|
An eye's career may span more than one decade. Likewise, an
eye may make his or her first appearance and then not make much
of an impact or hit their stride for several years. So, the following
eyes are listed by the year of their first appearance, although
their best may be years later. They're counted for their quality,
entertainment value, reflection of their times, influence on
the genre and whether I liked them or not.
By the way, this list is very much a work in progress...Feel
free to contradict me, or vote for your own favourites, by contacting me.
Eventually, I'll have a form to use right about here...
The Honorary Eyes
Historical and Literary Influences on the Genre
- Sir Lancelot
Slightly tarnished, but not afraid to continue searching for the dingus.
- Robin Hood
Ran his own agency, called his hard-boiled ops Merry Men.
- François Eugène Vidocq
History's first recorded private detective.
- Natty "Hawkeye" Bumpo
When a man's partner is killed...
- Wyatt Earp
Gun for hire cleans up a town, see Red Harvest.
- Shane
Gun for hire reluctantly cleans up a town, see Red Harvest, Spenser. - Allan Pinkerton
The man who put the "eye" in "private eye."
- Charlie Siringo
The original cowboy detective.
The Early Eyes
In the Beginning: Almost There
- Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Like, I have to make a case here?
- Horace Dorrington
by Arthur Morrison
He's one of the most vile P.I.s of all time, and he appeared
over a century ago!
- Sadipe Okukenu by John E. Bruce
Not just the first black eye, but one of the very first eyes of all, predating even Hammett and Daly!
- Jim Hanvey by Octavius Roy Cohen
Hanvey was already detecting in the Saturday Evening Post a year before Three Gun Terry made his debut.
The Twenties
Let There Be Light: The Real Deal
The Thirties
The Pulps and Beyond
The Forties
Apres la guerre
The Fifties
Under the Hammer
The Sixties
Feel It
The Seventies
Everyone Into the Pool
The Eighties
The Renaissance
The eightiesare when I really became interested in private
eye fiction, and I'll probably always have a weakness for the
era. It was certainly an exciting time for the genre, particularly
the series P.I. There were so many great series launched in the
seventies that were just really hitting their stride about then.
Pronzini, Parker, Block, Hansen and the like had already demonstrated
there were plenty of new ways to use the genre, and in their
wake (and perhaps at least partly inspired by them, or at least
by Parker's commercial success) a whole bunch of new voices (Grafton,
Paretsky, Mosley, Burke, et al) entered the genre in the early
eighties. In retrospect, I can see that when the slew of non-pale
males and other fresh voices began to pop up all over the genre,
it was not so much a big shake-up as a logical progression to
what had been going on in the seventies (and arguably, the sixties
as well).
Of course, some of the other older writers (and older fans
whose sole qualification for a P.I. was seemingly whether they
could imagine Bogart playing them in a film or not) began to
resent the success of Parker and some of these other uppity newcomers
who were tinkering with the form. But the genre would probably
be a quaint museum piece by now, appreciated only by collector
geeks, or relegated to the men's action racks (over there by
the skin mags), if it hadn't seen such a vigorous renewal and
growth spurt in the late seventies/early eighties.
The Nineties
Sisters (and Everyone Else, It Seems) are Doing It For Themselves
The Oh-Ohs
|
