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In this post, we’ll check out 25 Iconic Investigators!
Mystery lovers know there’s nothing quite like the thrill of following a detective from the very beginning of their journey.
Legendary sleuths like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Harry Bosch didn’t just solve cases—they created entire worlds, each with unique mysteries and unforgettable characters.
This list highlights 25 detective novels where iconic investigators make their debut, setting the stage for countless adventures and influencing crime fiction for generations.
Whether you’re new to the genre or looking to rediscover classics, these books are essential reads for anyone who loves a great mystery!
Start your journey into classic crime-solving with this unforgettable introduction to just a fraction of the world’s most famous detectives and sleuths!
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Happy Reading, friends!
How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 21 books in the ‘Inspector Lynley‘ series.
"A Great Deliverance" Book Blurb:
Fat, unlovely Roberta Teys is found beside her father’s headless corpse, wearing her best dress and with an axe in her lap. Her first words are: ‘I did it. And I am not sorry’ and she refuses to say more. Inspector Thomas Lynley and DS Barbara Havers are sent by Scotland Yard to solve this particularly gruesome murder. And as they navigate their way around a dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a series of shocking revelations that shatter the façade of the peaceful Yorkshire village.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
Conan Doyle wrote 4 novels and 56 short stories that featured Sherlock Holmes.
"A Study in Scarlet" Book Blurb:
The novel opens with Dr. John Watson, a recently discharged army doctor, looking for affordable lodgings in London. He is introduced to a mutual acquaintance, a consulting detective named Sherlock Holmes, and the two decide to share a flat at 221B Baker Street. Watson is quickly impressed by Holmes’ remarkable deductive abilities. Soon after, Holmes is approached by Detective Inspector Tobias Gregson of Scotland Yard to help solve a puzzling murder case. The scene of the crime is a locked room in an abandoned house, where the body of a man, Enoch Drebber, is found with the word “RACHE” written in blood on the wall. The murder appears to be a revenge killing, and it confounds the police. Holmes and Watson begin their investigation, which takes them on a journey from London to the American West. They uncover a complex and intriguing tale involving a secretive group known as the Mormons and their history in the United States. The novel delves into the past, providing a narrative that explains the motive behind the murder.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 55 books in the ‘Perry Mason‘ series.
"The Case of the Velvet Claws" Book Blurb:
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 14 books in the ‘Inspector Adam Dalgliesh‘ series.
"Cover Her Face" Book Blurb:
When the body of Sally Jupp is discovered in her bedroom – the door bolted from the inside – the occupants of Martingale house are sure that the blame for this unthinkable crime will fall on an unknown intruder. But each of them is hiding something. And there’s only one man who can sift through the layers of deceit and pretence to unmask the true murderer: Detective Chief-Inspector Adam Dalgleish.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 37 books in the ‘Hamish Macbeth‘ series.
"Death of a Gossip" Book Blurb:
When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters joins the local fishing class she wastes no time in ruffling the feathers – or should that be fins? – of those around her. Among the victims of her sharp tongue is Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth, yet not even Hamish thinks someone would seriously want to silence Lady Jane’s shrill voice permanently – until her strangled body is fished out of the river. Now with the help of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, Hamish must steer a course through the choppy waters of the tattler’s life to find a murderer. But with a school of suspects who aren’t willing to talk, and the dead woman telling no tales, Hamish may well be in over his head for he knows that secrets are dangerous, knowledge is power, and killers when cornered usually do strike again.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 3 books in the ‘Dirk Gently‘ series.
"Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" Book Blurb:
What do a dead cat, a computer whiz-kid, an Electric Monk who believes the world is pink, quantum mechanics, a Chronologist over two hundred years old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), and pizza have in common? Apparently not much; until Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things by solving a mysterious murder, assisting a mysterious professor, unravelling a mysterious mystery, and eating a lot of pizza – not to mention saving the entire human race from extinction along the way (at no extra charge). To find out more, read this book (better still, buy it then read it) – or contact Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 10 books in the ‘Arkady Renko‘ series.
"Gorky Park" Book Blurb:
It begins with a triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and the New York City police as he pursues a rich, ruthless, and well-connected American fur dealer. Meanwhile, Renko is falling in love with a beautiful, headstrong dissident for whom he may risk everything.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 6 books in the ‘Dublin Murder Squad‘ series.
"In The Woods" Book Blurb:
When he was twelve years old, Adam Ryan went playing in the woods with his two best friends. He never saw them again. Their bodies were never found, and Adam himself was discovered with his back pressed against an oak tree and his shoes filled with blood. He had no memory of what had happened. Twenty years on, Rob Ryan – the child who came back – is a detective in the Dublin police force. He’s changed his name. No one knows about his past. Then a little girl’s body is found at the site of the old tragedy and Rob is drawn back into the mystery. Knowing that he would be thrown off the case if his past were revealed, Rob takes a fateful decision to keep quiet but hope that he might also solve the twenty-year-old mystery of the woods.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 25 books in the ‘Inspector Rebus‘ series.
"Knots & Crosses" Book Blurb:
‘And in Edinburgh of all places. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you…?’ ‘That sort of thing’ is the brutal abduction and murder of two young girls. And now a third is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own young daughter spirited away south by his disenchanted wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer. And then the messages begin to arrive: knotted string and matchstick crosses – taunting Rebus with pieces of a puzzle only he can solve.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 18 books in the ‘Maisie Dobbs‘ series.
"Maisie Dobbs" Book Blurb:
Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan’s friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognised Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education. The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found—and lost—an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different. In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 38 books in the ‘Hercule Poirot‘ series.
"The Mysterious Affair at Styles" Book Blurb:
After the Great War, life can never be the same again. Wounds need healing, and the horror of violent death banished into memory. Captain Arthur Hastings is invited to the rolling country estate of Styles to recuperate from injuries sustained at the Front. It is the last place he expects to encounter murder. Fortunately he knows a former detective, a Belgian refugee, who has grown bored of retirement.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 24 books in the ‘No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency‘ series.
"The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" Book Blurb:
Mma Ramotswe is the proud proprietor of the finest ladies’ detective agency in all Botswana (also the only one). She spends her time, with a cup of redbush tea beneath the acacia tree, waiting for clients. When they come along, whether it is to enquire after a missing spouse or check the identity of a long-lost father, it is not The Principles of Private Detection that helps her to solve cases but old-fashioned common sense and a warm-hearted understanding of the fallibility of human nature – especially that of men.
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‘The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency’ by Alexander McCall Smith
How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 31 books in the ‘Stephanie Plum‘ series.
"One For the Money" Book Blurb:
Stephanie Plum is down on her luck. She’s lost her job, her car’s on the brink of repossession, and her apartment is fast becoming furniture-free. Enter Cousin Vinnie, a low-life who runs a bail-bond company. If Stephanie can bring in vice cop turned outlaw Joe Morelli, she stands to pick up $10,000. But tracking down a cop wanted for murder isn’t easy. And when Benito Ramirez, a prize-fighter with more menace than mentality, wants to be her friend Stephanie soon knows what it’s like to be pursued. Unfortunately the best person to protect her just happens to be on the run.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 75 books in the ‘Inspector Maigret’ series.
"Pietr the Latvian" Book Blurb:
Who is Pietr the Latvian? Is he a gentleman thief? A Russian drinking absinthe in a grimy bar? A married Norwegian sea captain? A twisted corpse in a train toilet? Or is he all of these men? In Simenon’s first novel featuring Maigret, the laconic detective is taken from grimy dive bars to luxury hotels as he solves this strange enigma.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 20 books in the ‘Marcus Didius Falco‘ series.
"Shadows in Bronze" Book Blurb:
Marcus Didius Falco is a private informer, the closest thing that first-century Rome has to a detective. A new emperor, Vespasian, has ascended to power. The tides of money and power are in flux, and Rome’s vicious games swirl more ferociously than ever. When Falco rescues a young girl in trouble, he catapults himself into a dangerous game involving stolen imperial ingots, a dark political plot and, most hazardous of all, a senator’s daughter connected to the traitors Falco has sworn to expose.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 9 books in the ‘Slough House‘ series.
"Slow Horses" Book Blurb:
This is Jackson Lamb’s kingdom: a dumping ground for spies who’ve screwed up. Once high fliers, they’re now slow horses, condemned to a life of pushing paper as punishment for crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal. In drab and mildewed offices, these highly trained spies moan and squabble, stare at the walls, and dream of better days – not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a slow horse, and the one thing they have in common is their desire to be back in the action. So when a young man is kidnapped and held hostage, his beheading scheduled for live broadcast on the net, the slow horses aren’t going to just sit quietly and watch. And unless they can prove they’re not as useless as they’re thought to be, a public execution is going to echo round the world.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 8 books in the ‘Philip Marlowe‘ series.
"The Big Sleep" Book Blurb:
Philip Marlowe is the perfect expression of the cynical, world-weary gumshoe. Hired by the crippled General Sternwood to shake off a blackmailer, Marlowe also has to deal with the general’s two rebellious daughters, the gamblers and pornographers they run with and, soon enough, some inconvenient murders. Chandler’s LA and the gutter-life that populate it made crime fiction what it is today and remains unmatched.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 20 books in the ‘Harry Bosch‘ series.
"The Black Echo" Book Blurb:
LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call-out: a body has been found in a drainage tunnel off Mulholland Drive in Hollywood, and it looks like a routine drug overdose. But one new puncture wound amid the scars of old tracks leaves Bosch with questions. Worse, Harry Bosch recognises the victim. Billy Meadows was a fellow ‘tunnel rat’ in Vietnam, running against the Viet Cong and the fear they all used to call the Black Echo. Haunted by the memory of once failing his comrade, Bosch is determined to avoid doing so again. This time justice is personal.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 17 books in the ‘Judge Dee‘ series.
"The Chinese Gold Murders" Book Blurb:
Judge Dee is about to step into the shoes of a dead man. Most people would refuse the job of Magistrate at the lonely port town of Peng-lai – especially as the last occupant of the post has been found poisoned in his library, his papers missing. But Judge Dee is not most men. He arrives ready to get to the truth, only to find his life complicated even further by a missing bride, a vanished artisan, a man-eating tiger and an evil conspiracy.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 11 books in the ‘Vera Stanhope‘ series.
"The Crow Trap" Book Blurb:
Three very different women come together at isolated Baikie’s Cottage on the North Pennines, to complete an environmental survey. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal. Rachael, the team leader, is still reeling after a double betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Anne, a botanist, sees the survey as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman, hiding plenty of her own secrets. Rachael is the first to arrive at the cottage, where she discovers the body of her friend, Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide – a verdict Rachael refuses to accept. When another death occurs, a fourth woman enters the picture – the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
This is a standalone novel, though Sam Spade also features in 4 short stories by Hammett.
"The Maltese Falcon" Book Blurb:
Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But Miss Wonderley is in fact the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O Shaughnessy, and when Spade’s partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby’s trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man finds him?
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How Many Books in the Series? :
This is a standalone novel, widely considered the first great detective novel written in English!
"The Moonstone" Book Blurb:
Lady Verinder’s uncle gives her the Moonstone – a magnificent diamond as large as an egg – for her eighteenth birthday, but it is not quite the generous gift it first seems. For he obtained it through bloody and nefarious means in India, and legend says the diamond’s guardians will stop at nothing to get it back. When the Moonstone is stolen, an innocent man is accused of the crime and from this simple beginning, Wilkie Collins creates a stunning, complex narrative of dark mystery, suspense and atmosphere – and one of the very first detective stories ever written. One of the great Victorian novels, The Moonstone has engrossed, entertained and enraptured readers since its first publication in 1868.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 24 books in the ‘Dave Robicheaux‘ series.
"The Neon Rain" Book Blurb:
Introducing the New Orleans detective Dave Robicheaux. Johnny Massina, a convicted murderer bound for the electric chair, has warned Dave Robicheaux that he’s on somebody’s hit list, and now the homicide detective is trying to discover just who that is before he ends up dead. Meanwhile he has taken on the murder investigation of a young black girl found dead in the Bayou Swamp – a case no one seems keen for him to investigate. But Robicheaux persists and uncovers a web of corruption that some would kill to protect, leading him to a terrifying confrontation with the one horror he fears most of all.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
This is a standalone novel & although not a conventional detective novel, this is a classic noir thriller to clear your palate. You’re welcome.
"The Postman Always Rings Twice" Book Blurb:
The bestselling sensation—and one of the most outstanding crime novels of the 20th century—banned in Boston for the explosive mixture of violence and eroticism. An amoral young tramp. A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband. A problem that has only one grisly solution—a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve. First published in 1934, this story is a classic noir thriller.
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How Many Books in the Series? :
There are 5 books in the ‘Scotland Yard Murder Club‘ series.
"The Yard" Book Blurb:
A killer is haunting London’s streets. A year after Jack the Ripper claimed his last victim, London is in the grip of a wave of terror. The newly formed Murder Squad of Scotland Yard battles in vain against the tide of horror. When the body of a detective is found in a suitcase, his lips sewn together and his eyes sewn shut, it becomes clear that no one is safe from attack. Has the Ripper returned – or is a new killer at large? And for Walter Day, the young policeman assigned the case, is time running out?
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