Crime Series and Jack
This blog is about crime series (or mystery if you prefer) and how my Jack of All Trades series fits in. I’ve written five books so far in the series. Jack Bell is a builder and at the various places he works, murders happen. An alarming state of affairs. And quite unusual in crime series.
In crime series, 70 % of the main characters are cops. This figure does not have academic precision; it’s my rough and ready assessment from my own reading. There are lots of examples of cop main characters. I have been reading quite a few British crime novels recently, so here’s a few cops from British series:
Detective Inspector Rebus, by Ian Rankin, Edinburgh based
Detective Inspector Morse, by Colin Dexter, Oxford based
Detective Chief Inspector Roy Grace, by Peter James, Brighton based
Chief Inspector Wexford, by Ruth Rendell, Kingmarkham, Sussex
Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, by PD James, London based
The only exception in British fiction I know of a cop in crime fiction novels outside the higher ranks is Sophie Hannah’s Detective Constable Simon Waterhouse. He is part of the Culver Valley police force. Culver Valley is nominally in England but doesn’t exist; Sophie Hannah says she invented this county because of the British obsession with class. She could do things there without someone saying ‘That would never happen in Hampstead/Brighton/Edinburgh etc’.
Fifteen percent of Crime Fiction Series have as a main character what I call ‘associates’. These are the professionals, non cops, who become involved in crimes: the medical people, the lawyers, coroners and other experts. John Grisham usually has a lawyer as lead character in his novels, Patricia Cornwell has her pathologist, Dr. Kay Scarpetta. On BBC TV, we have Silent Witness, a crime drama focusing on the investigations of a team of forensic pathologists. One who should be better known is Dr Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist, in Elly Griffiths series.
Ten cent of crime series have private eyes as main characters. There are amateurs and there are the professionals. Amateurs are less common these days as you need a private income. Amateurs include Sherlock Holmes who only ever asked for expenses. We have Agatha Christie’s Poirot, a Belgian with no money problems, and Miss Marple, by the same author, who lived in the village of Marymead and is happy to be called in to solve a murder or two, often for a friend or a friend of a friend. And of course to put the police right. Money is never mentioned. Nor by Lord Peter Wimsey, Dorothy L Sayers sleuth. He is filthy rich and need never ask for cash.
Now the professionals. A more seedy private investigators is Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. And more recently Cormoran Strike who is Robert Galbraith’s detective. Galbraith is better known as JK Rowling, not short of money herself, but her tec has to sleep in the office. Another private eye is owner of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith. McCall Smith’s private eye is the astute Mma Precious Ramotswe, the first female private eye in Botswana.
So to recap on crime series, we’ve had: 70% cops, 15% associates (lawyers and medicos), 10% private eyes. That leaves 5%. This small slice I call Jobs. It involves those whose work brings them into contact with crime accidentally. Which is where Jack, my builder, comes in. But here are a few others. There’s Lily Bard who works in Shakespeare in the Southern States as a cleaner. She is Charlaine Harris’s sleuth. A good choice as cleaners go into many different houses and see what’s left in the bins and what’s under the bed.
An earlier series by the same author has as its heroine Aurora Teagarden. She is a librarian to begin with, but then ventures into real estate, or estate agency as we know it in the UK. Rebecca Tope, a British writer, has as her main character a florist, Persimmon Brown who owns a shop in Ambleside.
That’s my short amble around crime series to show where my main character Jack Bell fits in. He is one of a few manual workers as a main character in this genre. The only other I know is Lily Bard, the cleaner.
Anyone have any others to add?
In crime series, 70 % of the main characters are cops. This figure does not have academic precision; it’s my rough and ready assessment from my own reading. There are lots of examples of cop main characters. I have been reading quite a few British crime novels recently, so here’s a few cops from British series:
Detective Inspector Rebus, by Ian Rankin, Edinburgh based
Detective Inspector Morse, by Colin Dexter, Oxford based
Detective Chief Inspector Roy Grace, by Peter James, Brighton based
Chief Inspector Wexford, by Ruth Rendell, Kingmarkham, Sussex
Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, by PD James, London based
The only exception in British fiction I know of a cop in crime fiction novels outside the higher ranks is Sophie Hannah’s Detective Constable Simon Waterhouse. He is part of the Culver Valley police force. Culver Valley is nominally in England but doesn’t exist; Sophie Hannah says she invented this county because of the British obsession with class. She could do things there without someone saying ‘That would never happen in Hampstead/Brighton/Edinburgh etc’.
Fifteen percent of Crime Fiction Series have as a main character what I call ‘associates’. These are the professionals, non cops, who become involved in crimes: the medical people, the lawyers, coroners and other experts. John Grisham usually has a lawyer as lead character in his novels, Patricia Cornwell has her pathologist, Dr. Kay Scarpetta. On BBC TV, we have Silent Witness, a crime drama focusing on the investigations of a team of forensic pathologists. One who should be better known is Dr Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist, in Elly Griffiths series.
Ten cent of crime series have private eyes as main characters. There are amateurs and there are the professionals. Amateurs are less common these days as you need a private income. Amateurs include Sherlock Holmes who only ever asked for expenses. We have Agatha Christie’s Poirot, a Belgian with no money problems, and Miss Marple, by the same author, who lived in the village of Marymead and is happy to be called in to solve a murder or two, often for a friend or a friend of a friend. And of course to put the police right. Money is never mentioned. Nor by Lord Peter Wimsey, Dorothy L Sayers sleuth. He is filthy rich and need never ask for cash.
Now the professionals. A more seedy private investigators is Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. And more recently Cormoran Strike who is Robert Galbraith’s detective. Galbraith is better known as JK Rowling, not short of money herself, but her tec has to sleep in the office. Another private eye is owner of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith. McCall Smith’s private eye is the astute Mma Precious Ramotswe, the first female private eye in Botswana.
So to recap on crime series, we’ve had: 70% cops, 15% associates (lawyers and medicos), 10% private eyes. That leaves 5%. This small slice I call Jobs. It involves those whose work brings them into contact with crime accidentally. Which is where Jack, my builder, comes in. But here are a few others. There’s Lily Bard who works in Shakespeare in the Southern States as a cleaner. She is Charlaine Harris’s sleuth. A good choice as cleaners go into many different houses and see what’s left in the bins and what’s under the bed.
An earlier series by the same author has as its heroine Aurora Teagarden. She is a librarian to begin with, but then ventures into real estate, or estate agency as we know it in the UK. Rebecca Tope, a British writer, has as her main character a florist, Persimmon Brown who owns a shop in Ambleside.
That’s my short amble around crime series to show where my main character Jack Bell fits in. He is one of a few manual workers as a main character in this genre. The only other I know is Lily Bard, the cleaner.
Anyone have any others to add?
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