This site focusses on the detectives; not, for the most part, on their creators, or, as WB head Jack Warner so elegantly put it, those “schmucks with Underwoods.”
Still, sometimes an author’s work can’t really be covered solely by a discussion of his or her creations. In some cases, their work is so significant and/or influential that they just can’t be ignored. Like the authors listed below.
And don’t worry — I’m not forgetting foreign-language writers, who are a stepping stone to a vast new world of P.I. literature you may not be aware of.
- Cleve F. Adams
- William Ard
- Mike Avallone
- W. T. Ballard
- Robert Leslie Bellem
- Lawrence Block
- Leigh Brackett
- Fredric Brown
- Howard Browne
- Ken Bruen
- James Lee Burke
- John K. Butler
- Paul Cain
- Stephen J. Cannell
- Raymond Chandler
- James Hadley Chase
- Peter Cheyney
- Liza Cody
- Max Allan Collins
- Michael Collins (pseud. of Dennis Lynds)
- George Harmon Coxe
- Robert Crais
- James Crumley
- Carroll John Daly
- Norbert Davis
- Richard Deming
- Ralph Dennis
- Thomas B. Dewey
- David Dodge
- Loren D. Estleman
- Dick Francis
- Erle Stanley Gardner
- William Campbell Gault
- Joe Gores
- Ed Gorman
- Sue Grafton
- Frank Gruber
- Brett Halliday
- Parnell Hall
- Dashiell Hammett
- Joseph Hansen
- Carl Hiaasen
- Roy Huggins
- Stuart Kaminsky
- Frank Kane
- Henry Kane
- Day Keene
- Ed Lacy
- Jonathan Latimer
- Dennis Lehane
- Elmore Leonard
- Laura Lippman
- John Lutz
- Dennis Lynds
- Arthur Lyons
- Gregory McDonald
- John D. MacDonald
- Ross Macdonald
- Ed McBain
- Daniel Mainwaring
- Stephen Marlowe
- Robert Martin
- Wade Miller
- Walter Mosley
- Marcia Muller
- Frederick Nebel
- Maxine O’Callahan
- Sara Paretsky
- Robert B. Parker
- George Pelecanos
- Allan Pinkerton
- Talmage Powell
- Richard S. Prather
- Bill Pronzini
- Robert J. Randisi
- Craig Rice
- Mike Roscoe
- Lawrence Sanders
- Charlie Siringo
- Bart Spicer
- Mickey Spillane
- Rex Stout
- Roger Torrey
- Donald Westlake
- Raoul Whitfield
Non-English Writers
Expand your horizons!
- Alain Demouzon
- Emmanuel Errer
- Juan Madrid
- Leo Malet
- Jean Mazarin
- Andreu Martin
- René-Charles Rey
- Paco Ignacio Taibo II
Respectfully compiled by Kevin Burton Smith.
Great job on the page about Rex Stout, but you’ve triggered one of my pet peeves by referring to “McCarthy’s HUAC.” The House Committee on Unamaerican Activities (which really should have been abbreviated HCUA — thank you doofus journalists) was a committee of the House of Representatives. It had nothing to do with Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was a SENATOR. Also, your tidy bio of Stout might have mentioned that Stout was a supporter of the Vietnam War, and regarded the opponents of it in the same vein as the opponents of the US entering World War II. But it’s a minor blemish. Thanks.
Duly noted, and thanks. When I transfer the Stout page, I’ll add a bit more info to the entry. Politics. It’s complicated, huh?
Non English authors ~ Georges Simenon