Created by Chris Laing MAX DEXTER is a former Mountie and WWII vet who came back from overseas with a bum leg, now working as a private eye, going down the mean streets of post-war Hamilton, Ontario in Canada, a hard town now--a hard town then. They don't call it "The Hammer" for nothing. Max … Continue reading Max Dexter
Category: Detective
Don Strachey
Created by Richard Stevenson Pseudonym of Richard Lipez (1938-2022) Albany, New York private peeper DON STRACHEY is openly gay, a younger (forty-something) more emotional, and slightly flakier persona than Joseph Hansen's middle-aged, controlled Dave Brandstetter. Where Dave is calm and collected, Don is flippant, sassy, sloppy, paranoid, compulsive, impulsive and prone to plots and plans. … Continue reading Don Strachey
Francis “Frank” Morley
Created by Lou Rand Pseudonym of Lou Rand Hogan (1910-76) “Just for the record…let me do the camping in this act. I’ll make with the gay talk. You just be big and beasty.” -- Frank puts his partner, uh, straight... FRANK MORLEY, the "fierce but fey" dick of the 1961 Saber paperback original, The Gay … Continue reading Francis “Frank” Morley
Clifford Waterman
Created by Richard Stevenson Pseudonym of Richard Lipez (1938-2022) The good news? Richard Stevenson, the creator of the acclaimed Don Strachey mysteries has started a new P.I. series with the publication of Knock Off the Hat in 2022, which introduced CLIFFORD WATERMAN, a gay private eye trying to keep it together in post-war Philadelphia. It's … Continue reading Clifford Waterman
H.P. “Philip” Lovecraft
Created by Joseph Dougherty "The omens are bad. Me, I'm going to Florida!" -- you know things are bad when the landlady threatens to call it quits Raymond Chandler's mean streets were never like this! A pleasant surprise was Cast a Deadly Spell, a pulpy, tongue-in-cheek 1991 HBO offering that took the world of the … Continue reading H.P. “Philip” Lovecraft
Jane Yeats
Created by Liz Brady "I didn't have my life threatened. I merely had the shit beaten out of me." -- Jane. One tough cookie in Sudden Blow Toronto's bad girl dick JANE YEATS may smoke too much and drink too much beer and may even get a little mouthy at times, but she's more than … Continue reading Jane Yeats
Sasha Jackson
Created by Jill Edmondson It took a surprisingly long time for Toronto to come up with its own street-savvy female gumshoe (do vampire hunters really count?), but SASHA JACKSON is beginning to look like she was worth the wait. Crafty, tough, and tenacious, and not above taking an occasional break every to knock back a … Continue reading Sasha Jackson
Keats, Moses Mosaic, Archie Flock & Caddy Cello (The Navigator Kids)
Created by Christopher Radke (1987--) For those of you who miss The Three Investigators, (with or without Alfred Hitchcock), Christopher Radke may have come up with a thoroughly modern solution: THE NAVIGATOR KIDS, a sly and far grittier update on the kid-run detective agency. Forget the Scooby-style "ghosts," secrets passages, haunted mansions and Jupiter Jones' … Continue reading Keats, Moses Mosaic, Archie Flock & Caddy Cello (The Navigator Kids)
Kat Dylan
Created by Chris Wieland Adding a little much-needed grit and ooomph to the middle grade reading level is KAT DYLAN, a smart, feisty 13-year-old girl detective. Kat and her kid brother Alec are the children of divorced parents (daddy's an LAPD homicide cop, mom's an Army nurse), but when Mom gets deployed, she and her … Continue reading Kat Dylan
Moses Wine
Created by Roger L. Simon (1943--) Back in 1973, when Roger Simon first introduced MOSES WINE in The Big Fix, just the fact that his laidback, long-haired Los Angeles-based private eye was Jewish and smoked pot was more than enough to shake up the genre. Now, he'd probably have to be a black, physically-challenged Rastafarian … Continue reading Moses Wine