Created by Gabriel Valjan He used to box. He used to be a soldier. He used to be a cop. He used to be a lot of things. But when we meet private investigator SHANE CLEARY in his promising debut, the appropriately titled Dirty Old Town (2020), he’s not exactly setting the world on fire. … Continue reading Shane Cleary
Tag: Boston
Ah, Boston, You’re My Home
Beantown Eyes Spenser by Robert B. Parker Thomas Dreddiker 'Dred' Balcazar by Ned White Thomas Banacek by Anthony Wilson Tom Bethany by Jerome Doolittle Harvey Blissberg by Richard Rosen (Cambridge) Carlotta Carlyle by Linda Barnes Dennis Chase (21 Beacon Street) by Leonard Heideman Brady Coyne by William G. Tapply Tommy Crane by Richard Helms John Francis … Continue reading Ah, Boston, You’re My Home
A. Dunster Lowell (The Boston Terrier)
Created by Blake Edwards & Tom Waldman Blake Edward must have really liked this idea. After failing to interest any of the networks in his 60-minute pilot, The Boston Terrier, about the adventures of suave, Harvard-educated (and presumably dogged) private eye A. DUNSTER LOWELL in 1962, Edwards tried again the next year with a revamped thirty-minute version—in … Continue reading A. Dunster Lowell (The Boston Terrier)
Fletch
Created by Gregory McDonald (1937-2008) Hot shot investigative reporter IRWIN MAURICE FLETCHER hates his given name. He prefers to go simply by “FLETCH.” Can you blame him? And he isn't technically a P.I. by avocation. So what's he doing here? Well, when the writing's this fast, sharp and funny (and it is), we're too busy laughing to bother … Continue reading Fletch
Quincy Adams Sawyer & Quincy Adams Sawyer (Junior)
Created by Charles Felton Pidgin (1844-1923) Despite over a century of misinformation and conflation, there were actually two detectives named QUINCY ADAMS SAWYER, father and son, both created by Charles Felton Pidgin, although only one was really a private investigator. The first Quincy was more of an amateur lawyer sleuth. He began his career as … Continue reading Quincy Adams Sawyer & Quincy Adams Sawyer (Junior)
John Francis Cuddy
Created by Jeremiah Healy (1948-2014) Private investigator JOHN FRANCIS CUDDY is based in Boston and, at least in the early novels, seemed to have been based quite clearly on that 1980's Boston success story Spenser. He grew up in the Irish-American neighborhood of South Boston, educated by the Jesuits at Holy Cross College, and served in … Continue reading John Francis Cuddy
Dennis Chase (21 Beacon Street)
Created by Leonard Heideman (1928-2007) Quiet, humble DENNIS CHASE (good name, that, if maybe a trifle too on-the-nose, for a P.I.) was the mild-mannered hero of 21 Beacon Street, a short-lived television show on NBC that sounded like a 77 Sunset Strip clone, but wasn't. The bow tie might have been a clue. Instead, it followed … Continue reading Dennis Chase (21 Beacon Street)
Ruth Law
Created by Ken Liu "He misses her, like missing a mirror you’ve broken." In "The Regular," a short story by acclaimed sci-fi writer Ken Liu, we're introduced to RUTH LAW, a coldly efficient half-Chinese, half-American private eye who works out of a tiny office above a butcher shop in Boston's Chinatown. She specializes mostly in "hidden assets, … Continue reading Ruth Law
Patrick Kenzie & Angie Gennaro
Created by Dennis Lehane (1965--) Dennis Lehane's 1994 A Drink Before the War rocked the boat when it came out, and introduced childhood pals turned Boston private eyes PATRICK KENZIE and ANGELA GENNARO. Patrick and Angie grew up in an Irish/Polish/Italian working-class neighbourhood where "your boundaries begin in the schoolyard and last a lifetime" (according … Continue reading Patrick Kenzie & Angie Gennaro
James P. Hillton, Sophia Blossom & Madeleine V. LaCroix
Created by Andrew McAleer "James P. Hilton could have gotten fat on Wall Street with his old man, but like most rebellious Harvard boys, he became a private investigator instead. This is his story."-- the opening of Double Endorsement Lock the doors, here comes trouble. Slacker private eye JAMES P. HILLTON , his partner SOPHIA BLOSSOM, … Continue reading James P. Hillton, Sophia Blossom & Madeleine V. LaCroix