30 Most Famous Fictional Detectives From TV and Literature

30 Most Famous Fictional Detectives From TV and Literature

Stepping into a world of fiction is not only thrilling but also entertaining for TV viewers and literature fanatics. Fictional characters and specifically detectives have captured their audience’s attention through a series of chapters in literature and episodes for Tv series where they go down a rabbit hole, unravelling mysteries and in more cases than not, solving the mystery. The audience not only gets to live vicariously from the comfort of their homes, through the fictional detectives’ lives but also gets entertained.

In this article, we feature these fascinating fictional detectives from the classical brilliance of Sherlock Holmes to the more relatable Jessica Fletcher. Despite their versatility, all these fictional detectives have one thing in common, being able to solve mysterious crimes. They have also informed a whole genre of entertainment culture by penetrating both TV and literature. Let’s delve into our list of the 30 most famous fictional detectives from TV and Literature. 

1. Adrian Monk

Adrian Monk, portrayed by Tony Shalhoub, is the title character and protagonist of the USA Network television series Monk. Monk has obsessive–compulsive disorder and multiple phobias, all of which intensified after the murder of his wife Trudy, resulting in his suspension from the department. He works as a private police homicide consultant.

Series co-creator David Hoberman says that he based Monk partly on himself, and also on other fictional detectives. Monk was included in Bravo’s list of The 100 Greatest Television Characters of All Time, and Shalhoub has won various awards for his portrayal, including a Golden Globe Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

2. Sherlock Holmes

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Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a consulting detective in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients.

Though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is arguably the best-known. By the 1990s, there were already over 25,000 stage adaptations, films, television productions and publications featuring the detective, and Guinness World Records lists him as the most portrayed human literary character in film and television history.  Read more Interesting Facts about Sherlock Holmes Museum. 

3. Inspector Morse

Detective Inspector Morse is the fictional character in the series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter. On TV, he appears in the 33-episode drama series Inspector Morse, in which John Thaw played the character, as well as the prequel series Endeavour, portrayed by Shaun Evans. 

In the first series, Inspector Morse is a senior Criminal Investigation Department officer with the Thames Valley Police in Oxford in England and, in the prequel, Inspector Morse is a young detective constable rising through the ranks with the Oxford City Police and in later series the Thames Valley Police.

4. Hercule Poirot

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Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie’s most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays, Black Coffee and Alibi, and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975. Poirot has been portrayed on radio, in film and on television by various actors. 

5. Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.  Within the context of Marvel’s shared universe, Jones is a former superhero who becomes the owner and sole employee of Alias Private Investigations. Jessica Jones has been described as one of Marvel’s most notable and powerful female heroes.

6. Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter Wimsey is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers.

A detective who solves mysteries for his own amusement, Wimsey is a  typical example of a British gentleman detective.

7. Miss Marple

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Miss Marple, titled Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in the series, is a British television series based on the Miss Marple murder mystery novels by Agatha Christie, starring Joan Hickson in the title role.  Read more amazing facts about Agatha Christie. 

It aired from 26 December 1984 to 27 December 1992 on BBC1. All twelve original Miss Marple Christie novels were dramatized.  

8. Jessica Fletcher 

Jessica Fletcher is a fictional detective and writer and the main character and protagonist of the American television series Murder, She Wrote.

Fletcher has received a number of accolades under her belt including, Guinness World Records calling her the most prolific amateur sleuth.

9. Jim Rockford 

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Jim Rockford is a fictional character on the television series The Rockford Files. The character, played by James Garner, is a struggling private investigator operating in the greater Los Angeles area. Rockford is the principal character of the series, and Garner was the only actor to appear in every episode of the series.

10. Adam Dalgliesh

Adam Dalgliesh is a fictional character who is the protagonist of fourteen mystery novels by P. D. James.

The first was James’s 1962 novel Cover Her Face. He also appears in the two novels featuring James’s other detective, Cordelia Gray.

11. Nancy Drew

The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories is the long-running main series of the Nancy Drew franchise, which was published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. There are 175 novels plus 34 revised stories that were published between 1930 and 2003.

A spinoff, the Nancy Drew Files, ran concurrently from 1986 to 1997. In 2003, Simon & Schuster announced that Nancy Drew Mystery Stories would end and be replaced by a new, more contemporary series titled Nancy Drew: Girl Detective.  Read more on  15 Most Famous Authors of all Time. 

12. Inspector Jules Maigret

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In Simenon’s iconic first novel featuring Inspector Maigret, the detective is taken from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces a fraudster’s true identity. 

Armed with a broad description and a scant few clues, Maigret plans to intercept him at the train station outside Paris. But when he arrives, he finds that there are several suspects, some living, and some dead who meet the description uncannily well.

 13. Sam Spade

Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon. Spade was a departure from Hammett’s nameless and less-than-glamorous detective, The Continental Op. 

Spade combined several features of previous detectives, most notably his detached demeanour, a keen eye for detail, and unflinching determination to achieve his own justice.

14. Hardy Boys

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The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional teenage brothers and amateur detectives. The series revolves around teenagers who are amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterparts.

In each novel, the Hardy Boys are constantly involved in adventure and action. Despite the frequent danger, the boys never lose their nerve. They are hardy boys, luckier and more clever than anyone around them. They live in an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue. The Hardy Boys have remained popular; the books sell more than a million copies annually.

15. Mike Hammer

Michael Hammer is a fictional character created by the American author Mickey Spillane. Hammer debuted in the 1947 book I, the Jury. Hammer is a no-holds-barred private investigator who carries a Colt . 

Hammer was a World War II army veteran who spent two years fighting jungle warfare in the Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II against Japan.

16. Patrick Jane

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Patrick Jane is a fictional character and the protagonist of the CBS crime drama The Mentalist, portrayed by Simon Baker. Jane is an independent consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation and helps by giving advice and insight from his many years as a fake psychic medium. 

He uses his keen powers of observation, his knowledge of psychology, and his genius to help lead the investigations. Heller describes the character as being a combination of Sherlock Holmes and a street psychic, part detective helping people and part con artist selling people lies.  

17. Spenser

Spenser is a fictional private investigator created by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker. He acts as the protagonist of a series of detective novels written by Parker.

Spenser is only referred to by his surname in the novels, but the television series has him introduce himself as David Spenser.  

18. Inspector Lewis

Detective Inspector Lewis is a fictional character in the Inspector Morse crime novels by Colin Dexter. In the television adaptation of Inspector Morse, he is played by Kevin Whately. 

Following the conclusion of the series, Whately reprised the role of the lead character in Lewis, in which the character has been promoted to the rank of inspector.  Here are 55 best movies about serial killers. 

19. Sarah Lund

The Killing series is set in Copenhagen and revolves around Detective Inspector Sarah Lund. Each series follows a murder case day by day. Each fifty-minute episode covers twenty-four hours of the investigation. 

The series is noted for its plot twists, season-long storylines and dark tone, and for giving equal emphasis to the stories of the murdered victim’s family and the effect in political circles alongside the police investigation.

20. Olivia Benson 

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Olivia Benson is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the NBC police procedural drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, portrayed by Mariska Hargitay. Benson holds the rank of Captain and is the Commanding Officer of the Manhattan Special Victims Unit of the New York City Police Department, which operates out of the 16th Precinct. She investigates sexual offences such as rape and child sexual abuse.

21. Philip Marlowe

Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler who was characteristic of the crime fiction genre. The genre originated in the 1920s, notably in Black Mask magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett’s The Continental Op and Sam Spade first appeared. 

Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep, published in 1939. Chandler’s early short stories, published in pulp magazines such as Black Mask and Dime Detective, featured similar characters with names like “Carmady” and “John Dalmas”, starting in 1933.

22. Harry Hole

Harry Hole is the main character in a series of crime novels written by Norwegian author Jo Nesbø. In his stories, Hole is a brilliant, introverted, and obsessively driven detective. 

Hole has few friends and often clashes with colleagues, but his work and skill are so widely known and respected that he is considered a specialist, leading him to sometimes consult on cases in other cities and countries. Throughout the novels, he sometimes uses unorthodox and illegal methods in his investigations.

23. Cormoran Strike

Cormoran Strike is a series of crime fiction novels written by British author J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. 

The story chronicles the cases of the fictional British private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott. Six novels in the series have so far been published. Rowling stated after the third book that she has plans for at least another ten.

24. Lisbeth Salander 

Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson in his award-winning Millennium series. Salander is a world-class computer hacker.

She uses her computer skills as a means to earn a living, doing investigative work for Milton Security. She has an eidetic memory and is skillful at concealing her identity; she possesses passports with different names and disguises herself to travel undetected around Sweden and worldwide.

25. Inspector Alan Banks

Inspector Alan Banks is the fictional protagonist in a series of crime novels by Peter Robinson. From 2010 to 2016 several of the novels were adapted for television, and other original stories were produced, under the series title DCI Banks with Stephen Tompkinson in the lead role. The Banks novels have won and been shortlisted for prestigious awards in crime fiction, including the Arthur Ellis Award, the Anthony Award, and the Edgar Award.

26. Veronica Mars

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Veronica Mars is the fictional detective of the American television series Veronica Mars. The character Veronica Mars is a student who progresses from high school to college while moonlighting as a private investigator under the tutelage of her detective father. 

In each episode, Veronica solves a different stand-alone case while working to solve a more complex mystery. The first two seasons of the series each had a season-long mystery arc, introduced in the first episode of the season and solved in the season finale. The third season took a different format, focusing on smaller mystery arcs that would last several episodes.

27. Detective Vera

Vera is a British crime drama series based on the Vera Stanhope series of novels written by crime writer Ann Cleeves. 

It was first broadcast on ITV on 1 May 2011, and to date, twelve series have aired, with the latest concluding on 19 February 2023. The series stars Brenda Blethyn as the principal character, Detective Vera Stanhope.

28. Eve Polastri 

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Eve Polastri is a fictional agent working for British intelligence. Polastri becomes involved in a cat-and-mouse game with the psychopathic hired assassin Villanelle, the two women becoming mutually obsessed and sharing a crackling chemistry, portrayed as a between bitter enemies and would-be lovers. Agent Polastri tracks assassin Villanelle across Europe. The series is spiced with plot twists and turns. Read more facts about Sandra Oh. 

29. Dr. John Watson

Dr. Watson is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson first appeared in the novel A Study in Scarlet. 

As Holmes’s friend and confidant, Watson has appeared in various films, television series, video games, comics and radio programmes.

30. Father Brown

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Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective. He features in 53 short stories by English author G. K. Chesterton, published between 1910 and 1936. 

Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and keen understanding of human nature.