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The Magic of Teamwork: My 5 Favorite Sleuthing Pairs

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In my Walk Through England mysteries, Rick Chasen often relies on his friend (and walking partner) Billie to figure out the identity of the killer. Like many literary sleuthing teams, the two complement each other. Chase relies on his intuition and unique powers of observation; Billie is more intellectual and accesses her vast knowledge of literature and the arts. She is also a valuable sounding board for Chase, leading him through a careful study of suspects, motives, and opportunity.

 

Many famous fictional detectives do fine work alone, of course, but the right pairing adds a nice extra dimension. Here are five of my favorites:

 

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Here is the team everyone regards as the inspiration for countless others, and it’s easy to see why. Holmes is brilliant, but quirky and flawed (he sometimes gets depressed and falls under the spell of drugs). Watson doesn’t have Holmes’ powers of deduction, but he’s level-headed and observant. Together the whole of the team is greater than the sum of their parts. (Often Watson is depicted as a buffoon in filmed versions, such as by Nigel Bruce in the 1940s, but he’s not like that in the books.)

 

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. As in the Sherlock Holmes books, the detective’s assistant is the narrator here. Unlike Watson, however, Archie does most of the actual investigating, as Nero Wolfe is wheelchair-bound and rarely leaves his New York City brownstone. Archie is a skilled observer with an excellent memory, while Wolfe provides the final dose of brainwork to solve the mystery.

 

Inspector Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers. Elizabeth George’s pair of police British police detectives are like oil and water: Lynley is a polished man and a peer of the realm, Havers a much more coarse, slovenly woman from a middle-class background. Havers often tries Lynley’s patience (sometimes she’s her own worst enemy), yet she often dazzles him with her insights.

 

Nick and Nora Charles. Dashiell Hammet’s urbane New York married couple are better known for the screen depictions by William Powell and Myrna Loy, but their boozy, flippant dialogue is in the books as well. The mysteries are as much a comedy of manners as a mystery, with Nora usually the one eager to chase their quarry, with Nick more content to stay at home with a martini.

 

Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings. Although Hastings doesn’t appear in many of Poirot’s most famous novels, he shares several qualities of other sidekicks. Like Archie Goodwin, he sometime shares a flat with Poirot. He sometimes is the narrator, a la Dr. Watson. Like Watson, he is sometimes slow to see the significance of clues, and has a penchant for speculation and gambling, but he's always a welcome presence.

 

Another important role a sidekick plays is to stand in for the reader, asking questions the reader might ask, and frequently humanizing the main character by bringing him or her down a peg or two. We often identify more with the sidekick than the main character, which pulls us into the story.



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©2023 by Nicholas George.

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