Mystery novels starring amateur detectives

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Why are these so much fun? I love Barbara Neely's Blanche White books to death despite the fact that the whole time I'm thinking "How am I swallowing the fact that wherever this oooordinary woman goes there's a murder??? Oh, look at the pretty prose and the neat one-liner and the perfectly drawn and presented character, skum de udm dum dum, now I'm crying over a nonexistent person, wow she's good...

I love 'em so much I'm even trying to write one. It's HARD. Anybody got any other titles worth a mention? There's no research like reading...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Saturday, 6 March 2004 00:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Perhaps my favorites in this category are the Richard and Francis Lockridge Mr And Mrs North series. I know they are often considered a rip on The Thin Man series, but I love the martinis and cats and twin beds.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Sunday, 7 March 2004 04:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I wanted to French-kiss Nancy Drew before I knew what French-kissing was. (She counts as an "amateur detective," right? Even with her dad being DA or whatever he was? Or was that the Hardy Boys's dad? I always wondered why she didn't hook up with Frank or Joe Hardy. Seemed like some sort of law of nature that they should--like Superman and Wonder Woman, another thwarted couple.)

― Phil Christman, Tuesday, 9 March 2004 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I just realized how stupid my first sentence above may have sounded: I mean, these books are fun, but they aren't JUST fun...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

there WAS a series where they hooked up.. riverside something, if im not mistaken.. frank and nancy, joe with some flaky friend of hers

this is funny

― cheeesoo (cheeesoo), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to be very very anti them in my old rockist days. Nosey busibodies stopping decent hardworking criminals getting away with it. But these days I have softened somewhat, especially if the amateur tec is actually a criminal (Lawrence Block's Burgular series is tremendous fun).

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Does Motherless Brooklyn count?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Btw, I'd be happy if Jonathan Lethem turned 'Gun, with Occasional Music' into a semi-schlocky ongoing series like the genre books it pays tribute too. The ending sets it up for just that, but he's probably too important and writerly now to go back to playing around in cyber-noir. All the delicious one-liners that could have been, *sigh*.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

A shout for Precious Ramotswe from the Alexander McCall-Smith books. Botswana's number 1 lady detective. For the descriptions of everyday life if nothing more. The detective stuff is almost an afterthought.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"I always wondered why she didn't hook up with Frank or Joe Hardy." There are definitely some books where they are together. I think she's with Frank, the blonde one anyway.

I read this fanatastic book with a West Indian unemployed guy who becomes a completely inept detective in somewhere like Birmingham. Does anyone know how i can find this again?

― isadora (isadora), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 21:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd be happy if Jonathan Lethem turned 'Gun, with Occasional Music' into a semi-schlocky ongoing series like the genre books it pays tribute too. The ending sets it up for just that, but he's probably too important and writerly now to go back to playing around in cyber-noir. All the delicious one-liners that could have been, *sigh*.

I second this idea.

And whole-heartedly agree about Precious Ramotswe - she's a real delight.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 09:38 (twenty-one years ago)

But surely Prescious is not an amateur.

The Janbet Evvanovitch books kinda count, the lead is a bounty hunter but usually has to solve a murder or two along the way to get her prey. (Also deal with rubbish love life and getting slightly repetative now destroying cars/being crap with guns).

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

This is semantics, but Mma Ramotswe has no formal qualifications and started the agency because she thought she was a shrewd judge of human character.

Not that the books are really about detection anyway, the cases tend to get in the way of descriptions of daily life in Botswana.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 12:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm - I'll agree that Mma Ramotswe is an amateur detective (and her secretary even more so) and that the books aren't necessarily about detection - they seem to be more of an exploration of the Botswanan culture to me.

Thinking of other books with amateur detectives, some of Carl Hiaasen's books come to mind - they have detectives and newspaper reporters and average Joes and Janes. And they're delightfully twisted and offensive and are an accurate representation of Florida, I think.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 02:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I just thought of the following - City of Light by Lauren Belfer and also, maybe, Caleb Carr's The Alienist?

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Pete OTM - Bernie Rhodenbarr is my current favourite sleuth - which is a word which only applies to amateurs.

I was going to do my pHd on this subject - something about the development of detective fiction from the amatuer englishman, through hard-boiled, proper coppers then the growth of the non-police professional (ie, not amatuer, but usually some other part of the state's medico-judicial apparatus. This would be done using Lacan's theory of the 4 discourses, and I thought it had real potential.

Sadly, I was doing it part-time and didn't have the motivation, and appeared on University Challenge which was a key motivator to registering in the first place.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 19 March 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm saving my appearance on Uni Challenge til after I start my PhD for this very reason.

There have always been amateur sleths around though. Where in your schema say does Father Brown fit?

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 19 March 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

There is only one great novel in this category!

"Puddenheaded Wilson " by Mark Twain .

Set over a period of 20 odd years in a small town on the Missisipi; it has so many plots and counter plots , it is astonishing. Once you pick it up, yo will never put it down !!!

" I wish I owned half that dog....."

― Laurie Ridyard, Sunday, 21 March 2004 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

The greatest amateur detective of them all is Ellery Queen. When I was a kid(70's) the bright yellow Ellery Queen books used to be a huge section in libraries, but they seem to have become forgotten. I still love them. They're pure puzzle, but decently enough written. Ellery Queen is both the author of the books (in reality 2 co-authors), and the amateur detective. The character Ellery Queen is an author of mystery stories (post-modern enough for you?).
Ellery's father is a police inspector, which explains why Ellery keeps getting mysteries to solve.
Though there is one bizarre book where Ellery is driving somewhere in mid-America, gets lost (or possibly he's flying and his plane crashes), and comes across a community that's totally isolated and self-contained. A few days after he arrives, the community have their first ever murder. I've just remembered it was called 'And On the eighth Day' and looked it up on Amazon, where I find it was written not by the usual co-authors, but by someone called Avram Davidson. It does have a strangeness about it that the other books don't have, and you should all read it immediately (and I should re-read it)
Also from my seventies childhood was an Ellery Queen TV series.

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 12:13 (twenty-one years ago)

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