Who are your FAVORITE SLEUTHS?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Lin2412

I can only name Sherlock Homes and he's one of my favorite and most loved literary figures of all time. I haven't heard of the other sleuths mentioned here at all. The only sleuth I've grown up reading is Nancy Drew and I don't even think most people would consider her at all.

You've honestly never heard of "Hercule Poirot" or "Miss Marple"? I find that very surprising.

[Lin2412]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You've honestly never heard of "Hercule Poirot" or "Miss Marple"? I find that very surprising.

I'm sorry I just remembered them. Hahaha. They didn't occur to me when I first noticed the thread though. But there really are a lot of surprising things, I have a friend who was just introduced to Sherlock when we were in college. I also know of another person who has never heard and seen The Titanic. That was the most unexpected thing I've ever heard from anyone.

[ReneAZ]

So many new writers to check out. Glad I saw this thread.

My favorites writers lately are:

Dorothy Gilman (Mrs. Pollifax series)
Archer Mayor (Joe Gunther)
CJ Box (Joe Pickett)
Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs)
Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache)
Peter Robinson (Inspector Alan Banks)

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by ReneAZ

So many new writers to check out. Glad I saw this thread.

My favorites writers lately are:

Dorothy Gilman (Mrs. Pollifax series)
Archer Mayor (Joe Gunther)
CJ Box (Joe Pickett)
Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs)
Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache)
Peter Robinson (Inspector Alan Banks)

Looking at your list you may also enjoy:
Martin Walker (Bruno, Chief of Police) Goodreads link:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/sho...ersion=service

Donna Leon (Commissario Brunetti) GR link:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/sho...ersion=service

[4691mls]

Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q series - Danish police detective Carl Mork, banished to "department Q" in the basement of the police station, assisted by quirky Rose and Assad, initially hired as a janitor, who has a mysterious past in the Middle East.

Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May series - Bryant and May are elderly detectives leading the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London. A few of the stories are set in their younger days, most are present-day. If you enjoy eccentric characters and a gentle sense of humor, you may like these. Sort of a cross between a cozy and a police procedural.

[ReneAZ]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Looking at your list you may also enjoy:
Martin Walker (Bruno, Chief of Police) Goodreads link:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/sho...ersion=service

Donna Leon (Commissario Brunetti) GR link:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/sho...ersion=service

I am familiar with these two also and really enjoy them! Didn't happen to think of them at the time, but I too recommend them as well.
Thanks for reminding me
(so many good ones out there, aren't there?)

[Pulpmeister]

Aaron Elkins' Gideon Oliver, the bone detective. I've read most. The first is more of a thriller, then the series settles into forensic whodunits, and travels the world-- central America, Egypt, Italy, Gibralter, England, France. Anywhere were forensic anthropologist Oliver finds old bones which (usually) turn out to be new.

Arthur Upfields "Boney" series.

I add my vote to Inspector Montalbano, and the TV series is great too. The books are actually written in Sicilian, with some Italian, and the comic relief character speaks a sort of bastard Sicilio-Italian jargon, fondly imagining he's speaking proper Italian, a type well recognised in Sicily. The translation (by a Sicilian speaker) does extremely well in my opinion. (I'm pleased to see a new short TV series of Montalbano has been made and is about to start here in Australia, subtitled of course.)

The Aurelio Zen series is good, too; and the locations which appear in the books are real. There is one story with the body dumped on a walled island in the Venetian lagoon, and yep, that island is exactly as described. I was put off for a long time by the improbable surname, thinking it made up; but apparently it's a real Venetian surname. So close to the Balkans, not all Venetian names sound Italian.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

I add my vote to Inspector Montalbano, and the TV series is great too. The books are actually written in Sicilian, with some Italian, and the comic relief character speaks a sort of bastard Sicilio-Italian jargon, fondly imagining he's speaking proper Italian, a type well recognised in Sicily. The translation (by a Sicilian speaker) does extremely well in my opinion. (I'm pleased to see a new short TV series of Montalbano has been made and is about to start here in Australia, subtitled of course.)

A constant complaint of a friend of mine, a Sicilian who runs a restaurant in the village where I live, is that the characters in the TV series don't actually speak Sicilian, but "standard" Italian.

[Pulpmeister]

Yes, the series is obviously made for Italian TV, and "standard Italian" is really the only dialect understood all over the country. If you had, say, a Piedmontese and a Sicilian, who spoke only their native dialects, trying to hold a conversation, it would be fun to watch. A truly authentic Sicilian language version would have tiny ratings methinks. I know there have been grumbles that the actor playing Montalbano isn't Sicilian.

(One of the minor joys of a recent trip to Italy was watching an episode of NCIS dubbed into Italian. Quite credibly, too.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

Yes, the series is obviously made for Italian TV, and "standard Italian" is really the only dialect understood all over the country. If you had, say, a Piedmontese and a Sicilian, who spoke only their native dialects, trying to hold a conversation, it would be fun to watch. A truly authentic Sicilian language version would have tiny ratings methinks. I know there have been grumbles that the actor playing Montalbano isn't Sicilian.

(One of the minor joys of a recent trip to Italy was watching an episode of NCIS dubbed into Italian. Quite credibly, too.)

My friend likes the spin-off series, "The Young Montelbano", better, because the actor who plays the title role in that is Sicilian .

I very much enjoy the TV series. I really must read the books; I have a few of them I've picked up in Kindle Daily Deals, including an omnibus edition of the first four books in the series, but I've not yet read any of them.

[Apache]

My wife's family is Italian and from the Naples area. They speak a very obscure Dialect.
Apache

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Apache

My wife's family is Italian and from the Naples area. They speak a very obscure Dialect.
Apache

I would hazard a guess that they speak Neapolitan, which is a distinct language, not mutually understandable to an Italian speaker.

[Apache]

They were from the general area and not from Naples itself so I am not sure what they actually spoke. They always said it was a dialect spoken in their area.
Her father's family used to send money back to support a church in the small town they were from. Then when they went to visit they found out they were being scammed. The priest was a con man.
Apache

[Treven]

Mine would be Kay Scarpetta, Win Garrano and Andy Brazil by Patricia Cornwell; Scotty Bradley by Greg Herren, and several from John Morgan Wilson.

[Froide]

Many on my fave sleuths are named above. Newer faves are Marcus Didius Falco, his adopted daughter Flavia Albia, and Ruth Galloway.