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  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #68 VIRGIL TIBBS Created by John Ball, when Tibbs first appeared in detective fiction readers knew that this remarkable character would end up in the "great detective" category.  Born in the Deep South, where his mother still resides, Virgil is visiting in that part of the country when he becomes a murder suspect solely because of his color in "In the Heat of the Night".  He solves the case to preserve his own reputation as well as that of the white police chief who reluctantly works with him. For ten years, Tibbs, who is in his early thirties, has been with the Pasadena, California police department.  He is its expert on homicide cases, excellent at interpreting clues but equally qualified when physical force is needed.  He has studied karate under Nishiyama, who personally awarded him the black belt.  He also spent several years studying the highly advanced art of akido under the late master Isao Takashi.  H...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #67 MODESTY BLAISE "Modesty Blaise" was a British comic strip created by author Peter O'Donnell and artist Jim Holdaway in 1963.  The backstory begins in 1945 when a nameless girl escapes from a displaced persons camp in Greece.  She remembers nothing of her past and wanders through the post-war Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa where she learns to survive.  She befriends another wandering refugee, a Jewish Hungarian scholar from Budapest who educates her and gives her a first name - Modesty.  Sometime later she chooses the last name of Blaise.  In 1953 she takes control of a criminal gang in Tangier and expands it into an international organization called the Network.  During this time period she meets Willie Garvin who becomes her right-hand man.  Theirs is a strictly platonic relationship based on mutual respect.  Willie always calls her "Princess".  Having made enough money, Modes...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #66 PARKER Created by Donald Westlake under the pseudonym Richard Stark, Parker is a professional robber specializing in large-scale, high-profit crimes.  Parker is a ruthless career criminal with few redeeming qualities - aside from efficiency and professionalism.  Parker is callous, meticulous, and perfectly willing to commit murder if he deems it necessary.  He does live by one ethical principle: he will not double-cross another professional criminal with whom he is working, unless they try to double-cross him.  Should that happen, Parker will unhesitatingly exact a thorough and brutal revenge. Parker's first name is never revealed in any of the novels, and it is hinted that the name "Parker" might even be an alias.  Parker is rare among the anti-hero protagonists in that he never develops a conscience.  Parker is big and shaggy, with flat, square shoulders.  His hands look like they were molded of bro...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #65 HARRY PALMER Len Deighton, the English author of espionage thrillers, created a series which involves a man of the working class in Burnley who dislikes and distrusts everyone in authority.  He is nameless in the books but is popularly known as Harry Palmer because he was given that name in the films based on the novels.  "The IPCRESS File" published in 1962 is told in the first-person, and the secret agent is anonymous.  At one point he is greeted by someone saying "Hello, Harry", to which he thinks, "Now my name isn't Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether it ever had been."  Harry is described as working class, living in a back street flat and seedy hotels, and shopping in supermarkets.  He wears glasses, is hindered by bureaucracy, and craves a pay raise. BIBLIOGRAPHY Len Deighton was born in London, educated at the Royal Academy of Art, and has held a variety of jobs.  He was an...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #64 GEORGE SMILEY Created by John le Carre, Smiley is a career intelligence officer with "The Circus", the British overseas intelligence agency.  He is a central character in several of le Carre's novels and a supporting character in others.  Le Carre created Smiley as an intentional foil to James Bond, a character whom he felt depicted an inaccurate and damaging version of espionage work.  Short, overweight, balding, and bespectacled, George Smiley is polite and self-effacing and frequently allows others to mistreat him, including his serially unfaithful wife.  These traits mask his inner cunning, excellent memory, mastery of tradecraft, and occasional ruthlessness.  His genius, coupled with other characters' willingness to underestimate him, allows Smiley to achieve his goals and ultimately to become one of the most powerful spies in Britain.  Smiley dresses like a bookie (an unsuccessful one) in loose, bagg...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #63 MATT HELM The American equivalent of James Bond, Helm is a freelance writer, mainly of western novels, and a photographer of hunting and fishing subjects.  He worked for a secret military organization during WWII and learned the fine arts of spying and killing.  His code name was Eric.  After the war Helm resumed his peacetime occupations and was married, but in the early 1960s he was summoned by his former chief, known only as "Mac", to serve his country and undertake a special mission.  Helm accepted, but the price he had to pay was the breakup of his family.  Later, his wife remarried.  In subsequent missions Helm travels (with beautiful girls) in his beloved old pickup truck all over the United States, and his assignments take him to Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, Scotland, and Scandinavia. "Death of a Citizen", the first book in the Helm series, tells of his return to his wartime profession of spy and killer...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #62 COLUMBO The inverted detective story, which shows the commission of the crime and its perpetrator, removes the "whodunit" element of the detective story and replaces it with "howcatchem".  There was no finer example of this than the TV crime drama "Columbo" as portrayed by Peter Falk.  Frank Columbo was a homicide detective with the LAPD, and the show originally aired on NBC as one of the rotating programs on "The NBC Mystery Movie" broadcast on Sunday nights.  Columbo is a shrewd but inelegant blue-collar homicide detective whose trademarks are his rumpled raincoat, his unassuming demeanor, cigar, old Peugeot 403 automobile, an unseen wife (whom he mentions frequently), and his famous catchphrase "just one more thing" that he utters as he is about to leave a room.  The culprits are often affluent members of society who think that they've carefully covered their tracks and committed the...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #61 PETER GUNN Created by Blake Edwards, Peter Gunn was like nothing seen on TV before.  He was suave, sophisticated, hep to the jive, and groovin' to the oh-so-cool jazz beat.  Gunn hung out at Mother's, a swank jazz club on the waterfront of a big but never named city, wearing his Ivy league finest and with his best gal, singer Edie Hart.  Craig Stevens was Gunn, Lola Albright played Edie, Hope Emerson was Mother, and Herschel Bernardi was Lieutenant Jacoby, the long-suffering, sad-faced police pal of Gunn.  A highly innovative and influential show, it boasted a hit theme song by Henry Mancini and was the first private eye series created solely for television, that was not based upon any previous medium.  Edwards created Gunn from his earlier Richard Diamond radio and TV series.  It was the success of Diamond that prompted Edwards to revisit the concept as Peter Gunn.  Lola Albright said of her role as ...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #60 HONEY WEST According to co-creator Gloria Fickling, Honey was a "Beautiful, brainy and very much determined, sensual female."  She was the first successful female private eye in her own series of novels written by G. G. Fickling (pseudonym of husband-and-wife writers Gloria and Forrest Fickling).  She was described as having "taffy-colored hair, big blue eyes and a baby-bottom complexion."  She was more often a male fantasy than an icon of female empowerment.  In her debut novel "This Girl for Hire" she was searching for the murderer of her beloved father, Hank West, also a private eye, who was killed in an alley behind the old Paramount Theater in Hollywood.  Honey was tough but often in need of rescuing, which is where her ever-virtuous partner Johnny Doom came in. BIBLIOGRAPHY Forrest Fickling had been an Air Force gunner during WWII and was called back into service during Korea.  He created the G. G. F...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #59 THE 87th PRECINCT Creator Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) specifically stated that the 87th Precinct was not located in NYC, but the fictitious city of Isola was obviously Manhattan.  His starkly realistic police procedural novels dealt with social problems at the street level.  His tales had a range of subjects and approaches - from intangible terror to physical brutality to slapstick humor.  The most prominent member of the detective squad is Steve Carella, whose beautiful wife Teddy is a deaf-mute.  Other members of the squad are Lieutenant Peter Byrnes, Detective Cotton Hawes (a giant of a man with a white streak in his hair), Detective Meyer Meyer (whose father thought it would be amusing to give his son the same first name and surname), Detective Andy Parker (a braggart with few redeeming social qualities), Desk Sergeant Dave Murchison, and Detective Bert Kling (the youngest member of the team). BIBLIOGRAPHY Ed McBain...

  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #58 JAMES BOND The most famous spy in literature, 007 is a patriotic English espionage agent who takes on titanic villains with unmatched fearlessness and zest.  The "00" is a code number that designates him as an agent licensed to kill - a prerogative Bond exercises in each of his adventures.  Tall, dark, handsome, and rugged, Bond is an elegant man of the world who enjoys gambling, the best food, cognac, champagne, and other luxurious trappings of wealth - especially the beautiful women who are invariably attracted to him.  He spends an inordinate amount of time engaged in sexual activities, but not so much that he does not perform his primary job. The son of a Swiss mother and a Scottish father, Bond nevertheless feels deeply patriotic about England and is willing to endure torture and risk his life repeatedly in his efforts to smash plots engineered by Russian organizations and freewheeling super-criminals intent on worl...

GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #57 RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE   Created by Blake Edwards, Richard Diamond first appeared on radio from April 24, 1949 to September 20, 1953.  Dick Powell starred as Diamond, a wisecracking former police officer turned P.I..  Episodes typically began with a client visiting or calling the cash-strapped Diamond and agreeing to his fee of $100 a day plus expenses.  Sometimes Diamond took on a case at the behest of his friend and former partner Lieutenant Walter Levinson.  Most of the radio episodes ended with Diamond at a piano singing a song to his girlfriend Helen Asher in her penthouse apartment at 975 Park Avenue.  Lt. Levinson was played variously by Ed Begley, Ted De Corsia, and Alan Reed (Fred Flintstone).  Helen was played by Virginia Gregg.   Many of the shows were written and directed by Edwards.  The show's theme, "Leave It to Love", was whistled by Powell at the beginning of each ...