Detectives with Disabilities
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By Lida Sideris
March is National Disability Awareness Month – making this the perfect time to spotlight a few mysteries and thrillers featuring expert case-crackers with disabilities:
1) Baynard Kendrick’s The Last Express, #1 in the Duncan Maclain series, (1937)features an ex-intelligence officer who’s got wealth, good looks, and plenty of smarts. Despite losing his sight in WWI, he’s honed his other senses well enough to become a successful P.I. This first installment shows its age in spots, but once it gets going, there’s plenty of intrigue and suspense involving New York City’s underground world. Add in Maclain’s sidekicks: partner “Spud,” Spud’s wife Reba, who is Maclain’s secretary, and clever seeing eye dog, Schnucke, and it’s a story worth reading. Kendrick deftly weaves in reactions to Maclain’s blindness, along with accompanying psychological issues. There are 15 books in this series.
Mystery tidbit: Author Kendrick was co-founder and first president of the Mystery Writers of America.
2) Jeffery Deaver’s The Bone Collector, #1 in the Lincoln Rhyme series (1997)is a gritty, edge-of-your-seat thriller featuring a renowned law enforcement forensic expert who knows his way around crime scenes better than anyone else. An injury leaves him able to move only his head, neck, and one finger, but doesn’t prevent him from solving complex, intense crimes. Angry and riddled with psychological pain, Rhyme’s as brilliant as ever and dogged when it comes to getting to the bottom of brutal serial killings in New York, with a little help from Amelia Sachs, a rookie officer who becomes his capable sidekick. There are 17 books in this series.
Mystery tidbit: Deaver has said that Rhyme is “… probably my most interesting, yet disturbing, character.”
3) Robert Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling, #1 in the Cormoran Strike series (2013) is a darker mystery, with another war veteran protagonist. Somewhat curmudgeonly, Strike lost a leg to a landmine in Afghanistan, and is barely scraping by as a London-based private investigator. He’s assisted by his enthusiastic sidekick and temporary secretary, Robin Ellacott, in investigating the suspicious death of a supermodel. Their partnership and friendship elevate this mystery to another level, as the clever pair hunt for clues that help them gradually pull the puzzle pieces together.
Mystery tidbit: Galbraith is a nom de plume of J.K. Rowling.
4) Barbara Nickless’s Blood on the Tracks, #1 in the Sydney Parnell series (2016) stars yet another military war veteran; one who is wrestling with PTSD. Sydney is a railroad cop and special agent in Denver investigating the violent murder of a victim she knew; a big-hearted woman that helped the homeless. Haunted by ghosts of fallen soldiers she’d known in Iraq, Sydney pops pills and guzzles scotch to dull the pain. Although evidence points to the dead woman’s fiancé, Sydney’s not convinced. Along with her trusty sidekick, Clyde, she hunts the real killer down. Clyde is a Belgian Malinois with his own PTSD issues from the war. Issues that pull the pair apart in the beginning, eventually drive them together. This novel contains my three favorite elements: a fearless heroine, plenty of action, and a smart canine. There are six books in this series.
Mystery tidbit: Per Nickless, “I never really thought about whether I was writing a thriller or a mystery. I wrote the story that interested me.”
This list would seem never ending if I included every disabled single detective/protagonist that solved crimes. Is there a detective you’d like to spotlight in the comments?