Rants & Raves
SLEUTHS OF SIZE:
A list of authors & characters compiled by Lynne Murray
BETHANCOURT, T. ERNESTO
Young adult books featuring plus-sized Doris Fein
BIGGERS, EARL DERR
Charlie Chan (Detective - Hawaii)
(Re-issues: originals were published from 1926)
The Chinese Parrot (1987)
Behind that Curtain (1987)
The Black Camel (1987)
Charlie Chan Carries On (1987)
Keeper of the Keys (1988)
The House Without a Key (1994)
BOND, MICHAEL
Monsieur Pamplemousse (Gourmet Food Taster - France)
Monsieur Pamplemousse (1985)
Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Secret Mission (1986)
Monsieur Pamplemousse On the Spot (1986)
Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure (1988)
Monsieur Pamplemousse Aloft (1989)
Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates (1990) [Vichy]
Monsieur Pamplemousse Rests His Case (1991)
Monsieur Pamplemousse Stands Firm (1992)
Monsieur Pamplemousse on Location (1992) [Provence]
Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Train (1993) [Rome]
BRETT, SIMON
Mrs. Melita Pargeter (Crook's Widow - England)
A Nice Class of Corpse (1986)
Mrs; Presumed Dead (1988)
Mrs. Pargeter's Package (1990)
Mrs. Pargeter's Pound of Flesh (1992)
CANNELL, DOROTHY
Ellie Haskell (Interior designer - Chittenden Falls England)
Ellie is only fat in the first book, The Thin Woman (1984). In the other books in the series she falls into the category of "thin but terrified of gaining weight"
CARR, JOHN DICKSON
Dr. Gideon Fell (Physician - 1930s-1940s England)
The Three Coffins (1935) et al
CHESTERTON, G.K.
Father Brown, a rotund Anglican minister
The Father Brown Omnibus (1945)
CHRISTIE, AGATHA
Hercule Poirot, while never blatantly described as fat, the Belgian detective is described as having an "egg-shaped head" and being fond of gourmet cooking. One imagines that he has his suits specially tailored to accomodate a middle- aged spread but this is never an issue in the books. Less well-known is another Christie sleuth, matronly mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver, also notable for having masses of disorderly gray hair. She shares some of the books with Poirot.
Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective (1934)
Cards on the Table (1936; with Poirot)
Mrs. McGinty's Dead (1952; with Poirot)
Deadman's Folly (1956; with Poirot)
The Pale Horse (1961)
Third Girl (1966; with Poirot)
Hallowe'en Party (1969; with Poirot)
Elephants Can Remember (1972; with Poirot)
DICKSON, CARTER (a pen name of John Dickson Carr)
Sir Henry Merrivale, a portly but brilliant English amateur sleuth.
The Plague Court Murders
The White Priory Murders
The Red Widow Murders
The Unicorn Murders
The Magic Lantern Murders (Punch and Judy Murders)
The Peacock Feather Murders (The Ten Teacups)
The Judas Window
Death in Five Boxes
The Reader Is Warned
Nine--and Death Makes Ten (Murder in the Submarine Zone)
And So to Murder
Seeing Is Believing
The Gilded Man
She Died a Lady
He Wouldn't Kill Patience
The Curse of the Bronze Lamp (Lord of the Sorcerers)
My Late Wives
The Skeleton in the Clock
A Graveyard to Let
Night at the Mocking Widow
Behind the Crimson Blind
The Cavalier's Cup
COHEN, OCTAVIUS GUY
Jim Hanvey, a fat sleuth featured in stories in the Saturday Evening Post
A Common Story (1922)
Helen of Troy, NY (1920s)
COLLINS, WILKIE
Count Fosco (Villainous to many, the count is very nice to his pet mice)
The Woman in White
DICKENS, CHARLES
Inspector Bucket, fat and "of the lower classes", yet relentless in his pursuit of crime even to the highest levels of society.
Bleak House (1854)
EICHLER, SELMA
Desiree Shapiro (Plus-sized New York PI)
Murder Can Kill Your Social Life (1994)
Murder Can Ruin Your Looks (1995)
Murder Can Stunt Your Growth (1996)
Murder Can Spook Your Cat (1998)
FAIR, A.A. (Pen name of EARL STANLEY GARDNER)
Bertha Cool, legendary large, in-charge tough-gal PI with heart of gold
The Bigger They Come (1939)
Turn On the Heat (1940)
Gold Comes in Bricks (1940)
Spill the Jackpot (1941)
Double or Quits (1941)
Owls Don't Blink (1942)
Bats Fly at Dusk (1942)
Cats Prowl at Night (1943)
Give 'Em the Ax (1944)
Crows Can't Count (1946)
Fools Die on Friday (1947)
Bedrooms Have Windows (1949)
Top of the Heap (1952)
Some Women Won't Wait (1943)
Beware the Curves (1956)
You Can Die Laughing (1957)
Some Slips Don't Show (1957)
The Count of Nine (1958)
Pass the Gravy (1950)
Kept Women Can't Quit (1960)
Bachelors Get Lonely (1961)
Shills Can't Cash Chips (1961)
Try Anything Once (1962)
Fish or Cut Bait (1963)
Up for Grabs (1965)
Cut Thin to Win (1965)
Widows Wear Weeds (1966)
Traps Need Fresh Bait (1967)
All Grass Isn't Green (1971)
GEORGE, ANNE
Patricia Ann & Mary Alice Series (Two sisters in Alabama, one a petite retired school teacher, the other a BBW (big beautiful woman) who owns a Country Western Bar)
Murder on a Girls' Night Out (1996)
Murder on a Bad Hair Day (1996)
Murder Runs in the Family (1997)
Murder Makes Waves (07/97)
GRIMES, TERRIS MCMAHON
Theresa Galloway ("Size 16" Personnel Officer, State Department of Environmental Equity - Sacramento, CA)
Somebody Else's Child (1996)
Blood Will Tell (1997)
HAMMETT, DASHIELL
The Continental Op (a fat but very hardboiled nameless detective and his boss The Old Man at the Continental Detective Agency)
Red Harvest (1929)
The Dain Curse (1929)
Dead Yellow Women (1946) - Short stories
The Big Knockover (1972) - Short stories
The Continental Op (1974) - Short stories
Also by Hammett, a notable fat villain Caspar Guttman
The Maltese Falcon (1930)
HILL, REGINALD
"Fat Andy" Dalziel in Dalziel & Pascoe series (Police Officers - Yorkshire, England)
A Clubbable Woman (1970)
An Advancement of Learning (1972)
Ruling Passion (1973)
An April Shroud (1975)
A Pinch of Snuff (1978)
A Killing Kindness (1980)
Deadheads (1983)
Exit Lines (1984)
Child's Play (1987)
Under World (1988)
Bones and Silence (1990) [winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award]
One Small Step (1990)
Recalled to Life (1992)
Pictures of Perfection (1994)
The Wood Beyond (1996)
KELLERMAN, JONATHAN
Although child psychologist Alex Delaware is the sleuth, his best friend, Los Angeles Policeman Milo Sturgis is fat, gay and a believably real character.
When the Bough Breaks (1985)
Blood Test (1986)
Over the Edge (1987)
Silent Partner (1989)
Time Bomb (1990)
Private Eyes (1992)
Devil's Waltz (1993)
Bad Love (1994)
Self Defense (1995)
The Web (1996)
The Clinic (1997)
Survival of the Fittest (1997)
LANGTON, JANE
Homer Kelly is a heavyset Thoreau scholar, retired Police Detective and university professor,Harvard, Cambridge, MA
The Transcendental Murder (1964)
Variant title: The Minuteman Murder Dark Nantucket Noon (1975)
The Memorial Hall Murder (1978)
Natural Enemy (1982)
Emily Dickinson Is Dead (1984)
Good and Dead (1986)
Murder at the Gardner (1988)
The Dante Game (1991) - Florence, Italy
God in Concord (1992)
Divine Inspiration (1993)
The Shortest Day: Murder at the Revels (1995)
Dead as a Dodo (1996)
LE CARRE, JOHN
George Smiley, fat and inconspicuous but a mastermind of espionage despite a tragic personal life
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (a brief mention of Smiley)
Call for the Dead (1962)
A Murder of Quality (1962)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
The Honourable Schoolboy (1977)
Smiley's People (1979)
Quest for Karla (1982)
LOVESEY, PETER
Peter Diamond (A Detective of size beginning in Bath; subsequently: Ex- Detective in West London, England)
The Last Detective (1991)
Diamond Solitaire (1992)
The Summons (1995)
Bloodhounds (1996)
Upon A Dark Night (1997)
LORENS, M.K.
Winston Marlowe Sherman (aka in the series Henrietta Slocum, plus-sized professor in Ainsley, NY)
Sweet Narcissus (1990)
Ropedancer's Fall (1990)
Deception Island (1990)
Dreamland (1992)
Sorrowheart (1993)
McKEVETT, G.A.
Savannah Reid (Private detective and "Georgia peach" relocated to - San Carmelita,CA)
Just Desserts (1995)
Bitter Sweets (1996)
Killer Calories (1997)
MURRAY, LYNNE
Josephine Fuller (woman of size who doesn't apologize, works as troubleshooter for a wealthy philantropist)
Larger Than Death (1997)
PORTER, JOYCE
Inspector Wilfred Dover
Dover: The Collected Short Stories (1995)
It's Murder with Dover (1992) - Short stories
SIMENON, GEORGES
Inspector Maigret (A well-upholstered French policeman whose dozens and dozens of adventures have not yet all been translated into English.)
SMITH, JULIE
New Orleans Policewoman Skip Langdon is a big strapping young woman who is sometimes castigated by herself and others as being fat, but it's never clear that a truly objective observer would agree with this. There are some positive plus sized characters in the series though.
New Orleans Mourning (1990)
The Axeman's Jazz (1991)
Jazz Funeral (1993)
New Orleans Beat (1994)
House of Blues (1995)
Kindness of Strangers (1996)
Crescent City Kill (1997)
STOUT, REX
Nero Wolfe legendary heavyweight, orchid-growing, New York detective
Fer-de-Lance (1934)
The League of the Frightened Men (1935)
The Rubber Band (1936)
The Red Box (1937)
Too Many Cooks (1938)
Some Buried Caesar (1939)
Over My Dead Body (1940)
Where There's a Will (1940)
Black Orchids (1942)
Not Quite Dead Enough (1944)
The Silent Speaker (1946)
Too Many Women (1947)
And Be a Villain (1948)
The Second Confession (1949)
Trouble in Triplicate (1949)
In the Best Families (1950)
Three Doors to Death (1950)
Curtains for Three (1950)
Murder by the Book (1951)
Triple Jeopardy (1952)
Prisoner's Base (1952)
The Golden Spiders (1953)
Three Men Out (1954)
The Black Mountain (1954)
Before Midnight (1955)
Three Witnesses (1956)
Might as Well Be Dead (1956)
If Death Ever Slept (1957)
Three for the Chair (1957)
Champagne for One (1958)
And Four to Go (1958)
Plot It Yourself (1959)
Too Many Clients (1960)
Three at Wolfe's Door (1960)
The Final Deduction (1961)
Gambit (1962)
Homicide Trinity (1962)
The Mother Hunt (1963)
A Right to Die (1964)
Trio for Blunt Instruments (1964)
The Doorbell Rang (1965)
Death of a Doxy (1966)
The Father Hunt (1968)
Death of a Dude (1969)
Please Pass the Guilt (1973)
A Family Affair (1975)
Death Times Three (1985) (published posthumously)
TAYLOR, KATHLEEN
Tory Bauer, overweight waitress in small town South Dakota
Sex and Salmonella (1996)
The Hotel South Dakota (March 1997)
Funeral Food (1998)
WALTERS, MINNETTE
Olive Martin, super-sized, enigmatic women's prison inmate, convicted of murder but possibly innocent
The Sculptress (1995)
IT'S NO CRIME TO EAT WELL!
If you are interested in mysteries and food comingled, pick up a copy of Gourmet magazine for March 1997. In that issue, Jeff Siegel writes about matters culinary and criminal in his article "The Not So Thin Man: Food and the Detective Novel."
© Lynne Murray