Created by Thomas B. Dewey Pseudonyms includeTom Brandt and Cord Wainer (1915-81) "It may be that the recent white Anglo-Saxon Christian struggle to canonize the informer will be lost in the rivers and back streets of America, where 'rat' is still spelled with three letters and the only way to save your life is to … Continue reading “Mac” Robinson
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J. Howard “Jigger” Moran
Created by John Roeburt (1909-72) JIGGER MORAN is a disbarred Illinois attorney and sometime-cabbie who now cruises the streets of Manhattan at night, keeping an eye open for the main chance, when he's not shooting craps. He takes cases no honest lawyer or P.I. would touch, and is on relatively good terms with several of … Continue reading J. Howard “Jigger” Moran
Are You Trying to Be Funny?
The Funniest Eyes No, really. Call it "Humour in a Severed Jugular Vein," if you must, but people have been poking fun at the P.I. genre -- and the whole mystery genre, for that matter -- almost as soon as it appeared. But there were a few brave souls over the years who dared to … Continue reading Are You Trying to Be Funny?
It’s Hammer Time!
Send-ups and Put-Downs of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer "I passed this kid sucking a lollipop. Don Brown dead, and him sucking a lollipop. I rammed it down his throat. I hate injustice." -- from "Don Brown's Body" by Jean Kerr As literary poobah Christopher La Farge pointed out in an article on the Mickey Spillane … Continue reading It’s Hammer Time!
Rod Riley (The Girl Hunt Ballet)
Created by Betty Comden and Adolph Green It's not the same old song-and-dance, my friend... ROD RILEY's something of a parody figure like Guy Noir, and he exists in only one extended dance sequence, but take it from me--he's wonderful. The number, which appears in the 1953 film musical The Band Wagon (probably best known … Continue reading Rod Riley (The Girl Hunt Ballet)
Guy Noir (The Prairie Home Companion)
Created by Garrison B. Keillor "It was Valentine's Day in Minnesota. It was cold and dark and bitter and that was just the people." "A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. . . . But on the 12th Floor of the Acme Building, one man is still trying to … Continue reading Guy Noir (The Prairie Home Companion)
Lena Padget
Created by Lynn S. Hightower Here's one feisty Kentucky woman who shines her own kinda light. But watch out for the baseball bat. When we first meet her, in 1993's Satan's Lambs, Lexington, Kentucky private eye LENA PADGET is trying to deal with the imminent release, on parole, of her brother-in-law from prison, where he's … Continue reading Lena Padget
Teddy Maksumnic
Created by Jens Lapidus VIP-rummet (The VIP Room; 2014) kicked off a brand new and equally ambitious trilogy by celebrated Swedish author, Jens Lapidus, creator of the acclaimed Stockholm Noir trilogy (2014). The novel introduced Serbian immigrant, former criminal and ex-con (eight years for his part in a kidnapping he apparently had nothing to do with) … Continue reading Teddy Maksumnic
Aloysius Archer
Created by David Baldacci It's 1949, and rough-and-tumble WWII vet ALOYSIUS ARCHER is a hard-luck drifter and a total shit magnet, freshly sprung from Carderock Prison, when he hits the road in  One Good Deed (2019), a sly, noirish change of pace from  the #1 New York Times bestselling author Baldacci. His parole conditions are pretty … Continue reading Aloysius Archer
The Five Most Realistic PIs In Fiction
According to Elizabeth Breck In October 2021, Elizabeth Breck, licensed private investigator and the author of the Madison Kelly private eye series,  wrote a short piece for CrimeReads  on the five fictional sleuths (and one special mention) who she thought did the job right. The choices surprised me at first, but she makes a solid case for … Continue reading The Five Most Realistic PIs In Fiction