My Top Ten - Fictional Detectives

I thought I would share with you my personal choice of favourite fictional detectives. It turned out to be more difficult than I first thought. I'm sure you'll have different ideas and I'd like to see who I've missed.

• 10. - V.I. Warshawski Sara Paretsky's feisty Chicago private-eye was the first female gumshoe I discovered. She's a tough cookie and I love the way she tackles the Chicago underworld with gusto.
• 9. - Charlie Resnick The Nottingham police inspector, created by John Harvey, has a love of strange sandwiches, Notts County football team and jazz. Some of the books were filmed by the BBC with Tom Wilkinson of Full Monty fame as Resnick. Brilliant.
• 8. - Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's shoulders are the ones that almost every other crime writer stands upon. I still find him an amazing and beguiling creation despite his 130 years.
• 7. - Kurt Wallander The Swedish detective is the protagonist of a series of books by Henning Mankell. He is the curmudgeonly battering ram that helped to open the floodgates for a host of high quality Scandinavian crime fiction and I am very grateful to him.
• 6. - Endeavour Morse Colin Dexter's brilliant but lonely police inspector is one of the most loved of British detectives. The perfect casting of John Thaw in the television series was one of the few times when the character I had in my head when I read the books appeared on the screen.
• 5. - Sam Spade I wanted to be Humphrey Bogart from the moment I watched him in the Maltese Falcon as the suave, womanising Spade. Most writers of hard-boiled fiction would agree that they owe a debt to Dashiell Hammett.
• 4. - Harry Hole Norwegian detective Hole has moved up my personal list of favourites very quickly. The multi-talented Jo Nesbø has written a cracking character who battles his own demons as much as he battles the villains he tracks.
• 3. - Philip Marlowe The private detective with the best dialogue ever penned appears in some of the finest crime novels ever written. I can't help but admire the acerbic wit, the sense of time and place that Raymond Chandler brought to his novels. The detective that turned me into a crime fiction addict.
• 2. - John Rebus It's not only because Ian Rankin is a fellow Scot that his police detective appears so far up my list. Ian's work has the same quality that I so love in Chandler, an engaging character who moves effortlessly from the upper reaches of society to its underbelly and shows equal disdain for both.
• 1. - Lew Archer This is where I lose many of you as you wonder who is Lew Archer. Some of you may have heard of Ross Macdonald but I wonder how many have read his novels. His books, set in California, are often tragic tales of dysfunctional families told from the perspective of the private detective, Archer. The dialogue sparkles, the plots are brilliant and more than any other detective, Archer is the one I love. I'm on a bit of crusade to help people discover him for themselves.

Honourable mentions must go to Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne, who is a recent discovery and may well find a place in this list by this time next year. Also Arnaldur Indridason's Detective Erlendur and Hakan Nessers Inspector Van Veeteren.

Just outside the top ten is my own Craig Campbell. Well, I couldn't ignore him after all I've put him through over the past year. Lew Archer had a huge influence on Craig's creation although I wouldn't put myself on the same planet as Ross Macdonald, my Glaswegian private-eye is my tip of the hat to the books I love so much.

It would be great if you could give me some more suggestions and if I get enough I will compile a readers' top ten.

Why do I write?

Calum

It's a question I was asked a couple of times when I was out on my Glasgow library tour, why do you write? There is a simple answer, I have stories I want to tell that I hope people will enjoy but for me it goes beyond that. I write for my son or to be precise I write in memory of my son.

I had started around fifteen writing projects before 2007. Most of them stalled after a couple of chapters, my motivation dissipated as I discovered a new book to read or work was too busy or any other excuse that I could find. The stories were in me but there was nothing pushing me to finish them, no drive to complete what I could always return to at some point in the future.

In 2007, after 23 years, I left my job in the railway. The corporate grindstone had milled away everything but bitterness and resentment. I had to leave for the sake of my health and my family. Just two months after I had left, my new life was shattered beyond comprehension. My son Calum died from bacterial meningitis. At ten o’clock one Tuesday night he was a healthy, happy twelve year-old on the cusp of beginning his journey to become a man. By ten o’clock the following morning he was virtually gone, although it would be two days before his death was official.

Our family was ripped apart, my daughter robbed of her precious brother, my wife and I having to face the worst grief there is. For a year that grief engulfed us and life went on hold but no matter how difficult it was, we had to start living again. Not only for our own sake but in memory of a young lad who had lived life to the full. He crammed more into his twelve years and ten months than many people do in eighty years.

My wife poured her energy into helping others by setting up her own business to give people the tools to help contend with life's difficulties. Her positive nature has depths that amaze me every day and she is an inspiration to everyone who meets her.

Calum’s loss gave me a reason to complete those stories I had started. The realisation that life is far too short and precious to delay your dreams focused my attention and ensured that I had to complete at least one book in memory of Calum. I have gone beyond that and finished a second and I am now embarking on a third. Writing has helped me to deal with the toughest thing I will ever face, it has given me a reason to keep living, to keep Calum’s name alive by dedicating every word to him. He is my inspiration. My regret is that I left it until after he was gone before doing something that would have made him truly proud.

If you are asking yourself why you should write, I would say that don't wait until you it's too late and you have regrets, let people read the stories you have to tell. Life's too short to wait until tomorrow. 

To learn more about how my wife has focused her energy, you can visit her web site.

If you would like to know more about this devastating disease, the Meningitis Trust web site has loads of valuable information including how to recognise the symptoms. You can also make a donation to the trust in Calum's name.