Created by Graham Greene Definitely not a private eye tale, or even a mystery, really (at least in the traditional sense), but Graham Greene’s 1951 novel, The End of the Affair does feature private investigator ALBERT PARKIS of the Savage Detective Agency in a pivotal, if secondary, role. In London, as World War II rages and the bombs … Continue reading Albert Parkis (The End of the Affair)
Tag: Private Detective
Francis Quarles
Created by Julian Symons(1912-1994) Sharp-dressed man about town FRANCIS QUARLES was the low-key private detective who worked the clue-ridden streets of post-WWII London, solving countless cleverly plotted fair-play short stories in the fifties and sixties, paying homage to the Golden Age of crime fiction. Most of them first appeared in The London Evening Standard, although … Continue reading Francis Quarles
Francis MacNab
Created by John Ferguson (1873–) Scottish author John Ferguson must have liked the name. He wrote a mystery in 1921, The Dark Geraldine, which featured a Scottish policeman by the name of FRANCIS MacNAB. And then seven years later, in The Man in the Dark (1928), he resurrected the name for another detective, but this time … Continue reading Francis MacNab
Private Detective No. 39
Created by John W. Postgate Pseudonyms include James Mooney (1851-1921) I have absolutely no idea what Private Detective No. 39; or, the Mysterious Client is about, but the title looks promising, suggesting perhaps one of the early American rivals of Sherlock Holmes. According to Hubin, it was set in Chicago, and was initially published in 1892 … Continue reading Private Detective No. 39
Quincy Adams Sawyer & Quincy Adams Sawyer (Junior)
Created by Charles Felton Pidgin (1844-1923) Despite over a century of misinformation and conflation, there were actually two detectives named QUINCY ADAMS SAWYER, father and son, both created by Charles Felton Pidgin, although only one was really a private investigator. The first Quincy was more of an amateur lawyer sleuth. He began his career as … Continue reading Quincy Adams Sawyer & Quincy Adams Sawyer (Junior)
Francis Bayard (“The Sphinx”)
Created by Jean des Marcenelles Pseudonym of Jean-Henri Dancoine (1913-95) Parisian private eye FRANCIS BAYARD appeared in a series of light-hearted short stories in Police-Privée and other French pulps from about 1938 until 1943, when he began appearing in his own series, Les Aventures du détective Francis Bayard, which would make him a contemporary of Leo … Continue reading Francis Bayard (“The Sphinx”)
Eugène Tarpon
Created by Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942-1995) EUGÈNE TARPON is a real, honest-to-goodness, hard-boiled Parisian private eye, who appeared in two novels by the legendary French noirista, Jean-Patrick Manchette, as well as a couple of films. Tarpon's right out of the pages of the American detective pulps of the thirties and forties, but painted black. When we … Continue reading Eugène Tarpon
Geoffrey Boscobell
Created by Cecil M. Wills (1891-1966) "Share your suspicions with Ex-Inspecor Boscobell" --front cover tagline on 1st edition of Defeat of a Detective When we first meet him, in Author in Distress (1934), DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GEOFFREY BOSCOBELL is a rising star in Scotland Yard, his boyish demeanor and easy-going facade never quite hiding a shrewd and cunning … Continue reading Geoffrey Boscobell
Kōsuke Kindaichi
Created by Seishi Yokomizo (1902-1981) Arguably the most beloved Japanese detective of all time, Seishi Yokomizo's KŌSUKE KINDAICHI first appeared in The Honjin Murders, which was serialized in the magazine Houseki from April to December 1946. It's a brainstomper of a locked room murder, taking place in a huge family mansion surrounded by thick snow, which many people … Continue reading Kōsuke Kindaichi
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