Created by John Verdon For someone who is not a locked room or impossible crime buff, Think of a Number (2010), the first in a popular series featuring DAVE GURNEY, a retired NYC homicide dick, was one hell of an introduction. It's a genre that's easy to make fun of (and I have), but it's actually … Continue reading Dave Gurney
Tag: New York State
Tecumseh Fox
Created by Rex Stout (1886-1975) TECUMSEH FOX is a private eye who shows up in a few novels by Rex Stout. Unlike some of his other detectives, Tecumseh is an average-looking guy, except for his "penetrating" brown eyes and his rather dapper fashion sense. Tecumseh lives and works out of a large farm full … Continue reading Tecumseh Fox
Siobhan O’Brien
Created by Sung J. Woo An intriguing and button-pushing debut, Skin Deep (2020) pokes into all sorts of ideas about identity, race, image and the nature-versus-nurture fandango, and introduces us to middle-aged Korean-American rookie P.I. SIOBHAN O'BRIEN. Very Korean-sounding, huh? Turns out she was adopted by an Irish father and a Norweigan mother as an infant) … Continue reading Siobhan O’Brien
John Thomas Ross
Created by Thomas Bunn (1944--) The copy on the dust jacket of Closet Bones (1977) mentions Sam Spade in referring to private detective JOHN THOMAS ROSS, but the resemblance is closer to Hammett’s other detective, the nameless Continental Op. Ross is paunchy, losing his hair and not getting any younger, but yet not easily waylaid … Continue reading John Thomas Ross
Gus Murphy
Created by Reed Farrel Coleman Retired Suffolk County cop GUS MURPHY thought he was done with the whole cops-and-robbers thing, content to drive the airport courtesy van for the Paragon Hotel, shop at Costco and do an occasional low-key, P.I.-type favour for a friend. Until his life hits the fan and he's driven back into the … Continue reading Gus Murphy
Duck Darley
Created by Casey Barrett Unlicensed New York P.I. DUCK DARLEY has been around, and has the physical and emotional scars to prove it. A former felon and alcoholic who's currently walking the more-or-less straight-and-narrow, he self-medicates by vaping pot, attending AA meetings and getting beat up at his local dojo. Oh, he's also the estranged … Continue reading Duck Darley
Larkin Crusoe
Created by Ed Weiner "Just ignore me. Everybody does. Even I do." -- Ed tries to charm a client CRUSOE LARKIN is the best private detective in Woodstock (yes, that Woodstock!). But it's not really something worth boasting about -- he's also the only private detective in the small town (population less than 6000) in … Continue reading Larkin Crusoe
John Corey
Created by Nelson DeMille Pseudonyms include Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, Ellen Kay and Brad Matthews (1943--) Spy or eye? JOHN COREY is not, strictly speaking, a private eye. But using the same slightly loosened criteria afforded Dave Robicheaux and a few others on this site, he deserves consideration here by virtue of the wiseass, irreverent, … Continue reading John Corey
Cass Neary
Created by Elizabeth Hand (1957--) CASS NEARY was a great photographer. "For a fraction of a second," she ruefully confesses, in her acclaimed debut, Generation Loss (2007). But back in the day (the seventies, in her case), she was the "it" girl of photography, gleefully snapping gritty, iconic shots of New York's burgeoning punk rock scene, … Continue reading Cass Neary
Isaiah Coleridge
Created by Laird Barron Bookish ISAIAH COLERIDGE always fantasized about being a Chandleresque kinda private eye, but when you're a big, hulking, half-Maori hunk, seemingly boiling over with potential violence, it ain't that easy. And working as an enforcer for the Alaskan mob didn't seem to be the right way to get there. But at least … Continue reading Isaiah Coleridge