This feature is a series of questions and answers but with a difference, each month I’ll be publishing the answers from lots of authors to just one question. The questions are mainly book, writing or publishing related but they are meant to be fun!
This month is “Who is your favourite fictional detective?”
Mari Hannah: The one in my head.
Cath Staincliffe: Impossible to choose. But the ones that started me off were The Secret Seven.
Phoebe Locke: Jonathan Creek. More recently, I’m a big fan of Olivia Kiernan’s Frankie Sheehan or Fiona Cummins’s Etta Fitzroy.
Hanna Jameson: RAYLAN GIVENS, as portrayed by Timothy Olyphant. I may never know another love like it, unless it’s SPECIAL AGENT DALE COOPER. That’s right. I’m picking two. I’d marry both of them and make the honeymoon last forever.
David Jackson: Inspector Gadget. Of the amateur sleuths it would have to be Velma from Scooby-Doo.
Chris Whitaker: That’s so difficult. Marnie Rome and Tom Reynolds.
Lilja Sigurðardóttir: An Icelandic detective called Stella Blómkvist. She is a kick-ass, arrogant and greedy bastard with a great sense of justice.
Steven Dunne: Sherlock Holmes.
Barbara Nadel: I don’t really have one. I like so many it’s impossible to just pick one.
Derek Farrell: Hercule Poirot or Matt Scudder, depending on what mood I’m in.
Quentin Bates: I’m very fond of Maigret. He’s such a flawed, imperfect man. Martin Beck comes a close second.
Fergus McNeill: I’m tempted to say Inspector Morse, but I think the crown really must go to Miss Marple. I loved the way she was written in the books, and I loved the BBC adaptations with Joan Hickson.
William Shaw: Piet Van Der Valk, the detective created by Nicholas Freeling, who was urbane, understood politics, knew about food and loved his wife Arlette in a way that was very unfashionable at the time.
Rachel Amphlett: I’m going to cheat – it’s an even 50/50 with Ann Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope and Peter Robinson’s DCI Alan Banks.
Anna Mazzola: Columbo, of course.
Mark Edwards: Mo Hayder’s Jack Caffrey.
Nick Quantrill: If Jack Reacher counts as a detective, I’ll go for him. He’s just a brilliant creation, and deep down, we all want to be him. If I can’t have Reacher, it has to be Ian Rankin’s DI Rebus.
Sarah Ward: Miss Marple who I’ve loved since I was thirteen.
V M Giambanco: Too many to choose only one. Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder was a huge inspiration though.
Simon Booker: Sherlock Holmes, since I was 10.
Susi Holliday: Columbo
Novel Heights 