Sunday 6 December 2015

My favourite fictional detective????

You aren't asking for much this morning are you Vanessa? I mean really, just one? You aren't serious are you?
I mean, let's face it, I read detective fiction. I have just finished Peter James, "You are dead" and I am about to embark on Elizabeth George's "A banquet of consequences" - hmmm....Roy Grace and Thomas Lynley...
As a child I wandered through Agatha Christie...Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. I read Simenon...Maigret was deliciously foreign to a twelve year old. Or, more recently, Donna Leon's Venetian, Guido Brunetti - or perhaps Henning Mankell's Wallander? Mmm...
The poetry writing Adam Dalgleish perhaps? PD James did a very good job there...or Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford? Mmmm...
Or one of those historical detectives perhaps, Cadfael (Ellis Peters) appeals but so does Marcus Didius Falco (Lindsey Davis) and Matthew Bartholomew (Susanna Gregory) and Brother Athelstan is not to be taken too seriously but he's fun I suppose. Mmmmm....
Endeavour Morse (Colin Dexter) - now there's a name.
Cliff Janeway (John Dunning) appeals because of the book related crimes. 
There's Kinsey Millhone (Sue Grafton) - we'll soon be at Z in the series and there won't be any more...Kay Scarpetta (Patricia Cornwell) doesn't appeal as much as Tempe Brennan (Kathy Reichs). Mrs Pargeter (Simon Brett) is rather different and so is Imogen Quy (Jill Paton-Walsh) but neither as exotic as Precious Ramotswe (Alexander McCall-Smith).
Here Downunder we have Cliff Hardy (Peter Corris) - much beloved by the Senior Cat - and Hal Challis (Garry Disher), Arthur Upfield's Bony, Anya Chrichton (Kathryn Fox) and of course the Phryne Fisher series (Kerry Greenwood) - just a few of many.
But I think I prefer the traditional British detectives. Ian Rankin's Rebus, Susan Hill's Simon Serraillier, Quintin Jardine's Bob Skinner, Stuart McBride's, Logan McRae and Aline Templeton's Marjorie Fleming.... 
I have barely started.
I think I will have to go back to my childhood again...Tin Tin? He gets a bit racist at times. No, may be the Reverend Septimus Treloar (Stephen Chance/PhilipTurner)...
Oh, I don't know...how can I choose just one?
 

2 comments:

Allison said...

But...but... You left out Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey and Josephine Tey's Alan Grant. Have you read any Leaphorn and Chee from Tony Hillerman?

catdownunder said...

I know, I know...I barely tipped my toe in the water!