The fascination awakened by solving mysteries – and by snooping into the lives of others – gave life to countless investigators in literature, cinema and TV. Peruse our elementary list with the main ones
10. Ed Mort
He took a correspondence detective course, bribed the postman to pass, and shares his tiny office in Copacabana with 117 cockroaches and the albino rat Voltaire. Created by the gaucho writer Luís Fernando Veríssimo, Ed Mort debuted in the short story the trap, from 1979, but soon migrated to other media. The clumsy detective became TV Globo’s end-of-year special, hit theaters in 1997 – with Paulo Betti in the title role – and was adapted for comics by cartoonist Miguel Paiva. In 2011, Editora Objetiva gathered 17 stories starring the character in the collection Ed Mort – All Stories. In the same year, the subscription channel Multishow launched a series with Fernando Caruso in the role of Ed Mort.
9. Gil Grissom
How does a diver’s body end up high in a tree after a fire? Here’s a typical case for Gilbert Arthur Grissom, Las Vegas Police Forensics Expert, and his team. Played by William Petersen, Grissom is one of those responsible for the success of the franchise. CSI: Crime Scene Investigationa TV series created in 2000. In 2009, after 193 episodes, the actor decided to leave the series to dedicate himself to theater
8. Auguste Dupin
In 1841, with the publication of The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the writer Edgar Allan Poe created the first detective of modern detective literature. Poe is also credited with creating the first “sidekick” of the genre – the term refers to that character who helps the protagonist in his far-fetched deductions. Who helps Dupin is his best friend, an anonymous figure, with whom he shares an apartment in Paris and who, in the novels, narrates his detective adventures. Other clichés created by Poe: the detective explaining in detail how he found the culprit and the inclusion of false leads to hinder the investigation
7. Adrian Monk
Milk, snakes, heights, crowds and elevators are some of the detective’s 312 phobias. After the death of his wife, Monk suffers a nervous breakdown, is removed from the San Francisco police (USA) and starts to act as a consultant to Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) in apparently unsolvable cases. In eight seasons of monkTony Shalhoub won a Golden Globe and three Emmy Awards for best actor portraying the series’ protagonist
6. Fox Mulder & Dana Scully
The FBI Special Agents duo have nothing in common. Mulder is the type to believe everything. Scully, on the other hand, is skepticism personified. Together they investigate obscure cases of alien invasions and paranormal phenomena. Created by Chris Carter in 1993, X file became one of the most cult series of all time – to the point that its fans were known as “eXcers”. The series ran for nine seasons and spawned two feature films: The X-Files – The Moviefrom 1998, and The X-Files – I Want to Believefrom 2008, in addition to a revival
5. Dick Tracy
The toughest detective in comic books was created by cartoonist Chester Gould in 1931. Tracy joined the police after his fiancée’s father, Tess Trueheart, was killed by bandits. In his relentless fight against crime, he anticipated modern electronic gadgets such as the videophone. With it, he was able to communicate, at a distance, with his police colleagues. In 1990, he was portrayed by heartthrob Warren Beatty in the movies
4. Miss Marple
Between a cup of tea and another, Jane Marple, an old maid who lives in a village in the interior of England, knits, takes care of the garden and unravels mysteries. Since Murder at the Pastor’s House (1931), starred in 12 novels and 20 short stories by the writer Agatha Christie – the last book, A Sleeping Crime, was written in 1940, but published in 1976, after the author’s death. To her nephew Raymond West, who underestimates her aunt’s intelligence, Miss Marple keeps repeating that «murders are easy to solve: you just have to know how to look for the culprit in the right place»
3. Inspector Clouseau
Confused, distracted and flustered, Frenchman Jacques Clouseau is everything you wouldn’t expect from a detective. To make matters worse, he is still adept at the most outlandish disguises, such as huge mustaches, fake wigs and fake noses. Inspector Clouseau’s film misadventures began in 1963, with The pink Panther, directed by Blake Edwards and soundtrack by Henri Mancini. In all, Clouseau starred in eight films – five of them with actor and comedian Peter Sellers in the lead role.
2. Hercule Poirot
Agatha Christie’s inspiration to create the investigator came from the Belgian refugees she met during the 1st World War. The first of Poirot’s 33 novels (and 54 short stories), The Mysterious Affair of Styleswas published in 1921. And the last one, the cloth fallsin 1975. On the 6th of August of that year, the announcement of Poirot’s death merited an obituary on the front page of the newspaper The New York Times. In her autobiography, Agatha Christie explains that she only killed Poirot because she didn’t want anyone else to write about him after she herself died.
1. Sherlock Holmes
The inspiration to create the famous detective came from the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. It was there that, in 1876, the then medical student Arthur Conan Doyle became friends with Professor Joseph Bell, capable of the most surprising diagnoses. Just by observing the patient, he was already able to say, in a few minutes, what he felt, how he lived, etc. “Many see, but few observe”, he repeated to his students. Doyle also created the most famous «sidekick» in detective literature: Dr. John H. Watson. In 2011, Holmes joined the Guinness Book as the most portrayed literary character in cinema: over 211 films, he was played by 75 actors, such as Christopher Lee, Roger Moore and Robert Downey Jr.
SOURCES Series Almanacby Paulo Gustavo Pereira; Autobiographyby Agatha Christie; Ed Mort – All Storiesby Luís Fernando Veríssimo; The 100 Best Crime and Mystery Tales in Universal Literatureorganized by Flávio Moreira da Costa, and Sherlock Holmes – Definitive Editionby Arthur Conan Doyle