Created by Lee Child Developed for Television by Nick Santora & Nicholas Wootton The Jack Reacher Industrial Complex continues to spread, with this spinoff of Amazon Prime's Reacher TV show. It follows former military cop turned tough-as-nails Chicago private eye FRANCES NEAGLY (played by Maria Sten), as she works cases in "The World of Reacher." A … Continue reading Frances Neagley
Tag: Chicago
Lewis Wait
Created by Marshall Thornton Young, bookish LEWIS WAIT finds himself a reluctant operative for the legendary Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He didn't really want the job — he considers the agency merely "a band of thugs and strikebreakers" — but when financial hardship hit the family after the death of his father and brother, he … Continue reading Lewis Wait
Rusty Forbes
Created by Milton K. Ozaki Other pseudonyms include Robert O. Saber & Mark Shane (1913-89) "The car was hot and so was the blonde who drove it. A smart shamus like Rusty Forbes should have known better than to hole up with her in a tourist cabin. By the time that the little picnic was … Continue reading Rusty Forbes
Seekay
Created by Paul ErnstPseudonyms included Frederick Carr, Ernest Jason Fredericks, Kenneth Robeson, Robert Wallace, Chris Brand, George Alden Edson, George Edson, Emerson Graves, Paul Frederick Stern(1899-1985) "I am going to turn on the light now. Do not be alarmed at my face." Arguably the first of the "defective detectives," Paul Ernst's SEEKAY was a tall, … Continue reading Seekay
Casper Barnett
Created by John Weagly "... the Heart O’ Chicago motel... was the perfect spot for a not-quite romantic rendezvous or if you wanted a seedy place to try heroin for the first time."— Casper sets a mood in “Ferocious Infidelity” CASPER BARNETT is a P. I. in Chicago whose stories, the author admits, he likes to … Continue reading Casper Barnett
Cooper MacLeish
Created by Sam Reaves Pseudonyms include Dominic Martell "It was a long way to fall, a very long fall through the cold night air, and she fell the whole way without making a sound. At the end there was a sound, a sudden sick sound, but after a minute of stillness no one had come … Continue reading Cooper MacLeish
Tyrone Gable & Rinty “The Gaffer” McLaren
Created by Niklas Three It's 1999 and "hard-boiled" Windy City dicks TYRONE GABLE and RINTY "THE GAFFER" MCLAREN are the cash-strapped stars of the action-packed, wise-cracking Roll (2023), venturing deep into Dick Francis territory, travelling to Louisiana to track down a prized thoroughbred that has disappeared. It's all narrated by the surpisingly chatty Gable, a … Continue reading Tyrone Gable & Rinty “The Gaffer” McLaren
Harry Garnish & Sister Bridget O’Toole
Created by Frank McConnell (1942-99) A sort of at times cozyish spin on A.A. Fair's Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. Or is it Nero Wolfe and Archie? Hard-drinking, chain-smoking, slow-thinking Skokie, Illinois private eye HARRY GARNISH has a big problem in life. And it isn't his alcohol intake, his tobacco habit or his lack of … Continue reading Harry Garnish & Sister Bridget O’Toole
Harriet Morrow
Created by Rob Osler Is it just me? Or does there seem to be a surprising number of books and other media in the first few decades of the 21st century inspired by Kate Warne, the Pinkerton Detective Agency's first female operative? Some are endless retellings of the same facts, others offer fictionalized and romanticized … Continue reading Harriet Morrow
Richard Stone
Created by Max Allan Collins P.I. renaissance man Max Allan Collins has also crossed over into other genres, including a couple of short novellasfeaturing 1840s Chicago private eye, RICHARD STONE, which combine dark fantasy elements with the P.I. story. Collins considers the first Stone novella 1996's "A Wreath for Marley" his gene-splice of The Maltese … Continue reading Richard Stone