#Richard Christy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pbjelly90 · 4 months

Text

I’m rewatching/rereading or checking out for the first time a lot of Sherlock media lately and after seeing the teaser for Knives Out 3, it’s got me thinking about fictional detective characters. I haven’t thought this through completely, but I was trying to decide how I’d rank my favorites throughout various mystery and crime media.

Of course I’m also happy to hear anyone else’s plugs for their favorites I’ve overlooked or not seen before too, so share if you’ve got ‘em and you happen to see this! Would love to see more female led detective stories and queer detective stories.

I’m thinking off the top of my head that my top 15 or so list goes something like this (might end up making this a top 20 or more as I keep adding to it lol) -

1. Sherlock Holmes - This is pretty obvious given the very few things I’ve posted about and my reblogs. The detective that truly got me into mystery stories about 20 years ago. I started reading a collection of the original stories I came across at a Borders bookstore and got hooked from there. I think Watson is what really sold me on Holmes, he humanizes him, givens him more of an emotional anchor. I also have always appreciated how flawed he is. Some genius characters are over the top, but he’s always had some genuine struggles like his drug use. And in the books he even admits Mycroft is better than him at deduction, just lazier with the legwork. My current favorite incarnations may be the original from the books and the Yuumori version, but credit due to the BBC version because I was obsessed the first two seasons in. I love that he’s in the public domain so we can get so many creative takes on him and his world and stories. I’ve been to the Holmes museum at 221 B Baker Street in London (an address they made just for the museum) and seen the statue of him honoring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Edinburgh. One of my top favorite fictional characters of all time. If you mention he’s in something, chances are, I’m gonna read/watch it.

2. Harry Dresden - Should probably be no surprise that as a fantasy and mystery fan, I’m a big fan of novels that started off as private detective stories with a wizard on the case. The series gets away from its detective roots later on in favor of bigger plots, but I always enjoyed seeing Harry mix workmanlike detective methods with practical magic. He’s no genius, but he’s clever and willing to mix it up sometimes to see what shakes out. I’d like to think Marcone is the closest thing to his version of a Moriarty, his criminal counterpart. There’s a grudging respect of sorts there even if they dislike the other’s methods. I love Harry and his stories so much I went to Chicago years back just to geek out at some spots from the books (and see Sue!) so he definitely deserves a spot on this list.

3. Ron Kamonohashi - This is a very close race between him and Benoit Blanc, but Ron wins out. He’s got a Watson like character with Toto, which I always appreciate (let Benoit’s hubby come along sometime?) and he’s very Sherlock coded with his little quirks (black sugar syrup is his drug lol) and dependence on mysteries for mental stimulation. Also his dynamic with the police. I enjoy his relationship with Blue and the characters from the academy very much. And I’m very curious to see how the Moriarty connection plays out. He’s just such a silly and I wish the manga was out in physical form in English, I love him and he’s my blorbo. He feels like Sherlock from an Ace Attorney game even more than Herlock Sholmes from The Great Ace Attorney did. This anime feels very much made for me like Yuumori feels. Also his cat is adorable. 💕

4. Benoit Blanc - I enjoy him so dang much. I’d love to see a book adaptation of Knives Out but I wonder how much of how charm is how well Daniel Craig plays him and how much fun you can tell he’s having. Love his relationship with his hubby, his accent, his dress sense, and how he just stumbles into these intricate mysteries with crazy rich folks (and helps support the women who’ve been wronged by them so they can take matters into their own hands to set things right.) I’m delighted they’re continuing to make these movies. I’d take a graphic novel too if not traditional books.

5. Shawn Spencer - Had to bump everyone down this list, how could I forget about Shawn from Psych? He’s definitely more on the strong personality end for detectives, quirky, more interested in romance, and much more extroverted than many examples. I love his friendship with Gus and also his relationship with his father always gave him more depth. Seeing how his father trained him up from a young age, sometimes at great personal cost between them, was an interesting spin on how a genius detective gained their special skills. Also the show is just so dang fun and silly. As a person, I’d probably find Shawn a bit annoying IRL, but I greatly enjoy his misadventures with Gus to rein him in. Lassie is totally his Lestrade. And Shawn’s last name is a Robert B Parker reference to Spenser, isn’t it?

6. Sam Vimes (and the rest of the Watch) - Vimes only doesn’t score higher here because somehow he feels like more of a cop or protector than detective? His emphasis has never been completely about just unraveling mysteries but more focused on defending Ankh Morpork, especially the common people, and delivering justice. Jingo, Night Watch and Thud are three of my all time favorite books of his, with Night Watch as one of my favorite books of all time. Feet of Clay is probably his main detective turn in my memory, as the later books see him have to take on more of a diplomatic role with different responsibilities. Angua and Cheery get a shoutout here as also being highly competent members of the Watch. Carrot has his moments too. Vimes and the rest of the Watch are notable on this list as the some of the very few ranked who are part of actual law enforcement and not some sort of private consulting detective. The Discworld books and the Watch books in particular were formative reading for me back in my teenage years and further cemented my interest in crime stories (and caring curmudgeon characters like Vimes.) Hugh Laurie would play a great Vimes.

7. Amy Santiago & Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn 99 Squad) - The only other official members of law enforcement on this list so far. Jake gets most of the focus and cases, and similar to Shawn Spencer, I enjoy him as a character even if he’d probably be annoying IRL. Love Terry and Holt as the two leaders and mentors of the squad. But my biggest shoutout here is to Amy and Rosa, I would adore a spinoff with them as the Sleuth Sisters solving cases together. Two skilled, nuanced Latina detectives with their own distinctive, non-stereotypical personalities and an awesome friendship? Yes please. They’re what carries this squad way up the list, even if the cases in this show aren’t usually as complex as some of the others, with the focus more on comedy.

8. Hercule Poirot - Been years since I last read the novels, but I’ve always enjoyed him as a little fussy looking Belgian fellow that folks underestimate. He’s got a different approach from Holmes. He likes a dramatic ending reveal. He always seems like he knows a joke others don’t, has a twinkle in his eye. I devoured a lot of the Agatha Christie stories back in the day, and Poirot’s personality maybe isn’t as strong on the page as Holmes, but I feel that’s more to give the reader a chance to feel like they’re the detective figuring it out alongside him. It’s almost like reading along with a silent protagonist at times in a video game. Part of this is due to the fact that Poirot novels never have one consistent narrator, which allows Christie to do some creative things with the narrator and have them take different roles in the story, but it also means we never really have a POV character who understands and describes Poirot on the same level as Watson does for Holmes (at least not that I remember? Apparently Arthur Hastings is in 7 novels at least but I guess he did not make as much of an impression on me. He appears to be more prominent in the David Suchet TV show.)

9. Conan Edogawa - I never finished Case Closed / Detective Conan because it’s crazy long, but it’s a very nostalgic show for me and I very much enjoyed the many episodes I watched back in the day. Conan is a genius, probably to an over the top degree, but his difficulties in working around being stuck as a kid helped add some stakes and obstacles in his stories and felt very relatable as a younger person interested in mysteries growing up. I wonder if they’d ever consider doing a reboot series someday with much fewer episodes, so we’d get a conclusion without needing to watch over 1,000 episodes.

10. Enola Holmes - A little Mary Sueish and teenage wish fulfillmenty, but dangit she’s fun. Essentially a younger teenaged Sherlock with a touch more people skills? Fighting back against the misogyny of her time period. I have a feeling if she came out back when I was a teen and first reading Holmes, I’d be obsessed. I’m curious to check out her books, I don’t mind if they’re more YA oriented if the mysteries are solid.

11. Ranpo Edogawa (and the whole armed detective agency from BSD) - I love and enjoy Ranpo and he very much has spoiled little brat energy. Fukuzawa as his dad figure brings me much joy. However, I also find him and most characters from Bungo to be over the top geniuses, to the point where they no longer feel very grounded as human. Sherlock often feels still believable to me, that someone could specialize to his degree and be that effective, but the BSD characters have always felt supernaturally competent. But with that aside, they’re also often very fun. Given that Ranpo doesn’t have any other superpowers, unlike other geniuses like Dazai or Fyodor, I can allow “ultra deduction” to be his. But Atsushi and Kunkida feel way more grounded and they’re the heart of this group. Love Yosano and Kenji too. Fukuzawa is my favorite but does little detective work usually, leaving that up to the team. I would have enjoyed seeing Aya and Bram be a detective team within the ADA. 😢

12. Nancy Drew - I read these so long ago but these books definitely contributed to my interest in detective stories growing up. I don’t remember many distinctive traits of Nancy now, but I have to give her credit for nostalgia and sparking my interest in mysteries back then. Has there been a modern day update of these?

13. Spenser - Got into these novels by Robert B. Parker at some point back in my twenties, as they were always mentioned in early blurbs for The Dresden Files as a point of comparison, Spenser crossed with Merlin. Very pulpy detective stories, a lot like the Maltese Falcon. Not the most feminist, got plenty of film noir type tropes, but the mysteries were compelling. I can’t say Spenser was necessarily likable, but he had the workman like detective style you find in Dresden that I appreciated. Not a genius like Holmes, he truly had to stir things up sometimes, make a lot more mistakes, and in general do extra legwork. Wouldn’t mind seeing someone update him for modern day somehow.

14. Anita Blake - Does she count here? I’ve found a sad lack of female detectives, maybe that’s because I’ve largely read older stories in the genre? She, like Dresden, started off more detective (and huntress) and since then has changed. Unlike Dresden however, I gave up on Anita’s series around book 10. I enjoyed her early on although she definitely had some viewpoints I did not agree with, I enjoyed the St Louis setting and urban fantasy elements. I think the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries are in a similar area of the country, also with vampires? Maybe I’ll give those a try.

A tie below perhaps for number 15?

Adrian Monk - I’ve only watched a few episodes of Monk, never got super into it, but he gives me Poirot vibes with how fastidious he is. Eventually I’ll try watching a bit more of this.

Miss Marple - Curious to see how these books compare to Poirot. I started one ages ago but didn’t finish it, got sidetracked. I’ve seen now someone has written a book with characters based on Holmes, Marple and Poe? (Interesting that it’s not Dupin.) Curious to see how that’s handled since Marple I don’t believe is public domain? Some Poirot is, but not her yet to my knowledge.

Auguste Dupin - Read The Purloined Letter, but not the other stories yet that I recall. I don’t remember Dupin himself having any traits that particularly stuck with me, but he is the proto fictional detective so I have to give credit there.

Sam Spade - Similar to Dupin, Sam Spade sets up the proto tropes for his genre of detective story, the more film noir type story. But otherwise he wasn’t super memorable to me, perhaps because he only had the one. Spenser takes a lot of inspiration from him.

Philip Marlowe - Ditto for the above. Read The Big Sleep, can’t recall if there were more that I read? But he helped establish the genre.

Nero Wolfe - I think I have read one of these, but I'll be honest, I don't remember it very well. Probably due to give this series another shot.

—

Honorable mentions: For characters that are not technically detectives by title, but still solve mysteries, or aren’t the lead in their respective stories -

Richard Ranasinghe de Vulpian - I first picked up volume one of the Jeweler Richard light novels because the boys on the cover are pretty, but I bought it because it was described as having mystery elements online and that the two leads would work through cases together. It’s shifted some in focus since then, but Richard is certainly like a detective for jewel related matters. He’s a bit of a Holmes figure, brilliant with specialized knowledge, clever, good at reading people, British, and Seigi is like his warm hearted Watson, good in a fight, deeply loyal. Yet another reason why I love these boys.

Maomao from Apothecary Diaries - Technically not a detective, but she does so much investigating and I love her. Her work sometimes even extends to non-medical cases, she truly has a lot of knowledge but it feels believable with her fixation on medicines / poisons and her upbringing, particularly with her adoptive dad’s mentorship and training. Love hearing her infodump on plants in particular.

All the Ace Attorney lead characters do so much investigating. I recently saw a post that said Phoenix is more of a skilled investigator rather than a lawyer, and they are not wrong. Herlock Sholmes is very silly and I need to finish GAA to really properly judge him, but I’ve seen him invent more than I’ve seen him deduce. I love Ema Skye and would love to see her get her own investigations game, really enjoy seeing her geek out over forensics and working cases once she lands her dream job. Gumshoe is precious but not the best at his job.

Jack Reacher technically doesn’t have a job anymore? But he was an MP and does investigate nearly as much as he fights. I read a fair number of his books when I wanted to learn how to write fight scenes better, and learned some other helpful details while following this series too, particularly about firearms. I like the new Amazon tv adaptation of these stories so far too. Reacher has earned a shoutout here on this list.

The first two Paper Mario games have at least one detective chapter, usually a very silly take on Agatha Christie like tropes, and I enjoy them very much. Give me a full detective spinoff in the Paper Mario world please. Detective Peach from Princess Peach Showtime maybe? Daisy as her Watson? I liked her cases but they were short and the mechanics got a little repetitive, gameplay-wise.

Also in video games, Professor Layton is technically an archaeologist and professor, but he certainly ends up solving quite a few mysteries. I haven't finished all of his games because I'm actually quite crap at a lot of kinds of puzzles, but I enjoy him very much.

House, MD - for a much harsher take on a Holmes like figure, with his own Watson in an actual practicing doctor, Dr Wilson. Ties back into Holmes inspiration coming from a real world medical doctor, Dr. Joseph Bell. I was really into this show for a few years, but House could be so acerbic at times I stopped caring for it as much. Especially when he would be a dick to Cuddy.

Neal Caffrey from White Collar does a lot of investigating and would be a clever detective type in another show, but here as a CI he gives me more Arsene Lupin gentleman thief vibes.

The leads from Cowboy Bebop do have to do a lot of tracking down criminals and investigating, but as bounty hunters, they’re generally after folks who have already been identified as major suspects or convicted, so they don’t quite fall under the umbrella of detectives. Still I love this show and it also added to my interest in crime stories and influenced my writing since I was a teen.

Spy characters in crime stories like James Bond, Twilight / Loid, etc - these guys do some investigation as well, but this is like a whole additional category on its own. Big fan of this genre typically as well, had someone recommend Alex Rider for a YA take on the genre.

I’ll probably continue adding to this post as I think of more fictional detectives to ramble about. 😆

26 notes · View notes