Created by Tochi Onyebuchi (1987-) "Fortune always left whatever room I walked into, which is why I don’t leave my place much these days..." Merde! In Harmattan Season (2025) by Tochi Onyebuchi, we meet hard luck West African BOUBACAR who's been a “chercher” (a finder of lost persons) for a long time. Maybe too long? … Continue reading Boubacar
Tag: Historical 1890s
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
Oscar Schiller
Created by Douglas C. Jones (1924 –98) "If he farts, kill him." -- Oscar's directions on the proper method for guarding a suspectBefore there was Deadwood or Unforgiven, there was 1991's The Search for Temperance Moon, which reads like a sepia-toned hard-boiled cross between Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove and James Crumley's detective novels featuring C.W. Sughrue … Continue reading Oscar Schiller
Hanns Gross & Karl Werthen
Created by J. Sydney Jones Real-life criminalogist HANNS GROSS and fictional attorney/private investigator KARL WERTHEN are the heroes of a series of intricately plotted historical mysteries by author J. Sydney Jones set in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Often referred to as "the father of criminology," Doktor Hanns Gustav Adolf Gross (1847-1915) was an Austrian criminal jurist and examining magistrate who … Continue reading Hanns Gross & Karl Werthen
Cyrus Barker & Thomas Llewelyn
Created by Will Thomas At the close of the nineteenth century, CYRUS BARKER ("undoubtedly England's premiere private enquiry agent") and his assistant THOMAS LLEWELYN ply their trade on the fog-shrouded (and pointedly multicultural) Victorian streets of London, in an atmospheric historical series of mysteries by Will Thomas. Not exactly Sherlock Holmes, perhaps, but Sherlock-adjacent, and the … Continue reading Cyrus Barker & Thomas Llewelyn
Horace Dorrington
Created by Arthur Morrison (1863-1945) Arthur Morrison is one of the forgotten crime authors of the Conan Doyle generation. He grew up in genuine poverty, and is remembered by literary critics for his social protest "slum novels", most famously the semi-autobiographical A Child of the Jago. His work also included the intriguingly-titled, but as I … Continue reading Horace Dorrington
John Quincannon & Sabina Carpenter
John Quincannon Created by Bill Pronzini Pseudonyms include Jack Foxx, Alex Saxon, Brett Halliday, William Jeffrey, Romer Zane Grey, and Robert Hart Davis (1943 --) Sabina Carpenter Created by Marcia Muller From Bill Pronzini, creator of The Nameless Detective, comes Old West former Secret Service agent JOHN QUINCANNON and his partner, former Pinkerton operative SABINA … Continue reading John Quincannon & Sabina Carpenter