# Question for non-Americans: Great detectives in your culture? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473 "2016-05-23T18:49:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/1 "2016-05-23T18:49:19Z")
In the UK they have Sherlock Homes and Miss Marple. In the US its everyone from Agatha Christie to Mickey Spillane to a host of tv detectives like MacGuyver, Magnum PI, Kojak, and Columbo to cartoon detectives like Dick Tracy to youth detectives the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Some are pure fiction but others are based partly on real people like [Charlie Chan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chan). Some work for the police but others work privately. So I’d like to ask, in your culture is their a detective or crime fighter of note that has appeared in books, tv, and movies? Could be fictional or partly based on real people. [Top 20 list of greatest fictional detectives](http://www.dorkly.com/post/59046/toplist-results-the-20-greatest-fictional-detectives-of-all-time) [50 best TV Detectives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chan) ---
**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:** [May 23, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/2 "2016-05-23T20:19:12Z")
In Japan, the big one is Detective Conan. He’s of fairly recent creation (and modeled on Holmes, of course), but you’d be hard pressed to find a Japanese person who isn’t aware of him. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/3 "2016-05-23T20:47:03Z")
I’m an American, but I have to point out Djien-Djie Dee, AKA Di Rienjie, AKA Judge Dee. He was a real person in T’and dynasty China. In the 1950s, Dutch diplomat Robert Hans van Gulik translated an 18th century novel about him into English, retitltling it the _Dee Goong An_ , preparatory to translating it into Japanese. The novel proved a hit (It’s still in print through Dover Books), and van Gulik decided to write more novels. He adapted elements from other Chinese mysteries and grafted them onto new stories that he wrote about Dee and his companions froim the Dee Goong An. He eventually wrote five novels , all titled _The Chinese \_\_\_\_\_\_ Murders_, then he wrote more novels filling in the gaps, until he had an entire chronology of Dee’s life. It has little to do with the historical Dee (and, curiously, the Dee Goong An doesn’t fit into the series). Lots of fun asnd well worth reading, van Gulik wanted it as a reminder of a tradition of mysteries older than Poe and set in a completely different lilieu. Six of the novels were adapted for British TV circa 1970, using Western actors, but in the early 1970s Nicholas Meyer produced a version for American TV using an all-Asaian ancestry cast (except, curiously, for Dee himself). It was supposed to be the pilot for a series, which never happened. In recent years there have been novels from three other wrioters that depict Dee as a detective (and one in which he is not), as well as at least two Chinese films about Dee that depict him as a martial arts expert, rather than a detective. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/4 "2016-05-23T21:22:46Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > In the UK they have Sherlock Homes and Miss Marple. > In the US its everyone from Agatha Christie to … I’m confused by the phrasing. Miss Marple is a character created by Agatha Christie… ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/5 "2016-05-23T21:36:51Z")
France: [Eugène François Vidocq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Fran%C3%A7ois_Vidocq), who was a real guy, but also entered fiction. Belgium: Tintin had [Thomson and Thompson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_and_Thompson) (French: Dupond et Dupont), who are mostly incompetent. Initially antagonists, they later became Tintin’s friends. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/6 "2016-05-23T23:54:49Z")
Belgium’s Georges Simenon created the great Parisian detective Jules Maigret. Stockholm detective Martin Beck appeared in numerous popular novels, most notably “The Laughing Policeman.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/7 "2016-05-24T00:03:13Z")
The BBC has done some adaptations of Josef Skvorecky’s stories about Prague detective Boruvka. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/8 "2016-05-24T00:09:07Z")
In Italy, there’s Sicilian detective Salvo Montalbano, created by Andrea Camilleri. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/9 "2016-05-24T00:15:48Z")
For Spain probably the most famous “local” one is Pepe Carvalho, by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. No, he’s not Portuguese, he’s Galego. Going to other media, there’s the extremely infamous Torrente in movies. A total Ron, he’s lazy, corrupt, incompetent, thinks with his dick and considers himself handsome despite looking like Santiago Segura. On TV, _Los hombres de Paco_ (Paco’s men) were a group of sometimes competent, sometimes drowning in paperwork, sometimes incompetent policement. _Los misterios de Laura_ is a series whose main character is a separated policewoman with twin tween sons and a bossy mother. Oh, and her boss? Her ex. Yeehaw. NBC will start airing its adaptation “The Mysteries of Laura” in September ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/10 "2016-05-24T01:21:03Z")
Arsene Lupin by Maurice LeBlanc was France’s answer to Sherlock Holmes. He even matched wits with Holmes in the story “Sherlock Holmes Arrives too Late” (the Doyle estate forced a name change). Lupin was a “gentleman thief” who solved crimes. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/11 "2016-05-24T01:36:20Z")
I’m an American as well, but a big fan of Wallender books, featuring the eponymous Swedish police inspector. BBC has adapted some for TV, which I do enjoy, but nothing like the books. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/12 "2016-05-24T01:57:58Z")
Not sure how famous he is in Scotland, but I like Kate Atkinson’s series with Jackson Brodie, ex-soldier and cop, who now works as a PI in Edinburgh. The BBC adapted it for a series that I saw and enjoyed on PBS, [Case Histories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Histories_(TV_series)), with Jason Isaacs in the title role. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/13 "2016-05-24T03:42:57Z")
In a certain series of animated films, Gromit always does some fair detective work. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/14 "2016-05-24T03:53:09Z")
In Cuba, the best known fictional detective has to be Mario Conde, created by Leonardo Padura Fuentes. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/15 "2016-05-24T04:51:09Z")
Australia - Arthur Upfield’s “Boney” series about an Aboriginal detective in the Queensland Police Force probably has the greatest fame/length of time cross-section. Kerry Greenwood’s “Miss Fisher” series, set in Melbourne in the Roaring 20’s is also a solid contender at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/16 "2016-05-24T05:40:04Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > In the UK they have Sherlock Homes and Miss Marple. > In the US its everyone from Agatha Christie to … > [@Mangetout](#): > > I’m confused by the phrasing. Miss Marple is a character created by Agatha Christie… Also, Agatha Christie was English, not American. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/17 "2016-05-24T07:01:27Z")
[Hanshichi](http://www.japannavigator.com/2014/02/hanshichi-japans-first-fictional.html), a detective in literature from the early 1900s. There have been various detectives in other media too. The American TV series Columbo was very popular in Japan, dubbed by a distinctive voice-actor. One of the few Japanese TV shows I can tolerate is a _jidaigeki_ incarnation of a detective drama, [Mito Kômon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mito_K%C5%8Dmon). ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/18 "2016-05-24T07:59:42Z")
In Germany the Anglo-American oevre is well known: - British literary detectives, particularly those of Agatha Christie - US TV detectives, from Kojak/Magnum/Colombo/Streets of San Francisco team (all of which were prominently run on on public German TV at a time when there was still no private TV, so to Germans of a certain age their stars are still household names). Today’s US TV detective scene seems to be more fragmented. As for German homegrown TV detectives, the classic ones are - police detective Herbert Keller from [Der Kommissar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Kommissar_%28TV_series%29) - police detective Stephan Derrick and assistant Harry Klein from [Derrick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_%28TV_series%29) - private detective Josef Matula from [Ein Fall für zwei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Fall_f%C3%BCr_zwei), played by the same actor from (the actor’s) ages of 37 to 69 years. Nowadays there is a plethora of German fictional detectives. Due to German regionalism there is a thriving literary _Regionalkrimi_ industry with crimes and detectives in the readers’s small towns, and the [Tatort](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatort) series (1970-present, nearing its thousandth 90-minute episode), Germany’s canonical police procedural at 8.15 pm, has alternating local police teams. [Horst Schimanski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_Schimanski) is one of quite a number of detectives with a longish run. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/19 "2016-05-24T08:37:14Z")
There was a popular Chinese TV show called Pao Boon Jin, based on a real-life judge in ancient China. The show was dubbed in Thai and popular in Thailand for years. In the show, the judge had psychic powers plus a slew of assistants to help him solve cases. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473/20 "2016-05-24T09:30:42Z")
Also from the UK: Inspector Rebus has a long-running book series and also had couple of TV series; Inspector Morse was much-loved on TV as well as the many books; Taggart was a staple of Scottish TV for decades (so much so that Taggart himself passed on and they kept going) Going back a bit, PD James’ Adam Dalgliesh was very popular but has faded now. These are all cops: other than Sherlock, I’m struggling to think of any famous PIs. Campion, I suppose, but his heyday was quite a while ago. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-great-detectives-in-your-culture/755473.md?page=2)