January 26, 2026
Elements of the Private Investigator
● PI = private eye
○ often applied to fictional detectives
■ the Pinkerton Detective Agency
● first national detective agency in the U.S.
● 1850
● logo is a wide-open eye that states “we never sleep”
○ much like the detectives in PI stories
● hired women and minorities
○ highly uncommon, which made them phenomenal spies
● was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world
Two Branches of PI Fiction
● Hardboiled Detective - American
○ term is generally used by American authors to denote a private investigator
○ in movies, we typically see these characters in film noir
■ darker, melodramatic, cynical storytelling
○ almost always an educated and male loner who is free from social and family ties
○ good physical condition
■ able to take a punch and good with fists and or a gun
■ uses insults and wisecracks as his way of dealing with problems
○ characteristics
■ violent/graphic crime
■ colloquial language
● not the usual formal language
○ slang and terminology that was very prevalent to the 1920s
■ rapid action
■ almost always set in a big city that is filled with temptations, corruptions,
and dangers
● setting acts as a character
■ distrusts the police, the rich, and beautiful women
● brutal and corrupt
■ often the champion of the outcast, the vulnerable, and the downtrodden
■ will carry the investigation to the end to ensure justice
● regardless of the cost
● Golden Age - British
○ also used the term ‘Private Eye”
○ PI’s of the Golden Age share some similarities with their American counterparts
■ but in many ways are a “cleaned up” version of them
○ both educated men and women can be detectives
○ instead of relying on physical strength, they rely on their wits
○ tend to encounter “locked room” mysteries
■ in either a big city, or a remote English manor house
History
● many authors found their subject matter in post World War I society
○ as a result PI-centric books were extremely popular in the 1920s and 1930s
● America was filled with violence and chaos
○ prohibition nurtured gangster mobs
○ American people were fascinated with the rise of popular gangster figures in
society
Sherlock Holmes
● the most famous fictional detective
● straddles a few lines within Detective fiction
● Holmes is the “world’s only consulting detective”
● Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson take on cases without the strings of an official
agency, business, or office attached
○ also work closely with Scotland Yard
● his adventures were written before the majority of private investigator stories
○ appears to embody characteristics from both the British and American
traditions
● uses both his physical strength and his intellect
● doesn’t distrust the police, but knows that they can’t solve the case without him
● will always see a case through, but not necessarily for the sake of justice
○ sometimes it’s just for personal satisfaction
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
● born in 1859
● died in 1930
● British writer and physician best known for his creation of Sherlock Holmes
● Doyle began writing short stories while he was studying medicine and botany
○ late 1870s and early 1880s
● after graduating, he worked a ship’s surgeon, had an independent practice, and
tried his hand at ophthalmology
○ continued to write during these various careers attempts
● created Holmes when he was 27
○ A Study in the Scarlet
■ published in 1887 and was well-received
● wrote another three novels and 56 short stories about Holmes and his sidekick Dr.
Watson
● Holmes gained popularity
○ Doyle wasn’t fond of him
■ wanted to kill him off but his publishers were willing to pay his
tripled price
● 1893
○ he had Holmes plummet to his death in “The Final Problem”
■ the public was so outraged that he brought the character back in
1901for the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles”
Locked Room Mystery
● a crime that has been committed in a room or other location that has been sealed from the
inside, with no way out
● no indication of how the intruder could have or left
○ a literal locked room
● The Murders in the Rue Morgue
● also called an “impossible crime”
● real life example
○ The Impossible Murder of Isodore Fink
■ New York City
● Rule #1
○ no supernatural intervention
● Rule #2
○ no more than one secret room or passage is allowed
● Rule #3
○ the locked room entrance must be disclosed in the conclusion
● examples
○ The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907)
■ Gaston Leroux
○ The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934)
■ Ellery Queen
○ Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
■ Agatha Christie
○ And Then There Was None (1939)
■ Agatha Christie
○ The Three Coffins (1935)
■ John Dickson Carr
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