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Dol Bonner
Created by Rex
Stout
One of the first female eyes to make it to a novel. Before he struck it rich with Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout experimented with a few other oddball private eyes, including THEOLINDA "DOL" BONNER, a young socialite whose family's fortune was wiped out in the Depression. Not overly fond of men, it seems, although she does have a soft spot for her spoiled kid brother. She runs Bonner and Raffray, Inc., a detective agency in pre-war Los Angeles. And Dol's not shy about gunplay.
Although her only solo adventure was 1937's The Hand in the Glove, Stout must have been fond of her, because she showed up now and then in the Wolfe books to lend a hand (evidently, she's one of the few women Wolfe can tolerate), as well as teaming up with another Stout eye, Tecumseh Fox, in 1940's Bad For Business. Throughout her career, she goes through several partners and assistants, starting with Sylvia Raffray, the naive Amy Duncan in Bad For Business and eventually, in the Wolfe books, Sally Colt (AKA Corbett).
In 1992, looking for a vehicle for Crystal Bernard (of the sitcom Wings), NBC dusted off the rights to The Hand In The Glove and made a TV flick, moving the setting up a few years to World War II. According to People Magazine, it was an "uninvolving and ludicrously unconvincing...turkey." Sigh...
NOVELS
TELEVISION