Elementary, my dear Watson

[mycroft]

Might as well start my tenure on this site with something fun AND Semi-relevant...

Since this is a Death Note RPG and Death Note is kind of a mystery story (Although it's a 'Howcatchem' instead of a 'Whodunnit') I figured I'd ask...

Who is everyone's favorite fictional Detective? I wonder how many will answer L, Near, or maybe Conan hehe.

Aaaaanyway, most of my favorites come from the classics...
Sherlock Holmes, of course.

C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's detective written in the 1840's and considered to be the origin of detective fiction with 'Murders in the Rue Morgue'

And, one I found thanks to project Guttenberg

'The Old Man in the Corner' by Baroness Orczy. It's an interesting twist here, the Detective relies on the newspaper accounts and visiting the courtroom and listening to testimony to solve the crime, although he doesn't tell the police what he knows citing that 'Generally, my sympathy is with the criminal intelligent enough to remain free.'
The real criminal is rarely, if ever, arrested or convicted with the Old Man explaining to Miss Polly Burton his own conclusions, which inevitably seem to be the way it must have happened.

[Near]

I knew it! Another Holmes fan! Mycroft. xD

I adore Holmes, too. How could you not? He's so cynical and devious and amusing.

I.e.,

"You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles."

....................

"What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,” returned my companion, bitterly. “The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?"

....................

“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different.”

..............

"I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life."

....................

"Which is it to-day," I asked, "morphine or cocaine?"
He raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened.
"It is cocaine," he said, "a seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?"

....................

“I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule.”

For a close second, I'll add Fox Mulder. He's just an interesting and cool character, all around.

I'm also very fond of the defective detective, Mr. Monk.

Also, Greg House, although not a detective in the strictest sense, is an AWESOME investigator. Love him, too. I think he was based on Holmes, wasn't he? Holmes -> House. Drugs as vice. Watson -> Wilson. Didn't ACD base Holmes on a doctor, to begin with?

[Near]

Nov 17, 2008 16:46:35 GMT -5 @mycroft said:

'The Old Man in the Corner' by Baroness Orczy. It's an interesting twist here, the Detective relies on the newspaper accounts and visiting the courtroom and listening to testimony to solve the crime, although he doesn't tell the police what he knows citing that 'Generally, my sympathy is with the criminal intelligent enough to remain free.'
The real criminal is rarely, if ever, arrested or convicted with the Old Man explaining to Miss Polly Burton his own conclusions, which inevitably seem to be the way it must have happened.

On a side note, this sounds extremely interesting. I will have to check it out.

Funny, too. "Generally, my sympathy is with the criminal intelligent enough to remain free." And on a Death Note site, no less. xD

[mycroft]

Hehehe, I didn't even think of that at first. But I did find the stories interesting

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure what this site's policy on spamming is, so...yeah, I'll just leave the link here and...hope I don't get in trouble. Or if I do that I at least get a warning heh.

www.gutenberg.org/etext/10556

[Near]

Ah, thank you! I'm only on page 10 and I already love this guy. xD

[mycroft]

Hehehe, not a problem. He's definetely one of my favorites...I may have to adopt a personality like his if I decide to create a legitimate detective character...

Hmm, I never noticed your first post with the Holmes quotes Near! Wow...i'm terrible at seeing things.

Hmm...ya know I always found House amusing because several of Holmes' traits and skills of observation are based on Doyle's medical professor, Joseph Bell, meaning House is a fictional doctor, based on a fictional detective, based on a real doctor. It amuses me greatly.

[Near]

Terrible at seeing things... xD

If you didn't see my first post, it must've seemed pretty odd for me to just jump in with 'On a side note' ... like I was totally bypassing the point of your post. ^^

Anyway, thanks again, I really do like this old man in the corner. xD

[mycroft]

Haha, yeah, but i'm kinda odd like that myself so I didn't think to much of it.

And no problem, just glad knowing my taste isn't as odd as I thought it was hehe.

[Dazzle]

I read this one book, "The Art of Detection," that was pretty entertaining...

I forget the author, but the premise of the book is that there is an undiscovered manuscript of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Holmes), and this guy gets murdered over it. It is interesting because there is a mini-Holmes novel within the story.

The victim was obsessed with Holmes, and the way he was murdered was modeled after the death of the victim in the manuscript.

The only fault I saw with the book was that EVERYONE was gay. Not that there was anything wrong with being gay, but that isn't realistic, even for San Francisco. I can only think of one character in the entire novel who was not gay. I can understand having Kate (the main character) being gay just to prove a point, but I really don't get the author's agenda by having the entire ensemble being gay. They made Sherlock Holmes and all of his cohorts pretty gay. People who weren't gay at the beginning were revealed to be gay at the end (I really don't consider that a spoiler.)

Anyways, interesting read, I found it hardcover on sale for like four dollars, and asides from the whole gay thing it was pretty good...

[Near]

Heh, well, I've read plenty of books in which all the characters were defaulted to heterosexual, so that actually might be a refreshing change. xD A female main character (assuming), as well? Who would've thought?

[Dazzle]

While I can understand how change is good (God I hate that word ever since Obama killed it), this was kinda annoying. It just wasn't realistic. Not EVERYBODY is gay in San Fran. It's like reverse-discrimination almost.

The author is female too, not sure of her sexuality. Oh, and yes the main character was female, but not in the typical "hot lesbian" type way the media usually endorses. She had a "life partner" and a daughter and stuff. I guess that part was positive at least.

[Near]

Honestly, I'd say that was the 'agenda' you were looking for earlier. I'm thinking the author was probably going for shock value with the whole gay thing in order to get people to think about the discrimination on the flip side of the 'reverse-discrimination' in her story. It isn't likely that every single character involved in a story would just happen to be gay, but that's no more realistic than typecasting everyone as straight all the time. Something like that. -shrug-

Considering what you've said, I think the message was probably a little overbearingly executed, but meh ...

Anyway, yeah, I actually googled the book to see if it might be something I'd be interested in reading ... Lauren King, right? I don't know, I can handle the gay thing, but the fact that she's written a series in which Holmes has a wife? -snort- That I find hard to stomach. Makes me skeptical. xDD Reviews for this one looked good, though. Maybe I'll check it out. I've had good luck with reading recommendations from this site so far xD. (Speaking of which ... 'the old man in the corner' is totally on my faves list now.)