Numbers 6-10
#6 Kosuke Kindaichi
When you hear about deep grudges, cursed families and bizarre serial killings...you know it's a job for Kosuke Kindaichi!! Apparently, writer, Seishi Yokomizo, got that off-beat name from the famous literary scholar, Dr. Kyosuke Kindaichi., Dropping out of college and going to the United States, Kosuke Kindaichi happens to solve a case he comes across in San Francisco. His success prompts him to open a detective agency upon his return to Japan. His wrinkled kimono, worn out wooden sandals, and the way he scratches his bushy hair as he talks makes him appear unreliable, but somehow that encourages people to let down their guard, which helps him in his detective activities. Accompanied by Detective Todoroki (who always says, "I see! I get it!!"), Kindaichi cracks tough cases involving tangled human relationships with his unique investigation methods and his instincts! Just between you and me, when I was a child, I once sprained m neck impersonating him. I recommend
Gokimon-to("Hell's Gate Island").
#7 Detective Columbo
"My wife says..." he begins, and right away you know this detective with the Los Angeles Police Department's Homicide unit has got to be Lieutenant Columbo!! With a shabby raincoat and shaggy bed head, he drives around in a beat-up old car and drops ashes from cheap cigars. He's the perfect picture of a dull middle-aged man. You would never imagine him to be the great Lieutenant who solves one impregnable perfect crime after another with his superb deductive powers!! When questioning a suspect he is always humble, chatting away about unrelated matters and boring the listeners. I fact the conversation is laced with clever traps that make the criminal dig their own graves, so don't be caught off guard!! He is just so persistent! Once he's sussed out his suspects, he hounds them daily. He pursues them psychologically and sometimes even traps them into confessing their crimes. If I were a criminal, I think I would lay bare my crimes the instant I met him. I recommend "Any Old Port in a Storm."
#8 Zenigata Heiji
When you think of a great, hip and dashing detective who protects the peace of Edo, you're thinking of the criminal-catcher, Heiji, also known as Zenigata Heiji!! The master of capture created by novelist Kodo Nomura, live in the poor neighborhood of Kanda Myoujinshita with his wife. He loves smoking and when he's free he can be found playing a game of shogi on the veranda. Heiji's best move is none other than the "Coin Toss"!! He gets 10 out of 10, never missing his target with the four
mon coins he throws. A friend to the common man and a hater of dishonesty, he never takes bribes so he's deep in debt and two months behind on his rent. It is the raffish Hachigoro (famous for saying, "Boss, we got trouble") who helps Heiji and his wife Oshizu. Oshizu, who always strikes a good luck flint when her husband leaves, is Heiji's biggest supporter. I wish he'd be a bit more frugal with his coin tosses fro Oshizu's sake. I recommend Zenigata Heiji Torimono Hikae(The Casebook of Zenigata Heiji).
Editor's note: Nomura Kodo wrote close to 400 episodes involving detective Zenigata Heiji. A museum dedicated to the author has been open since 1995 in Shiwa, Japan.
#9 Philip Marlowe
"I'm a private detective. It's a piddling hand-to-mouth job, but even I have pride. That's right...If I wasn't hard, I wouldn't be alive. If I wasn't gentle, I wouldn't deserve to be alive." The only man who can truly pull off such a hard-boiled line is Philip Marlowe, the private detective that Raymond Chandler created. A former
#10 Auguste Dupin
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