Even if that does involve busting down doors and interrogating witnesses without the proper authorisation, he's a man determined to always do the right thing. Wiping out corruption in the department ranks high on his list of priorities. The beautiful environments and light-hearted, slightly old-fashioned tone of Death In Paradise have been key to its success. A formulaic whodunit illuminated by glorious sunshine, Death In Paradise is also popular because of its loveable cast of characters, a mix of French, British and Caribbean coppers who oversee the fictional island resort of Saint Marie.
- Come Aside and Rest Awhile (Pendle Hill Pamphlets Book 335)?
- Die Germanistin AGATHE LASCH (1879–1942) Aufsätze zu Leben, Werk und Wirkung (German Edition);
- Resistance!
- The Book of Leeds (Comma City Stories).
- Vertrauen als Mechanismus der Reduktion sozialer Komplexität anhand Luhmanns Werk: Möglichkeiten, Grenzen und Gefahren dieser Reduktion (German Edition).
- Raymond Chandler - Wikipedia.
- ?
So when Ben Miller's Detective Inspector Richard Poole was killed at the start of series three, who knew that the public would take his replacement to their hearts so quickly? Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman, portrayed by Kris Marshall, is flown over from London to lead the small police team and almost immediately falls in love with his detective sergeant Camille Bordey.
While many believe Walter White's brother-in-law really should have joined the dots before his eventual epiphany late in the final season of Breaking Bad, there's little debate that Hank constantly gets the shitty end of the stick, until his eventual end. At the start he's more of a nifty piece of irony, a stereotypical brute-force cop rolled out for some light-hearted or tense moments designed to underpin the fumbling, amateurish efforts of Walt and Jesse's integration into the savage world of drug dealing. By the end, he's a character many have grown fond of despite his bullishness, and one of fiction's least lucky detectives, destined to be blindsided and crushed as the story dictates.
The grizzled mainstay of The Bill 's formative - and arguably best - years, Detective Inspector Burnside Christopher Ellison was a real rogue, parading the streets of East London with his trademark snarl and wiseguy demeanour.
From the first episode his role in the show's copper ensemble is in direct opposition to the straight efforts of Sun Hill station's newbie Jim Carver, with Burnside's preference for shoving suspects' heads down toilets giving his superiors the run-around. Those no-nonsense tactics twinned with his mouthy disposition made one of the UK's first police procedurals worth tuning in to every week. More a Van Dyke family reunion than a TV show, some episodes of Diagnosis Murder feature multiple members of the showbiz clan with the main emphasis landing squarely on Dick Van Dyke's busybody Dr.
A medical doctor first and foremost that never stops him from lending his son, Lt. Steve Sloan played by Van Dyke's real-life offspring Barry Van Dyke a helping hand with active investigations - when they're not running their co-op BBQ business on the side. That frivolity presents itself at every opportunity, as Sloan is somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades, able to put his hand to any activity in order to get his man. This includes skateboarding and tap-dancing, two skills no other entrant on this list boasts. Camp doesn't cut it when it comes to Miami Vice 's flamboyant double act.
Traditional police attire is traded for blinding neon t-shirts and rolled-up cuffs, an attempt to capture the youth market.
Whether they were on the hunt for a drug trafficker or securing informants their antics were always accompanied by the smooth pangs of easy-listening crooners like Phil Collins, adding an aura of added cool to these Floridian undercover cops. John Dickson Carr The master of the "impossible crime", he claimed to have come up with 80 versions of the locked-room mystery, usually solved by his Falstaffian sleuth Dr Gideon Fell.
Also wrote as Carter Dickson. The Hollow Man Michael Innes An Oxford don who wrote inventive crime fantasies.
Navigation menu
Crooks are more likely to get caught by quoting from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam than by fingerprints when erudite copper John Appleby is about. The Weight of the Evidence Raymond Chandler He may have forgotten to tell us who murdered the chauffeur in The Big Sleep, but otherwise Chandler can't be faulted. Every reluctant step Philip Marlowe takes through California's mean streets carries him further into legend. Farewell, My Lovely Michael Gilbert The stories featuring Mr Calder and Mr Behrens, two seemingly benign old boys who are actually ruthless secret service assassins, are examples of this underrated writer's unnervingly civilised approach to horrific violence.
Even Murderers Take Holidays and other Mysteries Donald Westlake The king of the comic caper, whose novels usually feature amiable criminals bungling their way into sticky situations. The novels he writes as "Richard Stark", featuring the amoral thief Parker, are darker fare. Colin Bateman Any appearance by Bateman's regular protagonist, journalist Dan Starkey, heralds the imminent death in amusing fashion of half the population of Belfast.
Comic thrillers that are actually comic and thrilling. Wild About Harry Frances Fyfield Fyfield emerged as a rival to Minette Walters when publishers in the mids were obsessed with grim, cod-psychological nasties inspired by Ruth Rendell. She's relaxed into a more comfortable format. The Art of Drowning Reginald Hill Everyone thinks they know Hill through the TV series "inspired" by his creations Dalziel and Pascoe - to the extent that they miss his writerly flourishes and teasing way with readers. He's a victim of his own success. Good Morning Midnight Andrea Camilleri Camilleri's writing suits his hero Inspector Montalbano, a Sicilian with a broad sense of humour.
Camilleri's real subject is the state of Sicily, but his characters are vivid and their dilemmas eternal. The Patience of the Spider Henning Mankell Each book finishes with fatty Wallander crashing about the bushes in a tracksuit, but the Swede's existential misery is delightful and every novel is absorbing and satisfying. Patricia Highsmith No one reads Patricia Highsmith for consolation: There is a worrying strata of authentic darkness that underpins her work, and it is no surprise that she lived a peculiar, isolated life, during which she preferred the company of snails to humans.
The Talented Mr Ripley James Lee Burke A decade ago, Lee Burke gave the gritty lyricism of his series about alkie Louisiana cop Dave Robicheaux full rein and created a one-man revival of Southern Gothic writing. One of America's finest novelists in any field. Black Cherry Blues Thompson churned out more than 30 novels in the course of his drunken, borderline criminal life.
The Grifters shows the noose tightening nastily on small-time cons.
50 crime writers to read before you die - Telegraph
The Getaway follows a viperous Bonnie-and- Clyde-style pair of robbers on the run, pitching them finally into a chilling hell of their own making. Dark as hell, his books are all the darker for being funny. Walter Mosley Mosley's Easy Rawlins is a classic film noir gumshoe with the twist that he's a black war vet at the dawn of the civil rights crusade.
Bill Clinton named Mosley as a favourite. Devil in a Blue Dress Denise Mina In Mina's Garnethill novels, an ex-mental patient clinging to sanity in the underbelly of Glasgow isn't as grim as it sounds. Her wit and warmth render the trials of her heroine oddly life-affirming. Steig Larsson A crusading Swedish journalist who died in , leaving the manuscripts of three thrillers. They have received high praise and the first volume, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has just been published here.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo He coined the 10 commandments of the detective novel in and was later reduced to translating the Bible. The Viaduct Murder Trent's Last Case is a landmark in detective fiction because it breaks several of the form's cardinal rules. Trent's Last Case Lawrence Block Block shows a love of the cosy locked-room school in his Burglar series. His genius is in full flower in the Matt Scudder series, about a hard-boiled ex-cop investigating sleazy crimes.
All the Flowers Are Dying Edmund Crispin Bohemian schoolmaster Bruce Montgomery aka Crispin spoofed post-war crime fiction with great larkiness. His dotty professor and amateur sleuth, Gervase Fen, even admits he's a fictional character. William McIlvanney McIlvanney, a considerable mainstream novelist, has set three crime novels in Glasgow: They probably inspired the TV series Taggart, but are far more intelligent and subtle.
His books are almost all in foul-mouthed, funny, well observed, poetically cadenced dialogue. The Friends of Eddie Coyle is the best known but none are duds. The Rat on Fire Dorothy L Sayers Sayers was responsible, with Agatha Christie, for fixing in the public mind the idea demonstrably false that women are particularly good at crime writing.
Unlike Christie, Sayers was. She was good at writing, full stop.
- .
- ;
- Collection of Truths!
- Bassus (German Edition).
Sayers had her faults. She was donnish and high-jinxy to a degree which might have made even other members of the High Oxford school Michael Innes, Edmund Crispin blush. In Clouds of Witness she alludes to a fairly obscure quotation. Lower-class characters drop their aitches left, right and centre, while Lord Peter is perhaps too much of a good thing, even as snobbish wishfulfilment. Some think the solution to The Nine Tailors is a swizz; but the genius of the missing item in Five Red Herrings is, on its own, enough to confirm her greatness. Five Red Herrings Anthony Boucher The revered US crime fiction critic also created characters such as Nick Noble, a former cop who props up a bar while his ex-colleagues bring him their trickiest cases.
The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars Mickey Spillane Creator of brutish but honest private dick Mike Hammer, who, by bashing the bejesus out of crooks, helped make Spillane one of the best-selling writers of the 20th century. I, the Jury James Grady His thrillers set ordinary people in dangerous situations engendered by government greed and corruption.
GamesRadar+
His first novel, Six Days of the Condor, was made into a film. Six Days of the Condor The capital's rigid firearms laws generate imaginatively grisly alternatives to the traditional shoot-out. The Big Blowdown Robert Crais Just when you think there can't be a new take on the old "PI with a mildly psychotic sidekick" formula, Crais proves you right. Elvis Cole is a homage, but also a labour of literary love.
John Lawton Lawton immerses a newspaper baron's son, Inspector Troy, in the scandals of post-war Britain. His skewed social history is utterly absorbing. Elmore Leonard Leonard owes much to George V Higgins, but his snappy dialogue, learned as a copy-writer, slick prose and plotting are instantly recognisable. All these books are available from Telegraph Books Summaries by: Get the best at Telegraph Puzzles.
A collection of the best contributions and reports from the Telegraph focussing on the key events, decisions and moments in Churchill's life. This book tells the story of the men and women of Fighter Command who worked tirelessly in air bases scattered throughout Britain to thwart the Nazis. The essential gift book for any pet lover - real-life tales of devoted dogs, rebellious cats and other unforgettable four-legged friends. A complete edition of John James Audubon's world famous The Birds of America, bound in linen and beautifully presented in a special slipcase.
Accessibility links Skip to article Skip to navigation. Sunday 16 December Frances Fyfield's recent work has relaxed into a more comfortable format. The Hound of the Baskervilles Edgar Allan Poe Poe was a man of formidable talents - not least of which, sadly, was drinking himself to death.