Who doesn’t love a good crime series? Part of the fun, of course, lies in the mix of safety and danger. Horrible things may be happening on-screen or on the page, but we’re safe at home on our sofas. That feeling of safety comes from the genre, too – we know what to expect from our detectives, and they always deliver! Let’s meet our cast of familiar characters – and maybe get inspired about what book to read or what programme to watch next.
The intellectual detective
He does crosswords while listening to opera, quotes poetry and will use his knowledge of Greek mythology to solve a puzzle. He knows that the best place to find a clue is by inspecting the books lying open on the victim’s bedside table. He’s always the boss, and is usually paired with someone far more down to earth.
Typical example: Inspector Morse
The damaged detective
Also known as the “defective detective”, he doesn’t function well in his personal life. He’s probably divorced, maybe fighting with his ex-wife for custody of the kids, and he lives alone, surrounded by empty pizza boxes and beer cans. He has “seen too much” and/or “made mistakes”. A female sidekick (see below) will do him good and tell him to put a clean shirt on.
Typical example: Detective Inspector Alec Hardy in Broadchurch
The female sidekick
She has to prove herself and be twice as good as the men around her. Her fiancé simply doesn’t understand why she has to work such long hours, and her boss thinks she can do better than marry that loser. In fact, her boss might be secretly in love with her.
Typical example: Robin Ellacott in the Cormoran Strike novels by Robert Galbraith (aka J. K. Rowling)
The working-mother detective
Her home life goes to the dogs while she’s out chasing killers. On the job, there’s a phone call from the school that one of the kids has forgotten their swimming kit. She’s always home late, her teenage children don’t talk to her, and family dinner generally happens without her.
Typical examples: Detective Inspector Sarah Lund in The Killingand Detective, Chief Inspector Janine Lewis in Blue Murder
The obsessed detective
All detectives are obsessed by their cases – that goes without saying. Families, partners, friends… everything comes second to the case. But some detectives are more obsessed than others and can become consumed by the darkness of the crimes they have to deal with. For them, it’s personal. They might become obsessed with “the one who got away” – a criminal they failed to put behind bars in the past.
Typical example: Detective Chief Inspector John Luther in Luther
The maverick detective
He’s a loner. He doesn’t play by the rules. He’s always in trouble with the boss for not doing his paperwork and doesn’t know the meaning of the phrase “stick to the rulebook”. He follows his own rules, but he always gets his man.
Typical example: Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole
The little-old-lady amateur detective
No one notices her because she looks so harmless, but she’s got her beady eye on all the comings and goings in the village. If there’s a death at the sewing bee, or an anonymous letter at the vicarage, she’s there. With minimal violence, minimal sex and minimal relation to real life, this genre is known as the “cosy mystery”.
Typical examples: Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote
The corrupt police officer (or “bent copper”)
Who’s leaking information back to the organized crime gang? Who can’t be trusted? Who’s taking backhanders from the criminal underworld? There’s a mole in the department and all must be revealed in a shocking twist!
Typical example: Line of Duty
The hotshot legal expert
An innocent person is sitting in jail. Who will get them out? Their fate lies in the hands of their defence lawyer or a law professor who recognizes a potential miscarriage of justice when they see one and isn’t afraid to challenge the police.
Typical example: Annalise Keating in How to Get away with Murder
The fish out of water
This high-flying city banker or overactive public relations professional has given up her busy life in London to make a fresh start in a quiet rural area. She finds herself frustrated by the slow pace of life in her village of choice – until a murder happens, of course. By the end of series 1, our heroine or hero will have discovered the joys of being part of a community with a heart of gold, and may even own a pair of muddy walking boots.
Typical example: Agatha Raisin
The rural detective
A farmer stabbed with a pitchfork? A corpse in the milking parlour? A death at the folk-dancing display? A poisoning in the village brass band? The rural detective will slowly and patiently talk to everybody in the village and solve the crime – and never wonder why this rural community has such a phenomenally high death rate.
Typical example: Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby in Midsomer Murders
The wife with hobbies
When the detective’s partner takes up a new hobby, you can be sure there’ll be a murder in the book club / amateur drama class / orchid-lovers’ society / bell-ringing group. Similarly, the detectives who announce that they “need a holiday to get away from it all” will stumble over a body before they’ve unpacked their suitcases at their hotel.
Typical example: Joyce Barnaby in Midsomer Murders
The serial killer
Stalking the streets at night, murdering in a series of apparently motiveless attacks, taking trophy items from his victims… A serial killer is on the loose! Luckily, he always leaves enough bizarre clues, enabling detectives to join the dots, see the connecting factors and rush to save the next intended victim – just in time.
Mr Big
He’s a gangster, a big fish in the world of organized crime. He thinks he’s untouchable, with friends in high places. He never goes anywhere without a good-quality coat and two henchmen, so he doesn’t need to get his own hands dirty by actually punching anyone. Don’t get on the wrong side of him!
The victim no one will miss
The first victim is often a dead drug addict, a drunk, a homeless person or a prostitute. This is especially true in “cold case” mysteries, where detectives re-examine unsolved cases from the past. The victims are just nameless, faceless “nobodies” – until the caring coppers put their backstories together, make them into more relatable characters and find out the truth.
The murderer no one suspects
Who is the murderer? Is it the violent man freshly released from prison with revenge on his mind? No, of course not! It’s his quiet mother / brother / neighbour, who’s hiding a dark secret. If there’s one thing we know about a “whodunnit”, it’s always the last person we suspect!
The police informant
Someone who knows what’s happening on the streets and can bring word back to our hero. A useful service, for which they are paid – and yet, informants are regarded as the lowest of the low, not only by the criminals they betray, but even by the police who use their services.