# People other than Police who Solve Murders **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 17, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697 "2014-09-17T00:42:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/41 "2014-09-17T13:57:11Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Teenagers – Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew. I understand this may fall under “Precocious Kids” for some but I think of kids as being pre-teens. Put the Scooby Doo gang in this category then. Zoinks! ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/42 "2014-09-17T14:14:35Z")
Hitchcock actually does this a LOT, as I think on it: Hardware store owner (PSYCHO) Advertising agency (NORTH BY NORTHWEST) – although, arguably, he’s not the one who solves the mystery, he just resolves it Tennis player (STRANGERS ON A TRAIN) Artist (THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY) Menial Laborer (SABOTEUR) Business Exec (MARNIE) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/43 "2014-09-17T14:27:53Z")
Geologist - Em Hansen I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Forensic Anthropologist yet! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/44 "2014-09-17T15:10:13Z")
DEATH, though that was under questioning from a police officer. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/45 "2014-09-17T15:29:52Z")
Astronomer. I remember [this SDMB thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=198258) about mystery novels involving astronomy. I still haven’t read any of the books and stories mentioned there. Not all of them are murder mysteries, and not all the mysteries are solved by astronomers. It looks like _Illegal Alien_ by Robert J. Sawyer would qualify. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/46 "2014-09-17T17:16:18Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > 14th Century Monks -William of Baskerville / Umberto Eco He was a friar, not a monk (and the difference is really quite significant in this context). Anyway, anyone can think of a class of people who are _not_ (yet) known for solving murders, probably has the basis, right there, for pitching a new, long-running television series to a major network. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/47 "2014-09-17T17:23:43Z")
Wrongfully convicted vascular surgeons (Dr Richard Kimball) ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/48 "2014-09-17T17:36:18Z")
Don’t forget about that one detective who solves crimes in his spare time. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/49 "2014-09-17T17:40:42Z")
Rabbis. [Harry Kemelman’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kemelman) novels. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/50 "2014-09-17T17:49:00Z")
How can we forget? Robots (_not_ cyborgs): Asimov’s R. Daneel Olivaw ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/51 "2014-09-17T17:53:14Z")
A Greenwich Village coffee shop owner. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/52 "2014-09-17T17:55:15Z")
A bored Australian socialite and her companion (Phryne Fisher) ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/53 "2014-09-17T19:00:36Z")
I’ve thought of a few one-offs: Oxford Don (Gervase Fen) Brother of a duke (Lord Peter Wimsey) Another scion of a great (but never revealed) family (Albert Campion) Professional French wine expert (M. Lebel from a French TV series called Blood of the Vine) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/54 "2014-09-17T19:27:47Z")
No one has mentioned the obvious: witnesses–I just saw my next door neighbor murder his wife. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/55 "2014-09-17T22:36:45Z")
Woman who own a place somehow connected with cooking who are always falling over corpses and who have homicide detective boyfriends or husbands who can never figure out who done it, so the woman ends up capturing the murderer. AND fixing a great meal at the end. Google “culinary mysteries” if you don’t believe it. Ed McBain got the inspiration for his 87th precient mysteries when he realized that if he were to be murdered, he would want his wife to call the cops, not Miss Marple. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/56 "2014-09-17T23:18:10Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > He was a friar, not a monk (and the difference is really quite significant in this context). > > Anyway, anyone can think of a class of people who are _not_ (yet) known for solving murders, probably has the basis, right there, for pitching a new, long-running television series to a major network. Re the first sentence . There’s a fish friar and a chip monk. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/57 "2014-09-17T23:29:20Z")
A star baseball player/manager, with a bad bowl haircut and a predilection to head first slides. Partnered with homeless singer who used to be of the international jet set. Elton & Rose Tuesdays at 7, 8 central ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/58 "2014-09-17T23:44:36Z")
Blind men — Max Carrados And this one may be cheating, since the heroes may frequently have been coppers, but Anoraks who really, _really_, love railway timetables: see Freeman Wills Croft. [Actually, apart from he, there seems to be an entire ‘Gaslight’ genre of **Victorian** ( mainly ) **Railway Detective Fiction** in Britain — not totally disassociated with the earlier **Victorian Railway Ghost Fiction** , that sprang up pretty much alongside the first tracks; or even the non-fictional, but not unsensational accounts of **Great Railway Disasters** by such practitioners as the admirable O. S. Nock.] ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/59 "2014-09-18T00:46:41Z")
Elizabeth Peters had 3 different series with amateur detectives. Librarian/romance writer: Jacqueline Kirby Egyptologists: Amelia Peabody and Emerson Medieval art historian/museum worker: Vicky Bliss ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697/60 "2014-09-18T00:55:14Z")
Who they gonna get when you’ve out-foxed the cops? Here’s my card I’m the Continental Op. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5xouRKmkk8) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-other-than-police-who-solve-murders/698697.md?page=4)