[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stumptown_issue1_4330.jpg]]

Dex Parios is a very good [[PrivateDetective private investigator]], operating Stumptown Investigations in UsefulNotes/{{Portland}}, Oregon. Unfortunately, she's a very bad gambler and ends up owing the Confederated Tribes of the Wind Coast $17,616. Fortunately, Sue-Lynn, the head of the Confederated Tribes, will waive Dex's debt... if she will find Sue-Lynn's missing granddaughter.

Add in two bad guys named Dill and Whale, one very rich, very powerful, and [[TheDon very connected]] man, and one [[TheAllegedCar easily broken car]], shake well, and you get ''Stumptown''.

''Stumptown'', written by Creator/GregRucka and published Creator/OniPress, consists of two limited series--Volume 1, ''The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo But Left Her Mini'' (2009), and Volume 2, ''The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case'' (2012)--followed by an ongoing, bimonthly series. So far, the monthly series has featured two arcs. "The Case of the King of Clubs" deals with an assault on a member of the Portland soccer community, while "The Case of a Cup of Joe" has Dex being hired to transport a rare, expensive batch of civet cat coffee.

On February 2019, it was announced that Creator/{{ABC}} had ordered a [[Series/Stumptown2019 series]] based on the graphic novels, with Creator/CobieSmulders cast as Dex Parios and co-starring Creator/JakeJohnson. The series debuted on September 25, 2019.
----
!!Tropes used in this work:

* TheAllegedCar: Dex has an old Mustang that's in and out of the shop. She finally totals it during "The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case," by jumping it over a suspension bridge as it's rising, and is rewarded with a much newer model of Mustang... which promptly gets its back bumper sheared off by a random passerby.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished. Averted. Dex spends the majority of the first volume with a rather large black eye.
* {{Crossover}}: Dex's client in volume 2, Mim Bracca, is the protagonist of Rucka's novel ''A Fistful of Rain,'' which places ''Stumptown'' in the same continuity as Rucka's ''Literature/AtticusKodiak'' series.
* DaChief: While he's not her boss, the chief at the local police station ''hates'' Dex (because she broke up his marriage), and makes it clear at the top of his voice.
* {{Determinator}}: Like a lot of other Creator/GregRucka female characters, Dex manages to take ''brutal'' beatings and still keep going.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Dex's full first name is Dexedrine.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: Dex's middle name is Callisto.
* EveryoneIsBi: This really comes to the fore in volume 2, where pretty much every female character has a complicated history with every other female character.
* FootballHooligans: The third volume involves a friend of Dex's getting assaulted after a Portland/Seattle soccer derby, with some of the main suspects being football hooligans supporting one side or the other (which is terrifying to the league, which will tolerate some aggressive chanting but fears that any sign of seriously-violent European or Latin American-style hooliganism will kill the sport dead in the U.S.).
%% * FriendOnTheForce: Dex has one.
%% * HomoeroticSubtext: A little bit, although Dex says that she really doesn't know what team she plays for.
* InMediasRes: The first issue starts with Dill and Whale shooting Dex and leaving her for dead. We then go 27 hours earlier to find out how she got there.
%% * MafiaPrincess: Isabel Marenco.
* MeaningfulName: Dex's full first name is Dexedrine, which is also one of the trade names for dextroamphetamine, a central nervous system stimulant used as an athletic performance enhancer, and by military and special forces as a go-to pill during fatigue-inducing missions, such as those done on night time or extended combat operations. So, it's appropiate for it to be the name of a character like Dex who [[{{Determinator}} never gives up, no matter what.]]
* ThePlace: "Stumptown" is one of the nicknames for the city of Portland, Oregon, where the story is set.
* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: In ''Stumptown'' #4, Dex punches a large thug named Whale, to no effect. She seems to {{lampshade|Hanging}} the futility of it afterwards:
-->'''Dex:''' Sorry, but I had to try, you understand.
%% * PrivateDetective: Dex.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: The second volume opens with Dex being offered an excellent detective job, without significant risk and with high pay, which she turns down when she learns that the owner of the company is the crime lord she tangled with in the first volume. She would love the money and the work, but she refuses to have any association.
* ShownTheirWork: Almost everything about Portland is correct (especially since Creator/GregRucka lives there). Rucka basically lives and breathes this trope.
%% * SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Series/TheRockfordFiles''.

----