- Famous Detectives in Fiction

Ankita Sundriyal
“Elementary, my dear Watson!” I am sure many of you are quite familiar with this line which is popularly quoted to have been said by perhaps the most famous and eccentric detective in the world, Sherlock Holmes. For over a century, this fictitious personality has never failed to arouse awe and interest. Till the last page, we are not able to decide who the main culprit is and then a completely different aspect comes before us at the end. Maybe this is the reason for the popularity of the series ’Sherlock Holmes’. The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, continued to evoke the same sensation in every one of his novels and stories. Holmes is described as an excellent observer of every thing that goes on around him. He is also known to have a cat like love for personal cleanliness. In many of Doyle’s novels, Holmes is shown as an expert with swords and martial arts. But the most influential part of his character is his forensic knowledge which is beyond comparison. Although he is expected to handle every case victoriously, yet he was once fooled by a lady, Irene Adler. Later, in some novels, Holmes referred to her as ‘the woman’. The novels and the short stories written by Doyle are referred to as ‘Canon’ by his fans.
Greatly influenced by ‘Canon’, Agatha Christie, the author of mysteries unveiled a character in the ‘Mysterious Affair at Styles’. Having an egg shaped and partially bald head, Hercule Poirot was an instant success. Poirot introduces himself as, “I am Hercule Poirot and I am perhaps the world’s best detective.” Poirot’s character matches with Holmes in the eccentricity and the love of tidiness. Poirot is described as a ‘brainy’ man and his best work can probably be seen in “The Murder on the Orient Express”. It is very interesting to note that despite the fact that Poirot’s character was similar to Holmes a lot, yet it managed to make its own place in fictional history. Besides, he was the only detective to be honoured with an obituary on the front of New York Times.
Another famous fictitious detective was ‘Perry Mason’, introduced by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason is described as a defence attorney who often faces difficult and hopeless cases. Although Mason is a defence attorney, yet he investigates and behaves as a detective. The procedure is roughly the same in every novel. Mason gets the case, then he and his crew investigate. The trial ensues and in most of the cases Mason elicits a confession from the real culprit. Gardner wrote over eighty novels and all of them were bestsellers. Perry Mason is also the ‘longest running detective series on television’. In the novels, he is often depicted as broad shouldered and rugged faced. Although the novels were a big success, but the character never managed to gather much attention among readers, maybe because of the same kind of story.
With the death of the character in 1975, once again the position of world’s greatest fictional detective became vacant. Let us hope that the a new detective is born who once again brings back ‘the detective era’ in the world as some did years ago.