Join #HistoricalFiction author, John Holt, as he take a look at Fictional Detectives @JohnHoltAuthor

Fictional Detectives

By John Holt

How do you like your detectives? I mean, do you like the tough guy type like Sam Spade, or Mickey Spillane. Handy with their fists, and a gun, and quick with the wise crack. They are tough talking, and hard hitting. Or perhaps you prefer the more methodical type, the ones with the little grey cells, who work on psychology. Nothing and no one can fool Poirot. Nothing gets passed him. It makes you wonder why anyone would even consider committing a crime knowing he was in the same house, or at least close by. But they always do whether it is at a county house called Styles; in Mesopotamia, or on a Nile cruise.

David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in Problem at Sea— Wikipedia.

How about that deceptively quiet and unassuming, Miss Jane Marple? An irritant to some maybe, but she would always outsmart the cleverest policeman, and solve the most complex crime imaginable. And all while she carried on with her knitting. Then there is possibly the greatest detective of them all, Sherlock Holmes. Logic and deduction are his watch words. Give him a few strands from a man’s scarf, and he will not only deduct where the scarf was purchased, and how much it cost, but will also be able to tell that the man was thirty-eight years old, with dark wavy hair, six foot two in height, walks with a limp, and had kippers for breakfast, named William, (the man that is, not the kippers. I don’t know what their names were).

Holmes and Watson in a Sidney Paget illustration for "The Adventure of Silver Blaze"

How about Inspector Jacques Clouseau? “I suspect everyone, and I suspect no one.” No matter how bumbling he was, or how silly, he still, somehow, “Solv Ed” the crime. Generally by accident admittedly.

Then, of course, there are a whole plethora of television detectives. Who can forget Kojak, and his lollipop, with his catch phrase “Who loves ya baby?” Or Sergeant Joe Friday – “Just the facts ma’am.” Or perhaps Columbo is more to your taste, with his “Just one more thing.” We all know what that meant don’t we? There are a whole collection of them – Magnum; Jessica Fletcher; Rockford starring the late great James Garner; Ironside; Cagney and Lacey; Morse; Starsky and Hutch; to name but a few.

Then, of course, we have Tom Kendall, private detective. He really wanted to be a Private Investigator, but that was judged to be far too long to fit on the office door, so detective it was. Kendall is a down to earth guy, slightly over-weight, far from fit, and suffers with hay fever. Stubborn, who once he had an idea, he would never let go. He is ably assisted by Mollie, his secretary and business partner – their relationship is purely platonic – and first appeared in “The Mackenzie Dossier”, a story of political corruption, blackmail and, of course murder. There then following cases involving a jewel robbery; a worldwide epidemic; fraud; and always a murder or three. 
There were six more novels in total.

Kendall latest case, the eighth, “The Art of Murder”, centres on the disappearance of two valuable oil paintings from the Galleria Lafayette. Kendall is employed by the insurance company to recover the paintings. What does Kendall know about art? Precisely nothing. Oh sure he has a nice print in his apartment. Some nice yellow flowers, sunflowers. It cost him $9-99 plus tax in Walmart. The frame was another twenty dollars. He liked it, and that was all that mattered. He wasn’t sure that he was suited to such a case. After all the missing paintings had been valued at three million dollars, each. But a robbery is a robbery is a robbery, whether it is a necklace, or a painting. And there was a pretty good fee on offer. How could he refuse?

It wasn’t long before the case took a turn for the worst, and a body was found. Trevor Lancaster, a respected art collector was found dead. A short while later there is another murder, Ken Bishop, an employee at the Galleria Lafayette.

The Art of Murder

 By John Holt

Giveaway
*Giveaway is now closed.

To celebrate the release of The Art of Murder, John Holt is giving away *two paperback copies of his fabulous book

The Art of Murder

*ebook for International winners.

• Leave your answer in the comments at the bottom of this post.

Giveaway Rules

• Giveaway ends at 11:59pm BST on September 29^th.

You must be 18 or older to enter.


• Giveaway is only open Internationally.


•Only one entry per household.


• All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.

•Winners will be announced in the comments.

• Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

Pick up your copy of

The Art of Murder

Amazon

John Holt 

I was born in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, during World War 2. Clearly the world had a lot to contend with at that time, so my coming offered some welcome relief. Whether I had a major influence, or it was pure coincidence, I shall never know, but the war ended shortly after my birth. I have always been a half glass full kind of person, and I’m quite positive in my approach to life. I was brought up on a diet of Rock ‘n’ roll, and only two TV channels. How did we ever manage I wonder? Programmes like Bilko, and Tony Hancock helped I guess, and probably accounts for my sense of humour. As a youngster I wanted to become a doctor, however there was problem, a major problem. I hated the sight of blood, so eventually I became a land surveyor, and spent 24 years working in local government. I then set up in private practice, carrying out property surveys, and preparing architectural drawings. I guess, like a lot of people I had always wanted to write. In fact for several years I used to write articles for a couple of blues magazines (sadly no longer in operation). But I wanted to write a novel.