surname/family name begins with X? The only thing I could come up with after a bit of googling, was a character in a Chinese TV series.

Am I going to have to write one, myself?

[4691mls]

stopyourekillingme.com has one character listed under x

http://stopyourekillingme.com/Charac...haracters.html
Angelique De Xavier: police officer in Glasgow, Scotland, by Christopher Brookmyre

I haven't read them, no idea if they're good.

[Penforhire]

How about Detective Xavier March from Robert Harris' "Fatherland?"

[DrNefario]

I've read a few Christopher Brookmyres - including, apparently, the first one featuring de Xavier - and liked them. That could be a good choice.

[Jozawun]

Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn in the Flynn books by Gregory McDonald.

[DrNefario]

It doesn't seem to be the surname, for March and Flynn.

(And I already seem to have M and F covered.)

[DrNefario]

In a stroke of pure good fortune, I found The Sacred Art of Stealing, the second Angelique de Xavier book (the first proper one, I reckon, since I don't remember her being the main character in A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away) in a charity shop today.

There are a few other tricky letters, but X was looking like the potential show-stopper, and now that's sorted I can figure out the rest of the list.

[Jozawun]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

It doesn't seem to be the surname, for March and Flynn.

(And I already seem to have M and F covered.)

It doesn't seem to be the surname for de Xavier, either.
But you could try Qui Xiaolong's Inspector Chen mysteries.

[4691mls]

I hope you'll post your final list of 26 characters once you've found them all!
And let us know if you find any unusual and interesting books for some of the rarer letters.

[DrNefario]

I thought I'd dig up my original thread for an update on where I am with my alphabetic detective challenge. I now have 24 of the 26 letters covered with strong possibilities for the last two that I just haven't picked up yet. Big thanks to 4691mls for the link to Stop You're Killing Me above, which was very useful.

I've read 5 of them so far. And 5 additional Agatha Christies that didn't count.

The rules are that the detective needs to be a lead investigator in a book-length work and must have appeared in more than one distinct story. So, a series detective. No sidekicks or minor characters. Collections are acceptable, even if it is the complete set of stories featuring that character (ie. they need to have appeared in more than one story, not necessarily more than one book).

Last year I decided to read a book by each of the four Queens of Crime - Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham. I expected all four to feature again this year, but my uncontrollable acquisition means I might actually have supplanted most of them.

Anyway, here's where I am:

A - John APPLEBY - Michael Innes - A recent acquisition as part of my current Golden Age fascination, bumping Ngaio Marsh's Alleyn off the list.
B - Martin BECK - Sjowall and Wahloo - Early Scandinavian crime. Already read.
C - Inspector COCKRILL - Christianna Brand - Another recent tatty Golden Age paperback, bumping Margey Allingham's Campion.
D - Adam DALGLIESH - P D James - I think this might be the oldest unread book I own. I need to put that right.
E - Frank ELDER - John Harvey - Apart from A, all of the vowels were quite tricky. I liked the sound of this one, and eventually found a cheap used paperback.
F - Gideon FELL - John Dickson Carr - Looking forward to this, from the reputed master of the locked room mystery.
G - Simeon GRIST - Timothy Hallinan - Something I downloaded as a freebie at some point.
H - Nikki HEAT - "Richard Castle" - A real book by a fictional character. One of the first books I bought for my Kindle, and I still haven't read it.
I - Cal INNES - Ray Banks - Not many choices for I, but this was available and competitively priced, and sounded interesting.
J -
K - Louie KNIGHT - Malcolm Pryce - One of the more fantastical premises. I read the first one last year and liked it.
L - Skip LANGDON - Julie Smith - A long series of freebies I have yet to start.
M - Kinsey MILLHONE - Sue Grafton - Seemed to fit the alphabetical theme, and I'd already bought it.
N - Ed NOON - Michael Avallone - A freebie I had lying about on my Kindle.
O -
P - Hercule POIROT - Agatha Christie - Already read.
Q - QUIRKE - Benjamin Black - Spotted this in the Reading Recommendations thread and it sounded interesting. Another used paperback.
R - Lincoln RHYME - Jeffery Deaver - Already read. Slick blockbuster CSI stuff.
S - Kate SHUGAK - Dana Stabenow - Already read. Another kindle freebie I already had.
T - Tom THORNE - Mark Billingham - Don't know much about this, but I seem to have bought a boxed set of paperbacks from a remainder bookstore. One is never enough. And I apparently couldn't wait for R Austin Freeman's Thorndyke to go out of copyright in the UK in January. (Guess I'd better try to read one this year...)
U - Harriet UNWIN - Evelyn Hervey - Pseudonym for HRF Keating. Another tricky vowel, saved by a cheap, interesting-sounding ebook.
V - Johanne VIK - Anne Holt - I've got quite a few options for V, as it happens, but I think the Scandinavian school is under-represented at the moment.
W - Lord Peter WIMSEY - Dorothy L Sayers - Until very recently, I was looking for something else to replace Wimsey, since the next book I had was not the next book in the series, but I managed to plug the gap last weekend. I'm still considering Nero Wolfe and VI Warshawski, though.
X - Angelique de XAVIA - Christopher Brookmyre - Already read. X was very nearly a showstopper.
Y - Li YIN - Peter May - I'm still not 100% sure this is going to be acceptable because of the ordering of Chinese names. I guess I'll find out when I read it.
Z - Miss ZUKAS - Jo Dereske - Another freebie, although I may yet decide to fork out for the first one in the series.

So, it's O and J I'm still missing at the moment. I have some strong possibilities, which are available as ebooks at a decent price, but there's no real urgency. It still bugs me a bit to have those letters empty, though.

They're all subject to change except the ones I've already read.

[speakingtohe]

Richard Jury - Martha Grimes
Joseph O'Loughlin - Michael Robotham
Maggie O'Dell - Alex Kava

Helen

[DrNefario]

Maggie O'Dell is one of the ones I'm considering for O. I've seen several copies of the first book in charity shops, but they always seem a bit battered, so I'm holding out for a better copy or a good offer on the ebook.

[Taike]

Li = family name

Yun = given name

[DrNefario]

Thanks. That's what I feared. I guess I'd better reopen nominations for Y.

[DrNefario]

I bought the last book I need for the list today, a used paperback of A Perfect Evil by Alex Kava, giving me Maggie O'DELL for O.

My replacement for Y was Jane YEATS by Liz Brady, and I went for Barbara Hambly's Ben JANUARY for J. I got both of those from kobo with some of the recent coupons.

I'm reading the tenth book right now, so there's an outside chance I might finish the challenge next year, depending on what else I decide to do.