When I created DS Adam Tyler for Firewatching, I did so partly because I wanted to create a fictional detective who was gay. That sounds pretty low bar as far as ambitions go but when I’d set about trying to think of previous examples I really had struggled. There were gay protagonists (rare, but they did exist), and there were gay police officers (often second or third tier in the hierarchy of characters), but I could not think of a single queer protagonist. That’s not to say there weren’t any, there are some right here in this list, but just that they’d never reached me. In all the many years I’d been reading, and more importantly through those formative years when I was struggling to understand who I was, I’d failed to stumble across, in this genre I loved so much, anyone in a starring role who represented me. I’d like to think that I’m now helping to redress the balance but I wanted to pay homage to those pioneers who were there long before me. Some were big influences on my writing and some I’ve only discovered more recently. I’m sure there are some I’ve omitted (if so, please do let me know so that I can catch up). Here, for what it’s worth, is my top ten list of the most memorable queer protagonists of crime fiction:
1. Tom Ripley
Patricia Highsmith’s eponymous anti-hero first appeared in The Talented Mr Ripley (1955). As protagonists go they don’t come much more disreputable than Ripley. He’s a conman, a thief, and eventually a serial killer. But despite his morally dubious persona, he is at least the star of the show. Ripley’s sexuality, in the novels at least, is understated: the sex scenes go no further than the suggestive lighting of a cigarette, or a lingering gaze over a cocktail. He explicitly states that he isn’t homosexual, but his obsession with Dickie Greenleaf, and his tendency towards unreliable narration more than suggest otherwise. He’s far from sympathetic, yet Highsmith manages an incredible feat—to have you rooting for him anyway. He’s nothing if not memorable.
2. Dave Brandstetter
I find it almost inconceivable that there was one gay character at the helm of a mystery series for over twenty years, and I only very recently discovered him! Joseph Hansen’s Dave Brandstetter is an old-school hero, brash, sardonic, happy to use his fists to solve the problem if a quiet word won’t suffice. In Fadeout (1970) he investigates the disappearance of a local radio personality whilst struggling to get over the death of his long-term lover from cancer. He’s openly gay, or homosexual (Hansen apparently hated the term gay), and though he feels no need to announce it to everyone he meets, he’s not ashamed of it either. First published over fifty years ago now, Hansen’s novels are not just clever and compelling stories, but to my mind they are also a feat of incredible bravery. I wish I’d discovered him sooner.
3. Kate Delafield
The mid 80s, as one might expect, saw a deluge of queer detectives hit the pages (well, ‘deluge’ might be overstating it). But unlike some of her private investigator contemporaries, LAPD Detective Kate Delafield isn’t out to her colleagues, and part of the charm of this series comes from Delafield’s battle to lead two lives. Her debut investigation in Amateur City (1984) thrusts her into a very personal murder investigation involving an unpredictable and unexpected witness. She’s as tough and uncompromising as any other gumshoe detective but there’s a complexity to Katherine V. Forrest’s lovable protagonist that makes her stand out even today.
4. Milo Sturgis
Okay, I’m cheating slightly since Jonathan Kellerman’s forensic psychologist, Alex Delaware is the real star of the show, but this supporting hero deserves a mention for a number of reasons. Firstly, like his contemporary Delafield, he’s an actual cop, an LAPD career police officer (there seem to be far fewer male gay detectives than female). He’s also a big bear of a man who breaks a lot of the earlier stereotypes (so often in mysteries and thrillers the gay man is portrayed as a sleazy, sadistic baddie with unwholesome sexual predilections). Added to this, he often steps in to save Delaware when he gets into trouble. And finally, as far as I’m aware, he appears in all 34 of the Delaware novels, from When the Bough Breaks (1985) right up to the latest. So far, Sturgis has steadfastly avoided being killed off (a rare skill for a gay supporting cast member), which must make him the longest running gay character in a mystery series ever. Well worthy of an honourable mention.
5. Henry Rios
Michael Nava’s troubled but engaging young criminal lawyer Henry Rios is a very different kind of investigator. We first meet him in The Little Death (1986) where he’s caught up in a complicated plot surrounding a rich family’s inheritance. But it’s his steadfast loyalty to his lover, the wealthy dropout Hugh Paris, which endears him to the reader from the start. Nava’s books are serious, brooding works. Set in 1980s San Francisco, he’s unashamed to tackle the thornier issues of gay life—drugs, alcohol and the AIDS crisis. But they are written with poetic flair, and the flawed but brilliant Rios is a remarkable character, not least because of the era he navigates.
6. Lindsay Gordon
In the opening pages of Report for Murder (1987) by Val McDermid, freelance journalist Lindsay Gordon describes herself as ‘a cynical socialist lesbian feminist’ and while this may be true, she’s also empathetic, self-conscious, and spends time questioning the moral decisions she makes in her day job. McDermid went on to become one of the most influential crime writers in the business, and later invented several more unforgettable protagonists, but I have a soft spot for Lindsay. To me, she’s the original lesbian PI.
7. Leonard Pine
The 90s brought us Hap and Leonard, two best friends who have now been raising hell together across Texas for thirty years. It’s true to say they both break the mould. Hap Collins is the sensitive, brooding working-class labourer who avoids violence at almost any cost, while Leonard Pine is a gay black Vietnam veteran with a violent streak, who’s more than happy to shoot any man who underestimates him. We meet the pair in Joe R. Lansdale’s Savage Season (1990), a book chock full of memorable characters, sharp dialogue, and dark suspense. But it’s Leonard Pine who stands out as something special, a gay protagonist in the mystery genre who breaks every stereotype in the book.
8. Sue Trinder
If there are few gay protagonists in crime fiction, there are fewer still in the annals of historical crime. It took Sarah Waters to illuminate the fact that queerness wasn’t invented in the 1960s. Sue Trinder is the brilliantly wonderful lead from Fingersmith (2002), an orphan raised in a Dickensian den of thieves who’s sent to gain the trust of wealthy heiress Maud Lilly and convince her to marry the man scheming to steal her wealth. This wasn’t Waters’ first novel to feature historical queer characters, nor would it be her last, but to my mind it stands out as the most memorable.
9. DCI Kate Daniels
I’m a sucker for a dark, broody British police procedural (obviously!) and they don’t come better than Mari Hannah’s Kate Daniels series. In Murder Wall (2012), we’re introduced to the detective who, haunted by past failures, is called in to investigate a brutal killing on Newcastle’s Quayside only to discover she recognizes the corpse. Failing to disclose this information to her superiors, her personal and professional lives begin to collide. Seven novels in, Hannah is an author at the top of her game and proving that the queer detective has arrived, and is here to stay.
10. Villanelle/Eve Polastri
Finally, will you allow me a double? In Luke Jennings’ Codename Villanelle (2018), the title character is a psychotic assassin based on a real life hit-woman who worked for the Basque separatist group ETA. Her arch nemesis, the awkward but super smart intelligence officer, Eve Polastri. Their cat and mouse chase takes them across the world and turns into a mutual erotic obsession that threatens to destroy them both. Brought to a much wider audience by the hit BBC TV series Killing Eve, there’s no doubt these two very modern, very different protagonists earn their place amongst the most memorable of queer characters.
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