Thomas Kyd

Created by Timothy Harris Pseudonym of Timothy Hyde Harris (1946--) "You want to solve a crime, Granville? Why don't you go arrest your tailor?" -- Kyd can crack wise with the best of 'em. THOMAS KYD is a Los Angeles P.I. of "high principles and low assets" who appeared in two very good private eye …

The Please-Come-Back Kids

Authors Who Left Them Wanting More So, back in October 2006, J. Kingston Pierce, two-fisted editor of The Rap Sheet, asked his readers: "Which long-missing crime novelist would readers most like to see publishing new books again in the near future?" The answer? According to the online poll, was Jonathan Valin, the author of the Shamus Award-winning …

Dr. Elizabeth Chase

Created by Martha C. Lawrence Once you get beyond (if you can get beyond) the fact that she's a licensed private eye and a "parapsychologist," the adventures of San Diego's DOCTOR ELIZABETH CHASE (two Ph.D.s from Stanford) are quite rewarding. And pretty fun. But then, you knew I was going to say that, right? Actually, part …

Peter Boone

Created by William Jaspersohn (1947--) Ex-Red Sox pitcher, avid fly fisherman and widower, PETER BOONE is a private eye who works the back roads and small villages of his home state of Vermont. When his wife was killed in a convenience store robbery and the case bungled by the cops, Boone quit baseball and brought …

Ben Shaley

Created by Norbert Davis (1909-1949) "Shaley was bonily tall. He had a thin, tanned face with bitterly heavy lines in it. He looked calm; but he looked like he was being calm on purpose--as though he was consciously holding himself in. He had an air of hardboiled confidence." "Red Goose," one of Norbert Davis' very …

Billy Raskolnikov & Ringo

Created by William Dylan Powell Peg-legged ex-cop turned unlicensed private eye BILLY RASKOLNIKOV and his pet monkey RINGO (yeah, you read that right) work out of a boat, David's Fifth Margarita, docked in Redfish Bay near Corpus Christi. They've appeared in several humorous short stories in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, set on the Texas coast in the …

Timothy Dane

Created by William Ard (1922-1960) Partial to Seagram's Seven and a good steak dinner at Toot Shor's, TIMOTHY DANE is a young (30ish) New York gumshoe with an excellent reputation for honesty who appeared in nine (or is it ten?) books back in the fifties, all heartily recommended. He's tall, and some women find the …

Protected: Top Ten Greatest American Radio Detective Performances

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Scooby-Doo & Mystery, Inc.

Created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears “I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids” -- never actually uttered, but the thought is there. Ruh-roh. No, SCOOBY-DOO, a giant talking Great Dane, and teenagers NORVILLE "SHAGGY" ROGERS, THELMA DINKLEY, DAPHNE BLAKE and FRED JONES are not private detectives. …

Mulligan and Garrity (The Gorilla)

Created by Ralph Spence (1890-1940) "Out go the lights---on go the thrills! Shrieks! Yells! Roars! Screams! More Shrieks! MULLIGAN, MULLIGAN, WHERE THE HELL IS MULLIGAN?" -- lyrics from the musical Ralph Spence's 1925 play The Gorilla: A Musical Comedy, was a slight piece of silliness that intentionally lampooned the whole haunted house genre, so popular …