Discussion Who is the best fictional detective?

[JazzPotatoes]

With Glass Onion now out on Netflix (I watched it, it's great fun) I thought this would be the ideal time to get Famis thoughts on who the great fictional detective is.

Below is a list of prime suspects:

Dupin: the originator of the genre. He created the template that everyone else followed.

Sherlock Holmes: the most famous detective of them all. Inspired real life forensic scientists with his deductive reasoning.

Hercule Poirot: the gentleman detective, who focused more on psychology than scientific analysis.

Miss Marple: if your Old Man decided to be better at solving murders than the police.

Columbo: the blue collar master of sweating perps and beating a confession out of them using only his wits

Jessica Fletcher: the crime writer and amateur sleuth residing in the murder capital of the world.

Benoit Blanc: the new guy on the scene. Untangles murders so complicated you'd almost think they were written by a director with a penchant for subverting expectations.

Honourable mentions:

Brother Cadfael: a 12th Century Monk with an expert knowledge of herbs and poisons

 

[neil]

I really don’t care for those Knives Out movies. The new one is so pleased with itself, I couldn’t make it to the end.

Columbo is the best detective

 

[Red Monster]

The best detective (ahem, inspector) isn’t on your list.

 

[Deleted member 2258]

Detective Pikachu

 

[Previously on Lost]

Lennie Briscoe

 

[robertman2]

Adachi persona 4

 

[meatbag]

Great shout outs to Dupin and Cadfael, but I'm gonna go vanilla here and pick Sherlock Holmes. Nothing is quite as satisfying as seeing Holmes or any other characters inspired by him doing a meticulous breakdown of the crime and tying all the pieces together with logic.

So kinda obvious who my favorite fictional detective is-- it's Detective Conan.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Kidding, I voted for Columbo

 

[JazzPotatoes]

I really don’t care for those Knives Out movies. The new one is so pleased with itself, I couldn’t make it to the end.

Columbo is the best detective

I treat the Knives Out films more as satires on the genre rather than true murder mysteries:- they're far more concerned with taking the piss out of the genre conventions rather than setting up a mystery everyone can follow/solve. The first film has a character who vomits if they tell a lie, which is just brilliant.

I think Columbo is my choice as well. He's got the same powers of perception and deduction as the other contenders on the list, but no one comes close to his ability to lock onto a perp and make their life hell until they admit guilt.

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

Big fan of Akechi Kogoro, but Kosuke Kindaichi is my fave. For Kogoro I would recommend The Black Lizard, and for Kindaichi The Inugami Clan is the classic to read.