Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Famous Faces Fill Felonious Cases

I’m starting something this morning that I have never tried to do before with my fortnightly Kirkus Reviews column: devote two successive installments to a single subject. In this case, the topic is “celebrity sleuths,” notable historical characters who have been recruited as amateur detectives in modern mystery yarns.

Today’s post--which can be found here--focuses on the growing number of “stories that employ the distinguished (or sometimes notorious) real-life player from the past as principal crime-solver.” My next Kirkus column will concentrate on stories pairing genuine characters “with an imagined ally who can undertake most of the legwork and perhaps undergo most of the injuries, thus saving the author from having to digress overmuch from the historical record.”

I hope you enjoy the results of my research. Drop a comment onto the Kirkus site if you have anything to share on this subject.

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