Spend summer with the PIs and detectives who inspired my sleuth

Super-bad influences, part one. Plus a little cabin news.

Jul 21, 2026

Dear friends,

Exciting cabin news: I’m meeting the outhouse-pumper today. Our neighbor Rocky succeeded in scheduling a Day in the Old Ghost Town for the honey wagon. It’s the same guy who could only reach one of our outhouses before (for twice the price of two :/ But Rocky and his son-in-law Tony (who have the most beautiful father- and son-in-law friendship) helped us clear some weedy aspens this past weekend so the truck can get closer to the lower loo.

We used electric chainsaws, because we’re in Stage 2 fire restrictions and it is still so dry up here. Rain is in the forecast, though. Light a(n electric) candle for us! I think I mentioned that the weekend before we gave the Watermelon an upgrade, with a new toilet seat, etc. As with so much technology, it’s been a long, expensive journey back to an earlier design. Should we repaint her in a different color scheme? Cast your vote below.

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Okay, on to the book news:

Every amateur sleuth and PI in the genre stands on the shoulders of the detectives who came before her, digging her hiking shoes into their collarbones, a gun tucked inadvisably into her waistband, a gorgeous skeleton or two in the closet. I compiled a list of several who’ve rubbed off on my main character, Wendy McFarquhar, who makes her debut in Up to Her Neck this coming January.

For this round, I chose crime-solvers who appear in at least two books, which ruled out some favorite stand-alones, like Maite in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Velvet Was the Night. I’ll get to those in another round.

7. Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone

Private Investigator Kinsey Millhone sleeps naked in a folded-over quilt on the couch in her garage apartment in Santa Teresa, a stucco and red tile stand-in for Santa Barbara, California. She doesn’t have pets; not even a houseplant. She cuts her hair with nail scissors and is a regular at a Hungarian hole in the wall where the food and the proprietor sound equally unappetizing.

When Grafton’s legendary Alphabet Series opens with A is for Alibi, Kinsey’s in her early thirties but already divorced twice, which is just as well: Her job requires impromptu road trips to non-scenic locales, and she often spends her evenings on a little B&E. None of this handicaps her sex life, although the occasional defensive shooting gets in the way.

Kinsey’s frank nature draws in the reader as well as reluctant witnesses. She’s self-aware but not introspective, and part of the series’ pleasure is watching how she reacts to the violence her cases often require. Grafton, who passed away in 2017, keeps the narrative focused on the action and on the suspects’ intentions and motives, so there’s seldom a mushy middle.

What Wendy has in common with Kinsey:

• Might ignore warning signs if the guy is hot

• Happy living in a space smaller than some people’s closets

• Doesn’t ask for help in dangerous situations

Main difference:

• Kinsey is methodical

6. Jean-Patrick Manchette’s Eugéne Tarpon

Manchette was credited with reviving the moribund crime genre in France in the 70s, and books such as Nada and The Mad and the Bad are shots of uncut Everclear. He also gave us Eugéne Tarpon, a melancholy ex-cop who more than repays his debt to American noir and Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op.

Tarpon’s fifth-floor walkup is a luxury suite compared to Millhone’s tiny efficiency, but the Paris-based PI is sleeping on his couch, too, and about to give up and move back in with his mother when No Room at the Morgue kicks off. In keeping with the author’s existentialist philosophy and leftist politics, Tarpon never really touches the corrupt puppeteers running the big con, and he often makes things worse as he tries to aid his clients and friends.

But Tarpon is good company, even when he’s had too much pastis and broods about the accidental killing that ended his career as a gendarme. He fills his free time with books and offhand literary criticism and is a loyal, if ornery, friend. Debate our culpability and agency in a modern capitalist society, or just enjoy the twisty plots.

What Wendy has in common with Eugéne:

• A magnet for bad actors

• Excess guilt

• Complicated relationship with her mother

Main difference:

• Tarpon’s a marshmallow inside of a porcupine suit. Wendy’s a wildcat wrapped in a fleece hoodie.

5. Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow

Scottish Detective Alex Morrow isn’t even my favorite Mina sleuth, but I’ve read all five of the books featuring her and would kill (!) for another. Morrow is forever an outsider in her department. She can’t go along to get along, no matter the cost. When an unpopular boss who undermined Morrow to advance the career of her male partner is targeted by her colleagues, she doesn’t sign on to the campaign because the allegations are unfair.

Morrow has a combination secret weapon and Achilles’ Heel: a half-brother who shares a criminal father with Alex. Her brother Danny remains in the game and is a source of leads, as well as constant anxiety that the relationship will endanger her family or put her in a compromising position.

On the job, Alex’s instinct and analytical skills outweigh her difficult personality, but she has more spines than a saguaro. It’s such a gorgeous thing to watch this blonde, dimpled detective tell off a bad actor, I sometimes forget that she’s married to a lovely man and is a mother (this storyline is heartbreaking in the first book in the series, Still Midnight). Her complicated personal life gives her both blind spots and invaluable insight, and Mina writes about them with devastating restraint.

What Wendy has in common with Alex:

• Can’t make nice even when the consequences are steep

• Struggles with family demands

• Doesn’t confuse motive with justification

Main difference:

• Wendy can cut loose

Next week: Counting down numbers 4-2.

Have you read these? What do you love/hate about the main characters?

Gallivanting

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