MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

In recent years, two new British detectives have emerged in their own series. Flavia de Luce, the creation of Alan Bradley, has appeared in six books as of 2014. Cormoran Strike, created by Robert Galbraith (a pseudonym of J.K. Rowling), has appeared in two, the most recent in 2014.

These two series are very different in setting and yet reflect many of the archetypes associated with both older and newer private eyes. The familial circumstances of each make them, to different degrees, outsiders in their family; both labor outside official investigative channels; both must deal with precarious financial situations. Flavia is a precocious eleven-year-old growing up in a small village in England in the 1950s whose astounding knowledge of chemistry leads to many discoveries about the crimes in her small village. Strike, who lives and works in twenty-first-century London, is a veteran who lost a leg during the war in Afghanistan. He is also the offspring of a famous rocker father, whom he has never met.

While these new sleuths bear these similarities to archetypal loner private detectives, the details of their stories cause their novels to resemble modern detective fiction which provides a detailed backstory and subplots related to the private lives of the protagonists. Flavia lives with her two older sisters and her father. While too young to face romantic difficulties that are often a part of adult detectives’ lives, she must deal with the disappearance of her mother shortly after her birth. Strike, a former investigator with the Royal Military Police, is establishing his business in London. As the series opens, he is dealing with the break-up of a long-term tumultuous romantic relationship —and with a new hire for his office that may or may not offer romantic, as well as professional, ties.