Created by Ted Wood Pseudonyms include Jack Barn (1931-2019) "Reid Bennett is one of the most interesting series whodunit heroes of the decade." — Chicago Sun-Times Not really a private eye, but like James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux or Chester Himes' Grave Coffin Ed Johnson & Digger Jones, Ted Wood's two-fisted REID BENNETT is a police … Continue reading Reid Bennett
Tag: Canada
Terry Lane (Taking the Falls)
Created by ?? Taking the Falls was a short-lived Canadian comedy/drama TV series about mouthy, brash private detective, TERRY LANE, who works with Catherine McVicar, a straight-laced hot-shot corporate lawyer working together in the tourist town of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Terry was played by Cynthia Dale, the popular star of the long-running Canadian legal drama … Continue reading Terry Lane (Taking the Falls)
Orson Carver
Created by Gary Coffin "I have no interest to dredge up my history. It's over now. I did their crime, and I did the time. All I want is to forget my past and find some semblance of a life." — Mercy Lake "It's a rough town." — All That We Lost Twenty years as … Continue reading Orson Carver
Crang
Created by Jack Batten Shades of Perry Mason! The grand old notion of a defense attorney making like a private detective was alive and well--in Toronto of all places! CRANG (one name, please) also shows a definite Spenser influence, albeit in a Toronto/CBC/yuppie kinda way (ask a Canadian fora translation). He's a struggling, rather quirky … Continue reading Crang
Meg Lacey
Created by Elisabeth Bowers "No matter how paranoid and cautious I am, I'm never quite paranoid or cautious enough." Vancouver, British Columbia's MEG LACEY was a refreshing addition to the growing ranks of female eyes in the late-eighties. She may not have been as tough or independent as Kinsey Millhone or V.I. Warshawski, but she … Continue reading Meg Lacey
Joe Barley
Created by Eric Wright (1929-2015) JOE BARLEY is a part-time professor teaching English literature at Hambleton, a small community college in Toronto, while also occasionally moonlighting as a "watcher" by a local security company. Subplots involving the college and his sometimes-messy personal life with longtime partner Carole crop up frequently in this smart, light-hearted … Continue reading Joe Barley
Lucy Trimble (aka Lucy Brenner)
Created by Eric Wright (1929-2015) LUCY TRIMBLE's a forty-something, part-time librarian and owner of a bed-and-breakfast, living out the last days of a crumbling marriage, in the sleepy Ontario town of Longborough, somewhere 150 miles or so east of Toronto. So how does she end up running a Toronto detective agency? Seems she’s the sole … Continue reading Lucy Trimble (aka Lucy Brenner)
Merry Bell
Created by Anthony Bidulka Going home is never easy. But years of gender-affirming surgery in Vancouver finds twenty-something MERRY BELL running back to Saskatoon—or at least Livingsky, Saskatchewan, a thinly disguised version of it. Or is it Regina? Or a combination of the two? It’s hard to tell—Bidulka seems to be mixing and matching Saskatchewan cities, … Continue reading Merry Bell
Russell Quant
Created by Anthony Bidulka An unexpectedly amusing series that goes down surprisingly easy, thanks to Saskatoon private eye RUSSELL QUANT’s charmingly chatty, loosey goosey first-person narration, which he apparently got from his creator, Anthony Bidulka. The author describes Quant as “the first and only half-Ukranian, half-Irish, wine-swilling, world-travelling, wise-cracking, Prairie-dwelling, Canadian private eye being written … Continue reading Russell Quant
The Maple Leaf Rag
Other Canadian Eyes "You thought the national flag was about a leaf, didn't you? Look harder. It's where someone got axed in the snow." -- Margaret Atwood THE PRAIRIES Becker by Martin Kitsch (Alberta) Merry Bell by Anthony Bidulka (Livingsky, Saskatchewan) Mike Cobb & Adam Cullen by David A. Poulsen (Calgary, Alberta) Eddie Dancer by … Continue reading The Maple Leaf Rag