Created by Cheryl A. Head CHARLENE "CHARLIE" MACK is a Black private eye from Detroit, and Boy! Is she ever! She's covers that beleaguered city better than anyone this side of Loren Estleman's Amos Walker. And just in case it slips your mind, the series is billed as "The Charlie Mack Motown Mysteries." So don't … Continue reading Charlie Mack
Tag: Michigan
Kat Dylan
Created by Chris Wieland Adding a little much-needed grit and ooomph to the middle grade reading level is KAT DYLAN, a smart, feisty 13-year-old girl detective. Kat and her kid brother Alec are the children of divorced parents (daddy's an LAPD homicide cop, mom's an Army nurse), but when Mom gets deployed, she and her … Continue reading Kat Dylan
Fred Crockett
Created by Brad Lang "There are times when I think that being a private detective has nothing to do with brains or talent or skill." -- Crockett muses on his profession in The Perdition Express Imagine a hipper, younger Rockford. Less political and definitely more hard-boiled than Moses Wine; less Hefneresque than Goulart's John Easy. … Continue reading Fred Crockett
Sunderson
Created by Jim Harrison (1937-2016) Not really a private eye, perhaps, but Jim Harrison's SUNDERSON, after years as a detective, is no amateur sleuth. What he is is a contrary, stubborn, violent, horny and unrepentant SOB; a retired homicide dick, a brooding philosopher and an unapologetic intellectual who refuses to let things--big or small--slide. And to … Continue reading Sunderson
Jack Ryan
Created by Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) With a few notable exceptions, Elmore Leonard didn't really write series characters, or even private eyes, for that matter. Still, his books are full of recurring characters who seemed to randomly wander in and out of his fiction, sometimes only briefly, and sometimes making themselves right at home. And a … Continue reading Jack Ryan
Art Hardin
Created by Robert E. Bailey In his acclaimed, Shamus-nominated first outing, Private Heat (2002), Robert Bailey's retired counter intelligence officer turned private op ART HARDIN is asked by a prominent Grand Rapids, Mich., lawyer to protect his niece from her abusive cop husband. But there's way more here than first meets the eye. It turns … Continue reading Art Hardin
John Rockne (Grosse Pointe Pulp)
Created by Dan Ames Once a rookie cop in the well-to-do Detroit enclave of Grosse Pointe, on the shores of Like Michigan, JOHN ROCKNE was kicked off the force after he screwed up big time, making a fatal error in judgement which lead to the brutal murder of a young man. Six years later, he's … Continue reading John Rockne (Grosse Pointe Pulp)
Ralph Poteet
Created by Loren D. Estleman Motor City private eye RALPH POTEET is hardly the knight in the shiniest armour. In fact, he's kinda scuzzy, a low-rent bottomfeeder who calls himself a private investigator, but this walking stain will stoop to just about anything, including blackmailing the Catholic church, to keep himself in Four Roses (with … Continue reading Ralph Poteet
Michael MacGruder (Cagney and Lacey)
Created by Steven Brown Intended as a possible spin-off from Cagney & Lacey, Orion Productions had high hopes for "The Bounty Hunter," an unsold pilot disguised as an episode in the popular show's third season. BrianDennehy starred as MICHAEL MacGRUDER, a tough guy manhunter from Michigan on the trail of a bail jumper, who's wanted in New … Continue reading Michael MacGruder (Cagney and Lacey)
Jack Bodine
Created by Thomas Bunn (1944--) Hmmmm.... wonder if he's any relation to Jethro? Lansing, Michigan gumshoe JACK BODINE puts his P.I. ticket on the line frequently, because he tends to take his cases very personally. In the first novel, Worse Than Death (1989), for example, he becomes emotionally attached when he takes on a case involving a … Continue reading Jack Bodine