The cigar-chomping or smoke ring-blowing sleuth, often wearing some interesting fedora and/or dapper trench coat, must be one of our favourite characters from fiction and the movies. Met them all?
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy
Tales of The Truth-Seeker or Satyanweshi and his wonderful observation powers, ability to reason and knowledge of forensics, kept us enthralled through 32 books. And on radio, TV, film.
Hardy Boys
Franklin Dixon's boy sleuths Joe and Frank, on countless adventures, hunting for gold, keys, whale tattoos or coins, venturing to mills, caves, forts, were heroes of our youth.
Lieutenant Columbo
Peter Falk, as the quietly brilliant LAPD Lieutenant Columbo convinced his audiences that plotting a crime in his neck of the woods was unthinkable -- he was always cleverer.
Inspector Karamchand
Pankaj Kapur's portrayal of the sharp-witted Perry Mason-ish sleuth -- frequently spotted munching on a carrot -- in the classic DD serial was among India’s earliest detective dramas.
Perry Mason
The suave defence lawyer turned detective for all his 82 murder cases in Erle Stanley Gardner's books. Remember: 'Lots of lawyers don't like circumstantial evidence. I do'.
Miss Jane Marple
Agatha Christie's gentlewoman detective of quiet St Mary Mead is well educated, having studied art & attended an Italian finishing school. She relies on her astuteness to solve crimes.
Tintin's Thomson & Thompson
Belgian artist Hergé's bumbling, bowler hat-sporting detective duo brings plenty of humour to Tintin narratives, often finding themselves in amusing mishaps.
Thuppariyum Saambu
Saambu, a middle-aged bank employee who, despite lacking brilliance, cracks complex cases is at the centre of Tamil detective short stories penned by Devan in the early 1900s.
Sherlock Holmes
138 years later 'consulting detective' Holmes with his pipe, hat, tweed cape coat, and partner Dr Watson, remains one of the most enduring fictional detectives ever.
Watch out for Part 2 in this series of Detectives We Loved...