#fictional detectives

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Brother Cadfael - 1130's-1140's

Matthew Shardlake - 1530's-1540's

Sherlock Holmes (original ACD stories) - 1880's-1920's

Amelia Peabody - 1880's-1920's (active in both Britain and Egypt)

Father Brown (book & 1970's show version) - 1910's-1930's

Phryne Fisher - 1920's (active in Australia, but with strong connections to Britain)

Hercule Poirot - most active 1920's-1940's, but continues into the 1970's

Lord Peter Wimsey - 1920's-1930's

Miss Marple - 1930's-1970's

Christopher Foyle - 1940's

Father Brown (modern TV version) - 1950's

Grantchester TV series, multiple "detectives" - 1950's-1960's

Sister Boniface - 1960's

Inspector Morse - 1960's-1970's; 1980's-2000

Tom Barnaby - 1990's-2000's

Jane Tennison - 1990's

DI Jack Frost - 1990's

Rosemary Boxer & Laura Thyme - 2000's

Robbie Lewis - 2000's-2010's

Sherlock Holmes (modern BBC series) - 2010's

John Barnaby - 2010's-present

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I'm sure there are zillions of others, from book series, TV shows and movies. These are just the ones I could think of and could remember roughly when they were active without needing to look it up, supplemented with ones recommended to me by other folks.

I'd love to get suggestions to add to the list. Reasonably well known detectives that I forgot about and better dates for the ones I remembered are all welcome. I'd especially like to fill in the large gaps before Sherlock Holmes.

Hercule Poirot

Phryne Fisher

Benoit Blanc

Adrian Monk

Nancy Drew

Dick Tracy

Columbo

Miss Marple

gathers everyone in the library at the end of every book NOT just to reveal the killer but also to air everyone’s dirty laundry

he dgaf if it’s not relevant to the crime

just tells everyone you fucked your boss in 1921 and one of the other suspects is your secret illegitimate son

ignore the discrepancy in details between the two of these i was feeling considerably more locked in today than I was when I made Archie 😭💀

How To Write Hardboiled Fiction

We explore what hardboiled fiction is, who the hardboiled detectives are, and how to write in this genre – with examples.

Highlights include:

- Hercule Poirot and Benoit Blanc both seeing through each other’s acts of using their accents to seem harmless, but neither calls each other out for fear of mutually assured destruction. Their accents get even more pronounced when talking to each other as a result.

- Sherlock just chilling in the corner microdosing before the inciting incident, notices the little Conan boy acts way too much like an adult, but doesn’t bring it up because someone commented on the microdosing and rankled him.