There is comfort in reading a whodunnit led by a talented detective. We know what we’re getting with a Sherlock or a Miss Marple—the next moment of genius is a few paragraphs away, and the villain will be unmasked in the end. But I’m not here to talk about that sort of book. I’m here for the reluctant detectives, the unlucky souls dragged toward clues kicking and screaming. They have better things to do with their time than chasing wayward criminals, but are given no other choice. This dilemma delivers an edge of adventure, wondering what crazy thing they’ll do next, either willingly or by force.
The reluctant sleuth is not usually a genius, and often is a bit of a mess. This normalcy and humanity are what makes them relatable, with personalities running the gamut from desperate and violent to hapless and hilarious. Most are amateurs out of their depth. But, in the exception that proves the rule, they can also be professionals with their crime-busting days behind them, dragged back into the fray against their will.
Their motivations for sleuthing vary. Maybe their life depends on solving the crime, or they’ve been accused and must clear their name. Maybe they’re revenge sleuthing, or scared-out-of-their-wits sleuthing, or last-resort sleuthing. An internal or external force urges these unlucky characters out of their comfort zones and into the criminal world.
My debut novel, I Know What You Did, centers on reluctant detective Petal Woznewski. She’s built an introverted life in New York City, hiding out from her past, until a bestselling book exposes her darkest secrets. She’d much rather be curled up with a bag of Takis and a beer, streaming a Keanu Reeves movie, but the book has other ideas. She returns to her hometown of Madison, WI to investigate the mysterious author and their reasons for exposing her—before everything she’s been hiding comes to light.
Read on for a selection of books featuring some of my favorite reluctant detectives, each avoiding their book’s central mystery for their own—often messy—reasons.
Burglars Can’t Be Choosers by Lawrence Block
Reluctant detective: Bernie Rhodenbarr, The Gotta Get Out of this Mess Sleuth
He is: under arrest, and the only way out is to solve the crime.
He’d rather be: stealing stuff.
Bernie is a burglar—and an entertaining one. He doesn’t quite have a heart of gold, but it’s at least sterling silver. His stomping ground is the New York City of the late seventies, a time before cell phones and GPS and ubiquitous security cameras. In this first in a long-running series, Bernie has gotten himself in a fix: a dead body turns up in the apartment he’s been contracted to break into, and it looks like he’s the murderer. Thanks to a crooked cop he’s able to escape arrest, but must remain on the run. The only way he can clear his name—and return to his life of gentlemanly theft—is to find the real culprit.
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Reluctant detectives: Ike and Buddy Lee, The Revenge-Hungry Sleuths
They are: furious, and won’t rest until the baddies are brought down.
They’d rather be: making amends with their sons.
Ike and Buddy Lee don’t get along, even though they have quite a bit in common. Both men are ex-cons living in Virginia, their sons were married to each other, and neither knew how to deal with children so different from themselves. When their sons are brutally gunned down and the police stop investigating, the men team up in the name of vengeance. Full of regret over their refusal to accept their sons in life, they channel all their energy into discovering who killed them and why. Rage and devastation infuse every action as they tangle with a dangerous motorcycle gang, and nothing is off limits if it means justice will be served.
Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand
Reluctant detective: Cass Neary, The Desperate Sleuth
She is: stranded, and solving the crime is a matter of survival.
She’d rather be: getting high and taking gritty photos.
Cass is a once-cult-famous photographer, now self-medicating with drugs and alcohol while working at a New York City bookstore. When a friend offers her a way back into the photography world—a job interviewing a famously reclusive photographer at her island home off the coast of Maine—she accepts because she has no other choice. On the tight-knit island she is an outsider, and her interview subject isn’t cooperating. As stormy weather and evil forces conspire to keep her stranded there, Cass wades through secrets and horrors. To get out alive, she’ll need to discover what the island’s residents are hiding.
The Killing Floor by Lee Child
Reluctant detective: Jack Reacher, The Un-Retired Sleuth
He is: seasoned and exhausted, but his well-earned retirement will have to wait.
He’d rather be: wandering the country listening to the blues.
In this first in the famous series, Reacher is ex-military police, eager to explore America—something he never got to do growing up overseas. He doesn’t make it far on this post-retirement road trip before arriving in small-town Margrave, Georgia. Dead bodies start to turn up and Reacher, the only stranger in town, is arrested. But something isn’t right—not in affluent yet empty Margrave, and not in the police station where he’s been locked up. If Reacher wants to get back on the road, he’ll have to convince the new police chief of his innocence, and figure out what’s going on in Margrave.
Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon
Reluctant detective: Amber Jamison, The Victim-Turned-Sleuth
She is: almost the Pikachu Killer’s next victim.
She’d rather be: staying under the radar.
Amber is living the low-key life of a college student when she gets pulled into an unmarked white van—and that’s just the start of her troubles. She escapes a serial killer with the help of a mysterious savior, but her sketchy past threatens to become public in the ensuing investigation. Rather than involve the police—who would ask inconvenient questions—she heads for Vegas, trying to evade scrutiny, on the trail of the killer and her savior, hoping to discover how everything is intertwined.
All Her Little Secrets by Wanda Morris
Reluctant detective: Ellice Littlejohn, The Coerced Sleuth
She is: trying to work, but the evil corporate honchos have other ideas.
She’d rather be: working at a company that appreciates all of who she is.
Ellice is a lawyer with secrets—about her childhood in rural Georgia and her current romance with the boss. She doesn’t let these secrets get in the way of doing her job well, until the day her boss turns up dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The man hated guns; she knows something isn’t right with his death. As conspiracies arise, the heads of the Atlanta-based company have her trapped—she must do what they want or they will expose her. But Ellice doesn’t like being told what to do by racist blackmailers. She must gather evidence for the police if she wants to stay alive and out of jail.
***
