5. Miss Marple, an Agatha Christie creation. She is a nosy older lady who is a little bit of a gossip…but which helps her to solve crimes.
4. Lieutenant General James Longstreet. A real-life Confederate General, he is featured promiently in the works of Michael and Jeff Shaara.
3. Dr. Laszlo Kreizler from Caleb Carr’s The Alienist and Angel of Darkness. He’s an early psychiatrist solving crimes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
2. Horatio Hornblower is an officer in the British Navy around the time of the French Revolution. In the books by C.S. Forester he rises from midshipman to admiral.
1. Hercule Poirot, also from Agatha Christie. He’s a particular Belgian who solves crimes. He’s smart and the stories actually take though to predict, unlike most “mystery” literature. He occurs in the early 1900′s.
These are all good reads if you’re ever bored.
