[[TheMalteseFalcon http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/samspade.jpg]]
[[caption-width:175:Sam Spade doesn't mind a reasonable amount of trouble.]]

-->''Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness. ''
---> "[[http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/scans/chandlerart.html The Simple Art Of Murder]]", RaymondChandler

A [[{{Seekers}} seeker]] character frequently used in DetectiveDrama. A professional detective not directly affiliated with a police department in any official sense (although many will have contacts in the department, and it's not uncommon for members of this profession to have been either police officers or previously worked in law-enforcement, as many of the skill sets overlap), a Private Detective takes on cases that private citizens bring to them - however, whilst they aren't ''supposed'' to investigate crimes (which are official matters for the police, who often look dimly upon private detectives sticking their noses in - both in fiction and in [[TruthInTelevision real life]]), they usually [[MysteryMagnet find themselves knee-deep]] in murders, robberies and kidnappings by the end of the story. They may be doing this because the [[PoliceAreUseless police are useless]] and/or unconcerned about solving the case, meaning our detective is [[TheOnlyOne the only person]] who is actually willing or capable of solving it.

Although it's more common for a Private Detective these days to be treated as just one step away from the AmateurSleuth (or often, particularly if seen from the point of view of the police, as rather sleazy bottom-feeders usually involved in some kind of criminal activity and frequently ex-cops kicked off the force for some kind of corruption), the classic {{Archetype}} of the Private Detective - and the one that has generally stuck in the mind of people when they think of the profession - is the hard-bitten, hard-living, chain-smoking and heavy-drinking gumshoe so beloved of FilmNoir, clad in a fedora and trenchcoat, possessing a sharp, biting wit and prone to giving a PrivateEyeMonologue at every opportunity. They're also usually the only people who can - or are allowed to - describe themselves as '[[HaveAGayOldTime Dicks]]' without either irony or insult. The page quote - from an essay by Chandler - essentially describes how these characters are often written; hard-bitten and cynical, but with their own sense of morality and rigid codes of honour and ethics that lift them above the sleaze they often face down.

While the comparison with the AmateurSleuth is common, in many ways the stories work the opposite ways. The AmateurSleuth, such as [[AgathaChristie Miss Marple]] tend to cozy locked room mysteries, where everything starts complicated and uncertain, but slowly works its way down as a logic puzzle, with a tidy solution where the killer is unmasked. The PrivateInvestigator tends to start simple, but as the investigation will unravel an ever more complicated plot, and the ending is rarely tidy. The killer may be unmasked, but larger problems tend to stay unsolved.

VampireDetectiveSeries often feature one as a protagonist, though of the immortal varient.

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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''DeathNote'': L.
* Rin Asougi of ''{{Mnemosyne}}'' is an ''[[{{Immortality}} immortal]]'' private detective who [[KnifeNut chucks knives at people]], knows WaifFu, and [[GoodThingYouCanHeal has a tendency to get mutilated/killed... a lot]].

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Heironymous "Hip" Flask is a private eye and anthropomorphic hippo in the ''{{Elephantmen}}'' comics.
* Nightbeat is the ''{{Transformers}}'' equivalent of a PrivateDetective. Despite being a [[TransformingMecha giant robot]], he still, ''somehow'', manages to [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:MarvelUK-230.jpg wear a fedora and trenchcoat]] sometimes.


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[[folder: Film ]]

* [[TheParody Parodied]] in the Steve Martin movie ''[=~Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid~=]''
* Casey Affleck's character in ''Gone Baby Gone'' is an example of a modern PI.
* ''KissKissBangBang'' has [[PlayingWithATrope fun]] with all the FilmNoir tropes, this one included: Val Kilmer's character 'Gay' Perry Van Shrike is a hard-bitten, tough-talking, gun-slinging PrivateDetective who's also, well... gay. And considers his job very boring. And, at least until Harry and Harmony come into his life, isn't exactly dogged in his pursuit of justice.
* In ''Lethal Weapon 4'', Leo Gets becomes a licensed PI. This garners much comedy for Riggs and Murtaugh.
--->Riggs: "Excuse me, private investigator? Could you investigate my privates?"

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* The works of DashiellHammett (''The Maltese Falcon'', ''Red Harvest'', etc.) and RaymondChandler (''TheBigSleep'', ''Farewell, My Lovely'', etc.) in particular are often credited with [[TropeMakers creating and popularizing]] the hard-living FilmNoir impression of the Private Detective, especially through characters such as Philip Marlowe (created by Chandler), Sam Spade and the Continental Op (created by Hammett). Many of these characters have transferred into movies; to name just one example, Humphrey Bogart played both Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade in adaptations of the novels (''TheBigSleep'' and ''TheMalteseFalcon'', respectively).
* JimButcher's ''TheDresdenFiles'' is somewhere between an AffectionateParody of the genre and a straight example.
* AgathaChristie's Hercule Poirot has elements of this. He retired from the Belgian police force, emigrated to England during WorldWarI, and became a PrivateDetective in London.
* The Marcus Didius Falco series by Lindsey Davis. Essentially Sam Spade in a [[AncientRome toga]]. Living centuries before Noir was invented however, makes him amusingly GenreBlind and allows the author to gleefully subvert most PrivateDetective tropes.
* SherlockHolmes is often described as the 'first consulting detective', this making this OlderThanRadio.
* John Taylor of SimonRGreen's {{Nightside}} books is a classic - if slightly skewed - example of a private eye.
* Joe Sixsmith, a character of crime fiction author Reginald Hill, subverts most of the basic PrivateDetective characteristics: a short, balding, middle-aged, black private eye from Luton, whose hobbies include singing in a choir and motor mechanics. His main talents are being a nice, sympathetic sort of guy, knowing when he doesn't know things, and tremendous serendipity.
* Sara Paretsky's {{VI Warshawski}} is written to be a distaff version of the (usually) male hardboiled PI.
* Robert B Parker's Spenser is a modern, politically correct version of the type. If anything, he errs as far on the "sensitive" side of the "sensitive tough" archetype as Mike Hammer errs on the "tough" side.
* The titular character of the ''Joe Copp'' series, written by Don Pendleton (also the author of ''TheExecutioner'' series), is a private detective who used to be a cop.
* Lazlo Woodbine, from the FarFetchedFiction of RobertRankin, is a [[TheParody parody]] of the archetypal PI. He insists on using the first person, getting knocked unconscious at his first appearance and can only appear in four scenes (his office, a bar, an alleyway and a rooftop). Considering the outlandish nature of his books, often involving things such as [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] Elvis doing battle with {{Eldritch Abomination}}s out to unmake existence, this makes things awkward.
* Mma Precious Ramotswe (in the ''No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' series by Alexander McCall Smith) subverts almost all of this trope, being a kind and overweight Botswanan lady who solves everyday problems, like absconding husbands, by a sharp psychological perception, persistence and being able to win the confidence of others.
* Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer perhaps goes too far in the direction of being mean. He's a MagnificentBastard of a private eye. (He's also such a CanonSue and an AuthorAvatar that the writer ''played him in a TV series''.)
* Nohar Rajasthan from S. Andrew Swann's ''Moreau'' series of books is a down-on-his-luck PI... who just happens to be an 8'-tall humanoid tiger SuperSoldier. BetterThanItSounds.

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''{{Angel}}'' started out as a private detective, before he made the transition from "supernatural crime" to "supernatural".
* Humorously [[TheParody parodied]] in the Canadian TV series ''Butch Patterson: Private Dick''. Butch is given to internal monologues, wears a fedora everywhere he goes, refers to himself as a "Dick", and drinks very heavily...so heavily, in fact, that he's known to continually wet his pants and [[OrSoIHeard prematurely ejaculate.]] To make matters worse, he's also got a thing for prostitutes, a tendency to wake up in strange places after passing out drunk, and [[NoodleIncident it's unlikely he'll ever live down that incident at the petting zoo.]] In spite of this, he's actually a very competent detective, and generally manages to solve the case, although he quickly blows whatever money he makes on pornography and whores.
* ''{{Moonlight}}'''s Mick St. John started out as a private detective, before he made the transition from "supernatural crime" to "supernatural".
* An episode of {{NCIS}} has the team working with a private investigator. Gibbs expresses his contempt for the fellow by repeatedly referring to him as a "private dick," emphasis on the second word.
* Jim Rockford of ''TheRockfordFiles'' is a slight subversion -- hardly hardboiled, and an ex-con (albeit innocent of the charges). He also edges the AffectionateParody line.
* ''MagnumPI'' is about one of those: from his contacts in the police to the monologuing, the [[BuffySpeak trope fits him to a T... for Trope.]]
* Keith Mars (former cop) and Vinnie Van Lowe (stereotypical sleazeball) of ''VeronicaMars''.

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[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* In ''CalvinAndHobbes'', one of Calvin's alter-egos is Tracer Bullet, a parody / pastiche of the 'hard-bitten' private eye character.

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[[folder: Radio ]]

* Garrison Keillor's "Guy Noir" series of radio plays (part of ''APrairieHomeCompanion'') is an AffectionateParody of the hard-boiled detective.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

*Lewton, in ''{{Discworld}} Noir'', both embodies and parodies this trope, due to the Disc's TheoryOfNarrativeCausality; he doesn't know ''why'' being a private investigator means he has to wear a trenchcoat and fedora, but he's quite sure it does.
* The TexMurphy games are examples of the PrivateDetective / FilmNoir genre played largely straight, with occasional moments of AffectionateParody and loving mockery.

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[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* ProblemSleuth, Ace Dick, and Pickle Inspector, of MSPaintAdventures. Then again, their style of investigation generally involves wearing trenchcoats and fedoras, being generally hard-boiled, and [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything not doing any actual detection.]] And even then, Pickle Inspector wears a bowler and [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} doesn't put very much effort into being hard-boiled at all.]]
* In an AffectionateParody, "[[http://cuteybunny.com/HBoiled/HBFrame.HTM Vikki Marlowe]], Hard Boiled [[IncrediblyLamePun Dyke-Tective]]". Note the MeaningfulName; there are at least two authors and one character (the above-mentioned Philip) in detective fiction named "Marlowe".


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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''[[AnimatedAnthology Raw Toonage]]'' parodied it with "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0E_QZR5Xl8 Cro-Magnum PI]]", a Caveman Detective.
* In the ''[[SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam & Max]]'' universe, the main characters are rather atypical private detectives (though they prefer the term "freelance police"), while their neighbor Flint Paper is a more stereotypical, two-fisted, DirtyHarry type.
* ''[[DuckMan Duckman]]'': Private Dick/Family Man

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