6 Gritty Gumshoes: Our Favorite Hard-boiled Detectives are on the Case

Jack Taylor (The Guards, by Ken Bruen)
Jack Taylor is a usually drunk, always irritable, but nevertheless keen detective who has recently been sacked from the Irish police force. Caught midway between an impulse to crawl into a pint glass and a burning desire to become Ireland’s premier private detective, Taylor will have to prove his mettle to his Galway community and himself on his journey from roguedom to redemption. He will have a chance to do just that when a woman interrupts his boozy reverie with a case that demands all of his faculties. Despite his overly gruff demeanor and often terrible manners, Jack manages to win readers over with his do-gooder spirit and heart of gold.

Myron Bolitar (Deal Breaker, by Harlan Coben)
Although Myron Bolitar is a sports agent, his many past lives have included lawyer and FBI agent. So, you know, a little investigating isn’t going to scare him off. That’s a good thing, too, since Myron’s newly acquired career as an all-American star quarterbackis about to take a nosedive thanks to the mystery of an ex-girlfriend’s disappearance. That’s when his latent detective skills kick into action, exposing the seedy underbelly of the competitive sports industry, a world replete with lies, greed, and violence. Will Myron, with the help of his witty and lethal sidekick, Win, be able to take back the game with only seconds on the clock? One thing is for sure: readers will be rooting for him.

Cassie Maddox (The Likeness, by Tana French)
Detective Cassie Maddox is still reeling from the biggest murder investigation of her career when another killer of a case comes her way. When a fateful phone call summons Cassie to a murder scene, she is hardly prepared to find that the victim is her own spitting image. Stranger still, the victim is carrying identification that bears the name of Cassie’s former undercover alias. It quickly becomes clear that Cassie must assume the victim’s identity in order to catch her killer. This feat will require that she shed light on her own shadowy past in order to recognize the person staring back at her in the mirror. What follows is a psychological thriller that will keep even the most seasoned crime novel connoisseur guessing until the very end.

Kurt Wallander (Faceless Killers, by Henning Mankell)
Written in the ‘90s and boasting several TV adaptations to its credit, the Wallander books can safely categorized as modern detective classics. As one delves into the mind and life of Swedish sleuth Kurt Wallander, one can easily see why. When an elderly farmer is slain on his property and his wife left for dead, Wallander is called upon to solve a case that seems to have every intention of going cold. Unlike many contemporary crime novels, this story eschews nitty-gritty forensic details in favor of good, old-fashioned detective work. Wallander is as dogged in his pursuit of the truth as he is haunted by the shambles that is his personal life. A divorce, a forbidden attraction, and an estranged relationship with his daughter provide the reader with a rich context for the sadness that permeates Wallander’s world, and the novel’s slow build works well with the austere, captivating backdrop of the Swedish landscape.

Virgil Dalton (Death at the Black Bull, by Frank Hayes)
Virgil Dalton has been the sheriff of Hayward, a sleepy Southwestern town, for about a dozen years. Like any small town, Hayward has its share of hidden dirt. From a conniving matriarch to a good ole’ boy up to no good, all the gears start grinding when Virgil discovers a dead body in the most unlikely of places. Throughout the novel, we get to know Virgil as a stoic, good-natured man of the people who is plagued with regret and a deep longing for times gone by. Virgil just barely manages to keep up with the body count in Hayward as this tiny town gets its first taste of big-city villainy. He must use all of  his shrewd policing skills to catch the killer, and along the way, he just might solve some of his own private mysteries. A vivid cast of characters, an ode to the sun-splashed mesas of the Southwest, and a shocker of an ending round out this impressive mystery.

Camille Preaker (Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn)
So, strictly speaking, Camille Preaker is not so much a detective as she is a frazzled reporter coming off of a recent stay at a mental institution. When her Missouri hometown is suddenly struck by one girl’s murder and another’s disappearance, Camille finds herself thrust back into the past with alarming force as she returns to cover the story. As Camille begins to identify more and more with the victims, her desire to unearth their fates is mirrored by her quest to understand her own history. This newshound-turned-bloodhound may be scarred, but she learns to wear her past wounds without shame in her fierce battle for what all detectives (and journalists) are after: the truth.
Who are your favorite hard-boiled detectives?