#detectives

[hang-on-lil-tomato]

Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan

Time for a new poll! I'm curious to see the spread of answers on this one (and hear any other series not on the list.) Tried to go for a range of older and newer series on here, more on the older end of the spectrum, but I can't cover everything with the limited poll options here, so I hope you'll share your answers! :)

Please reblog for a larger sample size, thank you!

EDIT: Wow this broke containment from my little sideblog, thank you all for sharing your favorites even after the poll concluded. I love getting updates with little snippets of people's favorite and first mystery series and fond memories. Mystery nerds unite! 🥰

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Peter Falk / Columbo

Art by Peter Falk

[malcolmschmitz]

The Insider and Outsider Detectives

So there's a lot of discourse about detectives floating around, ever since 2020 shifted a lot of people's Views on the police. Everyone likes a good mystery story, but no one seems to know what to make of a detective protagonist- especially if they're a cop. And everyone who cares about this kind of thing likes to argue over whether detective stories hold up the existing order or subvert it. Are they inherently copaganda? Are they subversive commentary on the uselessness of the police?

I think they can be both. And I think there's a framework we can use to look at individual detectives, and their stories, that illuminates the space between "a show like LAPD straight-up exists to make the cops look good" and "Boy Detective is a gender to me, actually".

So. You can sort most detectives in fiction into two boxes, based on their role in society: the Insider Detective and the Outsider Detective.

The Insider Detective is a part of the society they're investigating in, and has access to at least some of the levers of power in that society. They can throw money at their problems, or call in reinforcements, and if they contact the authorities, those authorities will take them seriously. Even the people they're investigating usually treat them with respect. They're a nice normal person in a nice normal world, thank you very much; they're not particularly eccentric. You could describe them as "sensible". And crime is a threat to that normal world. It's an intrusion that they have to fight off. An Insider Detective solving a crime is restoring the way things ought to be.

Some clear-cut examples of Insider Detectives are the Hardy Boys (and their father Fenton), Soichiro "Light's Dad" Yagami, or Father Brown. Many police procedural detectives are Insider Detectives, though not all.

The Outsider Detective, in contrast, is not a part of the society they're investigating in. They're often a marginalized person- they're neurodivergent, or elderly, or foreign, or a woman in a historical setting, or a child. They don't have access to any of the levers of power in their world- the authorities may not believe them (and might harass them), the people they're investigating think they're a joke (and can often wave them off), and they're unlikely to have access to things like "a forensics lab". The Outsider Detective is not respectable, and not welcome here- and yet they persist and solve the crime anyway. A lot of the time, when an Outsider Detective solves a crime, it's less "restoring the world to its rightful state" and more "exposing the rot in the normal world, and forcing it to change."

Some clear-cut examples of Outsider Detectives are Dirk Gently, Philip Marlowe, Sammy Keyes, or Mello from Death Note.

Now, here's the catch: these aren't immutable categories, and they are almost never clear-cut. The same detective can be an Insider Detective in one setting and an Outsider Detective in another. A good writer will know this, and will balance the two to say something about power and society.

Tumblr's second-favourite detective Benoit Blanc is a great example of this. Theoretically, Mr. Blanc should be an Insider Detective- he's a world-famous detective, he collaborates with the police, he's odd but respectable. But because of the circumstances he's in- investigating the ultra-rich, who live in their own horrid little bubbles- he comes off as the Outsider Detective, exposing the rot and helping everyone get what they deserve. And that's deliberate. There is no world where a nice, slightly eccentric, mildly fruity, fairly privileged guy like Benoit Blanc should be an outsider. But the turbo-rich live in such an insular world, full of so much contempt for anyone who isn't Them, that even Benoit Blanc gets left out in the cold. It's a scathing political statement, if you think about it.

But even a writer who isn't trying to Say Something About The World will still often veer between making their detective an Insider Detective and an Outsider Detective, because you can tell different kinds of stories within those frameworks. Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote is a really good example of this-- she's a respectable older lady, whose runaway success as a mystery novelist gives her access to some social cachet. Key word: some.

Within her hometown of Cabot Cove, Fletcher is an Insider Detective. She's good friends with the local sheriff, she's incredibly familiar with the town's social dynamics, she can call in a favour from basically anyone... but she's still a little old lady. The second she leaves town, she might run into someone who likes her books... but she's just as likely to run into a police officer who thinks she's crazy or a perp who thinks she's an easy target. She has the incredibly tenuous social power that belongs to a little old lady that everyone likes- and when that's gone, she's incredibly vulnerable.

This is also why a lot of Sherlock Holmes adaptations tend to be so... divisive. Holmes is all things to all people, and depending on which stories you choose to focus on, you can get a very different detective. If you focus on the stories where Holmes collaborates with the police, on the stories with that very special kind of Victorian racism, or the stories where Holmes is fighting Moriarty, you've got an Insider Detective. If you focus on the stories where Holmes is consulting for a Nice Young Lady, on the stories where Holmes' neurodivergence is most prominent, or on his addictions, you've got an Outsider Detective.

Finally, a lot of buddy detective stories have an Insider Detective and an Outsider Detective sharing the spotlight. Think Scully and Mulder, or Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. This lets the writer play with both pieces of the thematic puzzle at the same time, without sacrificing the consistency of their detective's character.

Back to my original point: if you like detective fiction, you probably like one kind of story better than the other. I know I personally really prefer Outsider Detective Stories to Insider Detective Stories- and while I can enjoy a good Insider Detective (I'd argue that Brother Cadfael, my beloved, is one most of the time), I seek out detectives who don't quite fit into the world they live in more often than not.

And if that's the vibe you're looking for... you're not going to run into a lot of police stories. It's absolutely possible to make a story where a cop (or, even better, an FBI agent) is an Outsider Detective-- Nick Angel from Hot Fuzz was originally going to be one of my 'clear-cut examples' until I remembered that he is, in fact, legally a cop! But a cop who's an Outsider Detective is going to be spending a lot of time butting heads with local law enforcement, to the point where he doesn't particularly feel like one. He's probably going to get fired at some point, and even if his badge gets reinstated, he's going to struggle with his place in the world. And a lot of Outsider Detective stories where the detective is a cop or an FBI agent are intensely political, and not in a conservative way- they have Things To Say about small towns, clannishness, and the injustice that can happen when a Pillar Of The Community does something wrong and everyone looks the other way. (Think Twin Peaks or The Wicker Man.)

Does this mean Insider Detective Stories are Bad Copaganda and Outsider Detective Stories are Good Revolutionary Stories? No. If you take one thing away from this post, please make it that these categories are morally neutral. There are Outsider Detective stories about cops who are Outsiders because they really, really want an excuse to shoot people. There are Insider Detective stories about little old people who are trying to keep misapplied justice from hurting the kids in their community. Neither of these types of stories are good or bad on their own. They're different kinds of storytelling framework and they serve different purposes.

But, if you find yourself really gravitating to certain kinds of mysteries and really put off by other kinds, and you're trying to express why, this might be a framework that's useful for you. If your gender is Boy Detective, but you absolutely loathe cop stories? This might be why.

(PS: @anim-ttrpgs was posting about their game Eureka again, and that got me to make this post- thank them if you're happy to finally see it. Eureka is designed as an Outsider Detective simulator, and so the rules actively forbid you from playing as a cop- they're trying to make it so that you have limited resources and have to rely on your own competence. It's a fantastic looking game and I can't recommend it enough.)

(PPS: I'm probably going to come back to this once I finish Psycho-Pass with my partner, because they said I'd probably have Thoughts.)

(PPPS: Encyclopedia Brown is an Insider Detective, and that's why no one likes him. This is my most controversial detective take.)

[bridgekc]

started watching detective conan cuz that cousin situation was so funny and i needed context 💀

my condolences to those affected 🙏

[lynati]

Even if you're not typically a fan of the "cozy murder mystery" genre, do yourself a favor and go watch this eight-episode series on Netflix. It's just GOOD. Good story, good writing, good characters, good acting, good cinematography, good set design, good score... and it's fucking FUN. I really hope we get another season of Detective Cupp. Go watch it; it's a romp you will thoroughly* enjoy! (*...If you can get past the existence of a character who is an avid birder looking for, and finding, a number of birds that aren't active at night during nighttime scenes. Just a head's up for anyone else out there who was also raised by an ornithologist and will find this otherwise irrelevant detail stand out like a sore thumb at times. Think of it as taking place in an alternate reality whose only difference from our own is that those birds ARE active at night, okay? Or that whenever she's claiming to find one that she's just fucking with the people around her while taking time to think over the most recent details she's uncovered. There, now it's internally consistent and won't throw you out of the story whenever it comes up.)

[browsethestacks]

Tintin Meets Holmes And Watson

Art by Adam Murphy

[kathaynesart]

It is time! I'm so excited to get the chance to go toe to toe with one of my all time favorite AU's in the @tmntaucompetition, Empyrean Weeping by @cupcakeslushie ! EW!Donnie is just a treasure that must be protected. Luckily Replica Donnie is willing to take him under his wing. Since the theme for this round of the competition is 1940's I just had to do them as a pair of a film noir styled Private Eyes with Replica as the seasoned sleuth and EW as his new, young upstart of a partner. Just saying they would probably make a good team!

You can vote HERE!

[black-ak9]

"The Game Is On"

I just found out there's a Sherlock Holmes video game!! 😭❤️ So I wanted to make some changes to the game cover with Sherlock Cumberbatch and some items from the BBC series

[thehauntedrocket]

Elementary Dear Data...

Art by Rachael Stott

[lonelinessfollowsme]

Bill Waterson's take on the noir genre with Tracer Bullet is simply the best. Eight slugs.

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Tintin Meets The Detectives

Art by Adam Murphy

[icarian-carrionn]

My personality us based off of these people istg (I have the same mental issues)

[whambamitssqam]

I love Sherlock Holmes, from ACD cannon to niche Sherlock Holmes as a dog anime. But I hate BBC Sherlock. Operating on tumblr is like being a solider in guerrilla warfare. It’s everywhere, I have to watch my every step. They’ll find me. They’re hunting me. Them and their terrible execution of a beloved character.

[captainfantasticalright]

Edwardian etiquette with Edwin Payne.

This guide promises to cover why Edwin's posture is always straight and not slouched, why he barely does physical touch (but we see that evolve), and some of his mannerisms and vocabulary.

It also includes a whole late Victorian/ Edwardian dictionary here if you want to learn some old lingo.

However, it does not include instructions on how to tango nor on how to write postcards, two things that people in the Edwardian era loved to do.

[spacebubblehomebase]

Forget whether we should trust the twins or not. I, for one, can't believe THEY trusted US in ANY official legal capacity! And here I thought we were (in)famous. LMAO XD (Seriously tho. Who thought this was a good idea??? 👀) -Bubbly💙