Re: (ReacTor) Five Fictional Investigators With Special Abilities

In article <vs7c4u$3qcn7$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance  <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/21/25 10:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:

Five Fictional Investigators With Special Abilities
 
These sleuths bring a little something extra to the table...
 
https://reactormag.com/five-fictional-investigators-with-special-abilities/

>
Hm ... let's see
>
Working for the authorities, there's:
Kaylin Neya (Sagara's Elantra series), and
Peter Grant (Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series)
>
Private Investigators would include:
Harry Dresden - (Butcher's, um, Harry Dresden series)
Harper Blaine - (Richardson - greywalker was the first one, or something
like that)
>
In Glen Cook's Garrett PI series, I don't think Garrett has any special
abilities (unless surviving numerous concussions counts), but his
partner the Dead Man certainly does.
>

There's also:

Doc Savage, by Lester Dent mostly.  Doc is not strictly speaking a
detective, but people do bring him cases often involving crimes
(they also tend to drop dead on his doorstep, though being a woman
lessens those odds).  He does hold a police commission, but rarely
interacts with the cops other than to tell them to do specific
things.  (Later in the series he falls into a more adversarial role
with the police).  The Mcguffins of his cases usually involve some
sort of super science, though later in the so Science Detective
years they start to resemble typical PI cases more.  Doc is
independantly wealthy and not for hire.  He takes on cases which
intrigue him and operates for the public good.  Doc is in Batman
peak physical condition, and a medical & scientific genius.

Doc Sidhe by the unfortunately late Aaron Allston is the outright
fantasy version of Doc Savage and lives in a 1930s fae world battling
world-ending threats.  He is less flustered by the ladies than his
American counterpart and his aides are a bit more useful iirc.  The
first book is highly recommended and the second one wasn't bad.
Like Savage, not a PI, but people bring him problems which tend
to escalate.

The Mick Oberon books by Ari Marmell.  Mick is a faery exile in
our Chicago.  As I recall in the first two books which I read,
we don't get much of his back story but he is some sort of noble
in bad repute with the big Oberon (he is definitely not "that"
Oberon).  He works as a PI in (human) mob related cases which tend to
intersect with faery more often than you might expect.  And of course
when he runs across anyone from home they can't believe he is actually
just doing a job rather than running some shifty fae political scheme.
I need to get back to these.

In the Ilona Andrews "Hidden Legacy" setting, the Baylor family
runs a detectie agency in an alternate Texas where magic exists
and runs in familiy lines.  The series focuses on several of the
Baylor daughters coming of age, stepping up, finding lost pets, love
and saving the world.

In the Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy, Skulduggery is
known as "The Skeleton Detective" (because he *is* a skeleton)
and does solve cases (perhaps most straight-forwardly in his latest
outing), but as tends to be the case in this list, everything he
(and his partner who is really the series main charcter) is involved
with tends to escalate quickly.  He is possibly also the least
exemplary figure on this list, being pretty much an intermittently
repenatent war criminal.  Skulduggery has been at different times
a PI, a member of the constabulary and currently head of the
more or less independant Arbitor Corps.

I hesitate to mention this series, because I really didn't like the
way the story played out in the outing I read, but I did feel that the
detective could have been good in a non-predetermined setting,
so the Eddie LaCrosse books by Alex Bledsoe.  Eddie is a knight
for hire in a somewhat medieval setting where magic works (to
some extent).  He solves problems which seems to entail solving
mysteries as a consequence.

And I would be remiss to leave out Buck Godot "Zap-Gun For Hire"
("Why doesn't anyone believe I have professional ethics?") by Phil
Foglio.  In his (too few) graphic novel adventures, Buck brings
justice (and frozen treats) to the explictly lawless world of
New Hong Kong dealing with Pistol Packing Packrats, telepathic
clones, higher-level tech and bored law-machines.  Somehow he
always solves the case and survives, if barely.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..