Written by | Daifuku
In 1841, the first detective novel, The Murder of Mog Street, was born, and the first detective, Augustus Durbin, appeared. In the following 180 years, detective novels experienced the glory brought by Conan Doyle and the "golden age" represented by Agatha Christie, and then from Europe and the United States to Asia, countless detective images appeared, who shuttled through various bizarre crime scenes, solved mysteries with wisdom and diligence, and beautifully identified murderers. We still love them to this day, and even though they show us through the evils of human nature, they still make us believe in justice and heroism.
Cases are forgotten, but detectives live on.
"Beijing News Book Review Weekly" B01 edition ~ B08 edition of the special topic "The Game of Darkness and Light - Speculative Fiction Special".
1. Miss Marple
The idea of having an old lady be a detective is crazy enough in itself, not to mention Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, who barely leaves the house and spends her days doing yarn work at home. But this grandmother is arguably the most famous female detective character in the history of detective fiction. Jane Marple was tall, wearing an outdated tweed coat and skirt, plus two scarves and a small tweed hat with bird wings. Carry a large bag in your hand and an old suitcase with good materials at your feet. Miss Marple's image bears a resemblance to Agatha's aunt: "Although she has a straightforward personality, she always thinks things badly. But Christie also stressed that Marple "is not a reproduction of my aunt, she is more fussy and more of an old maid than my aunt." "You think she's just an ordinary old man living alone, taking pleasure in playing yarn all day, keen to discuss gossip, who knows that she has only found out the resumes of the members of your family, the property status and emotional entanglements through small talk, and has laid a delicate trap for the murderer." As soon as something goes wrong, all her daily activities—bird watching, planting flowers, drinking tea—become a conduit for investigating the case, and she will immediately transform into a "goddess of vengeance" and handsomely poke the truth.
Works featuring her: twelve novels, twenty-one short stories
The first case: "The Mystery of the Apartment"
（1930）
The Last Case: The Sleeping Murder
（1976）
Famous cases: "Rye Macky Case", "Murder Notice", "Death Grass", "Magic Hand"
2. Lincoln Lem
When it comes to "scientific rigor," no detective can compare to Lincoln Lem. In fact, with the improvement of police institutions and the development of science and technology, "criminal investigation and identification technology" has been noticed by more and more people, and because in reality, there are almost no detectives who only specialize in criminal investigations on an individual basis, so the closer to the detective novels of modern science and technology, the more important the role of the police is. Lincoln Lem's appearance is a fusion of the two, and his own omniscience is used to an unusual degree, but at the same time, as the chief forensic officer of the NYPD's Criminal Identification Unit, he does not believe any witness testimony that exists without physical evidence, and he is a paralyzed true comfort chair detective. Lincoln Lem was obsessed with details, the "micro-evidence," and he built an exhaustive database to compare samples taken from crime scenes. In "Cold Moon", in addition to the duel with his fierce rival "Watchmaker", Lincoln also meets a human action expert Catherine Dans, Dans is good at interrogation, through the analysis of suspects' expressions, movements, language to predict behavior, Lincoln in this case to only trust in physical evidence, paving the way for a more versatile way.
The work with him as the protagonist: fourteen novels
The first case: "Human Bone Puzzle"
（1997）
The Last Case: "Happy to Death"
(Tentative Translation) (2018)
Famous cases: "Human Bone Puzzle", "Stone Monkey", "Coffin Dancer", "Cold Moon", "Steel Kiss"
3. Sherlock Holmes
Holmes is synonymous with "detective", which few people will deny. In the film and television drama, Holmes has the iconic long trench coat, pipe and deer hunting hat, as well as the famous mantra "It's common sense, my dear Watson!" ”
（Elementary，my dear Watson）
But all of this has never appeared in the original. The mantra came from a parody by the British humorous novelist P.G. Woodhouse, and was later widely circulated as a false rumor. The matching of clothes and hats is the inspiration of his actors. In fact, the appearance that Conan Doyle sketched for him in the book is already very characteristic: tall
(about 1.83 meters)
Slender, with a slender hooked nose, a square and prominent jaw and sharp gray eyes, the look of determination and determination is very convincing. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is a natural detective, and when he first went to college, he was determined to make a private detective his life's work, and he studied for many years. His knowledge structure was peculiar, in Watson's words, "the poor side of knowledge is just as astonishing as his rich side."
In addition to being familiar with nearly a hundred years of supernatural events and horror stories, his literary reserves are almost zero, but he is proficient in chemistry, English law, and also knows a lot of anatomy and geography, and after retirement he also published a book "Practical Manual for Beekeeping, and on the Study of Segregating Queen Bees", and even mastered a "mysterious oriental martial art", and he was proficient in all the knowledge that is effective for solving cases - codes, traces, guns. As the progenitor of the "all-round" detective, his greatest contribution is to use scientific "deductive reasoning" to solve cases, that is, to make logical reasoning based on a large number of detailed observations, which began with the first sentence he said when he first met Watson: "Hello, I can see that you are from Afghanistan." ”
Works featuring him: four novellas, fifty-six short stories
The first case: "The Study of Blood Words"
（1887）
Last Case (False): "The Last Case"
（1893）
Resurrection: The Empty House
（1903）
The Real Last Case: "Retired Paint Merchant"
（1927）
Famous cases: "The Study of Blood Letters", "The Hound of baskerville", "Uncanny Valley"
Nemesis: James Moriarty
4. Tincture foursome
Craftsman Chiaki, Takase Chiho, Yusuke Benmi, and Yukiko Haku
Most of the Japanese detective figures like to follow the Sherlock Holmes model, including Renzaburō Furuhata, Mitsuki wash, and Yukawa Gaku, all of which are all. There is a group of people and horses, which is particularly interesting. It is the college student detective group of Yasuhiko Nishizawa's "Tincture Series", which we call the "Tincture Four". The name comes from their hobby of drinking beer and eating barbecue, and when it comes to drinking tincture, it is where the case is solved.
Often inexplicably involved in cases, as a craftsman
(Craftsman Qianxiao)
The core foursome can reason about the case by eating and drinking together, hanging out together, and gossiping together. The group of four was officially "formed" because they broke into the mountain villa, which was empty except for beer, so the young people began to analyze pure logic and "buy drunk". Unlike "retired policemen", "physics professors", etc., who will naturally become police "consultants", four people cannot intervene in the case because of their status as students, so endless "brain holes" are opened. What is even more fascinating about this group of detectives is their own fate, both Chiaki and Takase Chiho hide secrets, and their revolutionary friendship of mutual salvation never appears in those "detectives" who flaunt themselves.
For example, the reader's comment on the foursome: when people begin to care about the origin and fate of the detective himself, they have a solid meaning.
Works with them as protagonists: six novels, twenty-six short stories
Case 1: "The Night She Died"
（1996）
The Last Case: "Stand-in"
（2009）
Famous Cases: "The Adventure of the House of Beer", "Scottish Games", "Disintegration of Causes"
5. Hercule Poirot
Belgian, born in the nineteenth century, less than one meter sixty-two tall, with a steady and solemn demeanor, and a very noble sentiment. The upper lip has a straight and neat figure-eight beard. The whole body remained spotlessly clean. It is as if the head of an egg contains countless "small gray brain cells", and it can solve many mysteries with a slight movement. He worked for the Belgian police with great success.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Poirot resigned from the police and began a career as a private detective, and his fame was greatly enhanced. Because he always wanted to grow zucchini, Poirot once retired to the countryside to "farm". Because of the well-known physique of "attracting cases", it is inevitable to solve several cases in the countryside. Later, he simply returned to London and worked as a detective for another ten years. Poirot is picky and unmodested
(This seems to be a common problem of great detectives)
But it did not prevent him from successfully breaking into british "high society", identifying many prominent suspects, and even saving the prime minister. Poirot is a typical "logical" detective, that is, through continuous visits and inquiries to understand the case, explore the motive, and then reason out the truth, especially good at "cheating" the suspect's flaws through chat, the most classic interview comes from the famous work "Murder on the Orient Express" on the twelve suspects on the train. As a foreigner who often deliberately misrepresented grammar, he really did not lose the battle in a "debate" with a well-educated British murderer. Along with the famous detective, it should be Poirot's title of "connoisseur of food". Sticking to the French breakfast, he would run to a Danish pastry shop far away to buy good bread; he would spend a lot of time inquiring and gathering information about delicious food to determine the next restaurant he was going to. His famous quote is: "Unfortunately, a person can only eat three meals a day..."
Poirot's stubborn insistence on "order" is also vividly reflected in diet, and if the eggs are not the same size, they greatly reduce his appetite. "A mushroom omelet, white beef, French green peas, and— below it— a romain fruitcake."
This is Poirot's daily relaxed meal after solving the case of Poirot, who attaches the most importance to dinner and prefers sweets.
Works featuring him: thirty-four novels, fifty-five short stories
Case 1: The Strange Case of Styles Manor
The Last Case: The Curtain
Famous cases: "Stiles Manor Strange Case", "Oriental Express Murder", "ABC Murder", "Massacre on the Nile", "Roger's Mystery"
Nemesis: All things that are disorderly and untidy
Written by Daifuku
Edited by Zhang Jin, Zhang Ting, Xu Wei
Proofread by Xue Jingning