# Personal lives of fictional detectives: Yay or nay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578 "2015-01-11T23:30:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/21 "2015-01-12T18:08:41Z")
I disagree with the assertion that the personal lives of TV detectives are better left unshown or unsaid. Exhibit A is “The Rockford Files”, and Exhibit B is “Magnum P.I.” Granted, both those shows go back a number of years but nowadays all they show are police procedurals, and we only learn about the characters personal lives as they relate to the case, other than the fact that Leroy Jethro Gibbs of NCIS builds boats by hand in his basement. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/22 "2015-01-12T19:03:07Z")
Personal lives, please! The show Sherlock is, as Moftiss have said “Not a detective show, but a show about a detective” and I love it. I’m not a huge mystery reader, but I really liked Faye Kellerman’s Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus stories - as much or more for their insight into the Orthodox community as for the mysteries themselves. As **Ulf** above said - some mysteries are meant almost entirely as whodunnits, some as novels that also contain a mystery. I prefer the latter. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/23 "2015-01-12T19:18:19Z")
I would have to agree with **Ulf the Unwashed** on all points (it appears that we read the same authors). I also agree with **movingfinger** about Lt. Leaphorn and Jim Chee. At times, I get a bit exasperated with Chee’s stubborness to go with the woo, but that is part of what makes him an interesting character. I tend to like a mixed bag in TV mysteries as well. Mostly, I watch shows that are primarily procedural, but give a bit of history and personality to the characters. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/24 "2015-01-12T19:56:43Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > I think Tony Hillerman hit the right mix of personal life and detecting with his Joe Leaphorn character. When his wife was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor instead of Alzheimer’s all seemed well, and her death before the next book in the series was a shock. > > Leaphorn’s skepticism about traditional Navajo ways played off nicely against the young Jim Chee’s embracing the ancient beliefs. I agree. And the succession of Chee’s romances, from Mary Landon to Janet Pete to Bernadette Manuelito, makes sense as part of Chee’s development as a person. I’m used to detective novels where the protagonist’s personal life is part of the story, whether it’s Leaphorn and Chee, or Marcus Didius Falco, or J.A. Jance’s Joanna Brady, and I enjoy that part of the story. Going back and reading one of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novels (I recently re-read _The Big Sleep_ for the first time in \>20 years), where the classic hard-boiled detective seemingly has no personal life at all, is very strange to me now. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/25 "2015-01-12T21:36:09Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I’m more familiar with TV detectives. I think the media makes a difference. In a novel, especially one written in first person, the author can go into more personal detail and yet it still is part of the “whole”. The insights the detective has help solve the case. > > But TV detective shows are generally better without it. As mentioned, the classic L&O never said anything about the detective’s personal lives, at least in the beginning. Later, probably starting with Curtis, we got a bit of off-screen drama. Still nothing like SVU! I’m with you. For TV, I really don’t want to know anything about their lives. And all the SVU detectives could take a page from Munch, whose personal life seems to be limited to throwaway remarks about his exes. (I don’t care about your gambling problem, Rollins. No, I’m not devastated by you burning your daughter’s driver’s license, Stabler. And Amaro, I get it, you’re tortured by being a good dad.) I’m planning to start watching classic L&O from the beginning–relief to hear there will be no personal lives for a while! ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/26 "2015-01-12T23:00:34Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Nobody is as cool as Archie.) I think Archie might tell you that honor goes to Saul Panzer. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/27 "2015-01-12T23:25:33Z")
Yay = Woohoo! Yea = Yes ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/28 "2015-01-12T23:39:23Z")
I like just a little. I mean, I want the detectives to be characters with backgrounds and so forth, but I really honestly kind of hate romance in any book at all, so constant whining about relationship/marital problems or sexual tension kind of wrecks it for me. If the background is interesting and relevant, then sure. If it’s more like they’re distracted from the case and just adding drama with a wife who gripes endlessly about how she never sees her detective husband and then he sleeps with his female partner and there’s really no point to it except to add to the emotional turmoil of the main characters or that sort of thing… leave it out. Basically, if it distracts from the actual story (whiny spouse, mom with Alzheimer’s, junkie brother, child angst) instead of being part of it or enhancing it… then I don’t like it. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/29 "2015-01-13T00:40:42Z")
> [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > I like just a little. I mean, I want the detectives to be characters with backgrounds and so forth, but I really honestly kind of hate romance in any book at all, so constant whining about relationship/marital problems or sexual tension kind of wrecks it for me. If the background is interesting and relevant, then sure. If it’s more like they’re distracted from the case and just adding drama with a wife who gripes endlessly about how she never sees her detective husband and then he sleeps with his female partner and there’s really no point to it except to add to the emotional turmoil of the main characters or that sort of thing… leave it out. > > Basically, if it distracts from the actual story (whiny spouse, mom with Alzheimer’s, junkie brother, child angst) instead of being part of it or enhancing it… then I don’t like it. I think that’s what I liked about Wexford–often his life with his family would job his thought process in interesting ways and help him to solve the mystery. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/30 "2015-01-13T01:33:48Z")
I can only offer the cop-out answer “It depends.” If the author is a talented writer and makes the sleuth an interesting person, I’m always happy to hear all about him. But if the author is, say, a brilliant plot writer who’s not so good with characterization, detours into the author’s personal life are liable to seem boring and distracting. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/31 "2015-01-13T19:33:10Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Ironically, I loved CSI at first because they left the personal lives of the characters out of it. Then, hoo boy, that’s all there was, practically. That’s what I came in to say. I mostly watch CSI out of habit anymore, but I liked it a lot better when every episode wasn’t about the characters’ personal lives. It’s getting even more annoying lately, because even the _crimes_ are related to something in one or more of the characters’ pasts. I swear, I like DB Russell (much better than “Super Ray,” though not as much as Gil Grissom), but if one more diabolical criminal mastermind killer threatens or kidnaps some member of his family, I give up. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/32 "2015-01-13T19:48:35Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Can you tell me of some mysteries where you don’t know about the detective’s private life? You might find Sarah Caudwell’s Hilary Tamar series of mysteries interesting - as Wikipedia says: > [@](#): > > Acting as a kind of parent to the group is the first-person narrator, Professor Hilary Tamar. Professor Tamar…acts as the main detective, although other characters make contributions to the eventual solutions. Professor Tamar is frequently physically removed from the action and is kept informed by a series of improbably long letters and telexes. This distancing is amplified by Caudwell’s strategy of not specifying Tamar’s sex and never specifying the reason for the strong bond which the character enjoys with the young advocates, notwithstanding the lack of any point of contact in terms of age, temperament, occupation or enthusiasms. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/33 "2015-01-13T21:04:07Z")
> [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > I like just a little. I mean, I want the detectives to be characters with backgrounds and so forth, but I really honestly kind of hate romance in any book at all, so constant whining about relationship/marital problems or sexual tension kind of wrecks it for me. If the background is interesting and relevant, then sure. If it’s more like they’re distracted from the case and just adding drama with a wife who gripes endlessly about how she never sees her detective husband and then he sleeps with his female partner and there’s really no point to it except to add to the emotional turmoil of the main characters or that sort of thing… leave it out. Man, that pretty much described _Southland_. I don’t think there really was any cop action. Just interpersonal drama. Might as well have been classed as a soap opera that involved police, rather than a cop show with personal angst. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/34 "2015-01-13T22:55:50Z")
> [@zombywoof](#): > > You might find Sarah Caudwell’s Hilary Tamar series of mysteries interesting - as Wikipedia says: > [@](#): > > Acting as a kind of parent to the group is the first-person narrator, Professor Hilary Tamar. Professor Tamar…acts as the main detective, although other characters make contributions to the eventual solutions. Professor Tamar is frequently physically removed from the action and is kept informed by a series of improbably long letters and telexes. This distancing is amplified by Caudwell’s strategy of not specifying Tamar’s sex and never specifying the reason for the strong bond which the character enjoys with the young advocates, notwithstanding the lack of any point of contact in terms of age, temperament, occupation or enthusiasms. I love those books, they’re hilarious. But while the books are coy about Professor Tamar’s personal life, there is quite a lot about the personal lives of the young London barristers. The attraction for me is not the puzzles, but the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/35 "2015-01-13T23:52:28Z")
As others have said, it depends on how it’s handled, and particularly how it interacts with the mystery. A good sleuth character pretty much always has some personality quirks and unusual patterns of thought and behavior. Showing their personal lives can illuminate how their minds work and how they came to be who they are, and that’s often a good thing. Establishing events from their personal lives can also provide opportunities to give the character more depth in the context of the mystery–they may take a case unusually personally because of event X, or be caught off guard by suspect Y’s actions because of a prior relationship. I don’t like angst for the sake of angst, or a personal life that exists only to cause random problems or turmoil for the detective. I’m not a fan of police/legal procedurals to start with, and I find far too many of them engage in a race to the bottom in search of “grit”. I don’t think the divide necessarily lies between media, but I’ll agree that TV often has a more limited scope for showing a personal life alongside the main plot. I would expect that to often result in a lower-quality sidestory on TV than in print. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/36 "2015-01-14T00:20:22Z")
I for one love knowing that Sherlock Holmes was a coke head! ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/37 "2015-01-14T00:44:32Z")
Generally, no, I think. I found it sort of annoying in a “Spenser” series book recently. Maybe it depends on the detective, though. If Sam Spade got weepy over his romantic travails, something would be lost for me. Lord Peter, though, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/38 "2015-01-14T00:58:31Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > L&O never said anything about the detective’s personal lives, at least in the beginning. Later, probably starting with Curtis, we got a bit of off-screen drama. Is this because I’m a lesbian? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/39 "2015-01-15T18:31:30Z")
Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without her personal life being such a big part of it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578/40 "2015-01-15T19:17:40Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Archie Goodwin IS his asides! Yep. Getting to know the Brownstone and it’s cast of inhabitants and guests is more of a thing with the Nero Wolfe mysteries than the actual whodunit. Mind you, that’s more the idiosyncrasies, quirks and characteristics than the “private lives”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-lives-of-fictional-detectives-yay-or-nay/709578.md?page=3)