Created by Nicholas Wagner "When night fell, they burned a campfire and ate a kangaroo." A hard-drinking, hard-loving, hard-edged hard man for hire, COLM STEINER works for the London-based Enquiry Service in the years following World War I, doing whatever needs to be done: find a missing person, qualm a gang war, track down a … Continue reading Colm Steiner
Tag: Canada
Leo Falloon (No Clue)
Created by Brent Butt "Whoa! Where are all the guns coming from? This is Canada!" Lovably schlubby Canadian actor/comedian Brent Butt writes and stars in No Clue, a 2014 comedy in which mild-mannered, middle-aged Vancouver novelty salesman LEO FALLOON with offices on Pender Street. Nope, he's not a private eye at all, but is mistaken … Continue reading Leo Falloon (No Clue)
Reid Bennett
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
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