Who are your FAVORITE SLEUTHS?

[wsbutler]

by Charlie Huston. Very different from Henk Grijpstra and Rinus de Gier.

[DMcCunney]

Lieutenant Tromp Kramer of the Trekkersburg, South Africa Murder and Robbery Squad, and his assistant, Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi, in a series by James McClure.

The books are both good police procedurals in an exotic setting, and ironic commentary on the South African system of Apartheid. The motivations for many of the crimes are rooted in Apartheid, and simply wouldn't have occurred elsewhere.
______
Dennis

[Phogg]

Lots of good Sleuths listed in this thread, although my all time favorite Walter B. Gibson's Kent Allard is missing.

Max Allan Collins' Nate Heller is missing as well.

[JSWolf]

Harry Bosch
Jane Rizzolli & Mara Isles
Eve Dallis

Just to name a few.

[rkomar]

I'm casting my vote for Maigret, although I'm surprized that no one has mentioned Hamish MacBeth yet. There's lots wrong with the MacBeth series, but it keeps me reading one more time...

[alansplace]

dana stabenow's kate shaguk
jim butcher's harry dresden
tony hillerman's joe leaphorn & jim chee
mercedes lackey's jennifer talldeer

[carpetmojo]

Apologies if he's been mentioned already (by me probably) but try James Lee Burke's Robicheaux series - brilliant bar none - in my opinion#........... start with "Neon Rain".


[# But I'm right, I know I am....... ]

[sonofpendragon]

Yep, for me you can't beat Arty's Sherlock Holmes. I know there's many more old and new, and even some one off 'tecs here and there worth a read, but for readability, I just find the Sherlock stuff the best.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

dana stabenow's kate shaguk
jim butcher's harry dresden
tony hillerman's joe leaphorn & jim chee
mercedes lackey's jennifer talldeer

oops! missed one:

john d. macdonald's travis mcgee

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Harry Bosch
Jane Rizzolli & Mara Isles
Eve Dallis

Just to name a few.

Thank you for reminding me that I wanted to look for the books. I am very much enjoying the TV show, but more for the characters than the mysteries.

Edit: I have to laugh at myself. I apparently did look for the novels, and had already put the first one on my wish list!

So many many books so little little time!!!

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

It wasn't until zelda_pinwheel mentioned Perry Mason that I even thought of him for some reason, perhaps because television has conditioned me to think of him in association with "courtroom drama" rather that as a first class sleuth.

I love the Perry Mason stories, and despite how good how good a job Raymond Burr and company did with the TV show, the books are far superior. In them, Erle Stanley Gardner's creation did things he could never have gotten away with on TV; especially in the earlier stories. Mason always had a keen sense of justice, but his strict adherence to legal niceties insofar as his clients' interests were concerned was often, shall we say, somewhat flexible. In at least one instance (The Case of the Counterfeit Eye), he even intentionally planted fabricated evidence to help his client, only to have it blow up in his face.

In a Doonsbury strip, Al Gore once asked then sitting president Bill Clinton, "Why don't people like me?" Clinton told Gore it was because he was too intelligent. When Gore replied that Clinton was also intelligent but that people liked him, Clinton replied, "Yes, but I do stupid things!"

In the books, there were almost always two mysteries to solve. One, of course, was "Who is the murderer?" The other was how Mason was going to get out of the hole he had dug for himself by pulling some bonehead maneuver that put him at risk of being disbarred while in pursuit of that murderer.

Perry Mason. One of the greats!

Well said

[Apache]

Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.
Michael McGarrity's Kevin Kerney.
Craig Johnson's Sheriff Walt Longmire
Robert Parker's Spenser
Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe
Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot
Laura Joh Rowland's Sano Ichiro Series
Glenn Cook's Garret PI Seies. Think Nero Wolfe meets Fantasy.
and many others.
Apache

[Day_late]

Marshal Guarnaccia (modern Florentine carabinieri by Magdalen Nabb)
Gripstra & De Gier (modern Amsterdam by Jan Willem van de Wettering)
Sister Fidelma (middle ages Irish by Peter Tremayne)

[vimalendra]

Originally Posted by DDHarriman

Hi

Jack Reacher from Lee Child
Joe Pike and Elvis Cole from Robert Crais
And of course, the most of them all Tom Ripley from Patricia Highsmith.

Best,

Could'nt agree more. Jack Reacher is THE end of the millenium detective.

[Apache]

I am adding Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker to my favorite sleuth list.
And the newest The Devil's Cave is out in England, but not the US.
Apache