It’s been a while since I wrote a post focusing on crime novels, so let’s get fictionally felonious again! Today, I’m going to discuss some of my favorite detectives/investigators in literature.

Their exploits can be compelling and satisfying for various reasons, including the wish-fulfillment aspect of seeing criminals get their comeuppance — though not always, and even those caught or killed can wreak a lot of havoc before their illegal work is done. Then there’s the appeal of intricate plots, trying to guess the culprits, seeing how fictional sleuths solve cases, enjoying the interesting and at-times weird personality traits of the detectives and criminals, etc.

Fictional sleuths — some professional, some amateur — are on my mind after having read four of Tarquin Hall’s India-set mysteries the past few weeks. They star private investigator Vish Puri — a brilliant, incorruptible, overeating, occasionally comedic, unfortunately a bit sexist character who solves various quirky cases. Just how quirky is telegraphed by the titles of some of Hall’s books, including The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing (2010) and The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken (2012).

Yes, sleuths are often in multiple novels — including J.K. Rowling’s superb crime series starring Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Those two characters are brave, brainy, charismatic investigators who carry some serious physical or psychological baggage and, while work partners, are secretly in love with each other. It’s saying something that I find that 2013-launched series — written under the pen name Robert Galbraith — almost as compelling as Rowling’s earlier Harry Potter books.

Also excellent are Walter Mosley’s novels starring another expert investigator: Easy Rawlins, an African-American World War II veteran who lives in Los Angeles. The series began with the 1990-published Devil in a Blue Dress, and now has 16 installments set from the 1940s to 1960s.

Absorbing, too, are Louise Penny’s atmospheric Canada-set novels featuring inspector Armand Gamache.

And there are Val McDermid’s great books starring cold case detective Karen Pirie that I won’t get into today because I’ve recently written about them in other contexts.

Some other contemporary authors have created characters who are not detectives per se but do plenty of incisive sleuthing to solve crimes. Among them are bounty hunter Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich’s mysteries, attorney Mickey Haller in Michael Connelly’s books, and the roaming Jack Reacher in the novels by Lee Child (with recent titles co-written by Andrew Child).

Then of course there are past authors who created detectives — many quite iconic. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (in novels and short stories), Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin (in short stories), Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple (of course!), Wilkie Collins’ Sgt. Richard Cuff (of The Moonstone), Umberto Eco’s William of Baskerville (in The Name of the Rose), Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone (of alphabet mysteries fame), Dorothy L. Sayers’ Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane duo, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, P.D. James’ Adam Dalgliesh, etc.

And, in books penned by multiple authors over the years…Nancy Drew!

Comments about this post? Fictional sleuths you’ve liked?

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