Partners in crime fiction

Guardian Article - View
Philip Marlowe, George Smiley, Nancy Drew, Count Fosco ... detectives, spies and villains are among our best-loved fictional characters. As the crime-writing world comes together for its annual festival, top authors in the genre choose their favourites. But who is your most wanted?

RJ Ellory
The single-minded investigator; the man who possesses an almost inherent ability to comprehend the utterly irrational "rationale" of the serial killer, to live "inside his skin", to see the world through his eyes, and thus predict his intentions.
For me, this character is perhaps best personified by Thomas Harris's Will Graham. We meet him in Red Dragon in 1981. He's mentioned only in passing in The Silence of the Lambs and yet – such is the stature of this character – he has become a representation of the troubled, lone investigator.
Graham is a masterpiece of characterisation. First and foremost a homicide detective in New Orleans, he then studied forensic science at View full article

Frederick Forsyth
"Broke the mould" is an overused expression but sometimes it is absolutely fitting. One such occasion was the publication of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Eight words is too long, but never mind. This book shattered all previous conceptions of espionage. It put an end to the image of Kiplingesque schoolboys playing the Great Game on the Northwest Frontier, to Richard Hannay's ineffable naivety against the German imperial war machine, the languid Ashendens exchanging pleasantries in scented salons, and to the great-fun-but-ridiculous James Bonds as convincing portrayals of anything resembling the real thing. View full articl