This started out as a post in the random silliness thread, but it keeps getting longer and longer, so I thought to bring the conversation here
People other than Police who Solve Murders:[ul][]Private Detectives[]Defense Attorneys[]Reporters[]Pathologists[]Insurance Investigators[]Mystery Writers[]Gentleman Amateurs[]Nosy Little Old Ladies[]Precocious Kids[]The Post-Murder Cleaning Crew[]Psychics[]Criminology ProfessorsGhost of the victim(s)[/ul]
Wealthy childless couples (Nick and Nora Charles, Jonathan and Jennifer Hart).
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[li]Precocious Kids[/li][/QUOTE]
Subset: Sleuths who were regressed to childhood by a plot device.
Playboy bachelors with lingering childhood trauma.
Cats (Lilian Braun’s “The Cat Who…”)
Drunk ex-cops (Lawrence Block’s Scudder)
Fake psychics and cab drivers (Hitchcock’s FAMILY PLOT)
Musicians (Hitchcock’s THE LADY VANISHED)
Family doctor (Hitchcock’s 2nd version of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH)
Religious Ministers (Father Brown, Rabbi David Small)
Book dealers (The Club Dumas)
Thieves (The Burke Series by Andrew Vachss)
Wealthy Playboys (Batman, Iron Man, Zorro, etc.)
And nuns. Scroll down this page for a list, including Sister Mary Teresa, who featured in 10 novels (with nun-punny names) by the same author as the Father Dowling mysteries.
The world’s greatest waiter.
Nameless old men in coffee shops (The Old Man in the Corner)
Thieves(Arsene Lupin, Raffles, Nick Velvet)
Geniuses (The Thinking Machine)
Don’t forget the subset of detectives with disabilities:
Judges-- Judge Deborah Knott by Margaret Maron
Harvard Symbologists
Aliens (I assume the alien cop in Alienation solved some murders)
Cyborgs- Robocop and the old DC character Robotman
A group of people who are all somehow connected but have no idea why they were invited to this dinner in this creepy mansion. (Clue)
And Mr. and Mrs. North (tv series from the early 50’s, middle class more than wealthy).
Teenagers – Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew. I understand this may fall under “Precocious Kids” for some but I think of kids as being pre-teens.
Interfering Bible Bashers ---- Uncle Abner.
Lexicographers, Dr. Gideon Fell & Baronets, Sir Henry Merrivale : Dickson Carr.
Ham radio operators who intercept an errant signal (High Frequency)
The Perpetrators
(I think there are a few plots, especially Sci-Fi, where the murderer kills someone and then gets amnesia, figures it out, and then is wracked with guilt. But I can’t recall any examples)