History Main / TheExoticDetective

* Parodied in Creator/EdwardGorey's ''The Awdrey-Gore Legacy'' with the character of Detective Waredo Dyrge, half-Irish, half-Japanese "[[EyeScream progressive]] [[AnArmAndALeg victim]] of explosions all over the world," who has a collection of [[SwissArmyAppendage artificial hands]] gifted to him by clients, gives his deductions "in the form of a linked series of {{haiku}} in Gaelic of his own compsition", and has an equally quirky CanineCompanion.

* Parodied in Creator/EdwardGorey's ''The Awdrey-Gore Legacy'' with the character of Detective Waredo Dyrge, half-Irish and half-Japanese "and [[EyeScream progressive]] [[AnArmAndALeg victim]] of explosions all over the world, who has a collection of [[SwissArmyAppendage artificial hands]] gifted to him by clients, gives his deductions "in the form of a linked series of {{haiku}} in Gaelic of his own compsition", and has an equally quirky CanineCompanion.

* Parodied in Creator/Edward Gorey's ''The Awdrey-Gore Legacy'' with the character of Detective Waredo Dyrge, half-Irish and half-Japanese "and [[EyeScream progressive]] [[AnArmAndALeg victim]] of explosions all over the world, who has a collection of [[SwissArmyAppendage artificial hands]] gifted to him by clients, gives his deductions "in the form of a linked series of {{haiku}} in Gaelic of his own compsition", and has an equally quirky CanineCompanion.

** The latest addition to this sub-genre: the Atto Melani books by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti, about a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atto_Melani real-life]] Italian castrato who served as a diplomat and spy for the King of France in the late seventeenth century. He's actually the SupportingProtagonist, however - the narrator is his dwarf sidekick from Rome.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective''.

* ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu''

* As the page quote showcases, parodied in a quick gag on ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': "exotic" detectives are so many on 31st-Century television that ''a detective that has absolutely nothing'' to help him on his snooping is pretty much considered one.

* ''Literature/HerculePoirot'', an extremely eccentric FunnyForeigner. Also within the books, Ariadne Oliver's [[ShowWithinAShow Finnish detective]]. She then loudly complains to Hercule that [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall she wishes she had never invented him]], because she knows nothing about Finland and people are constantly writing to her to tell her that Finns don't do that.

* The Karen Harper's Queen Elizabeth I mysteries has [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask a queen]] as a detective!

** In ''The Stone Man Mysteries'', the titular character is a demon named Silex, who is trapped in the form of a gargoyle, fused to a church roof. To redeem himself, he runs an investigative service, with the legwork done by a young boy named Craig. The setting is 1930s Scotland.

* ''Series/{{Ironside}}'': A detective in a wheelchair.
* ''Series/{{Life|2007}}'': The main character, Charlie Crews, went to jail for murder, but was recently acquitted. He's also a millionaire from the wrongful imprisonment settlement. And he's developed a very Zen (or at least Zen-ish) mindset during his time in prison.

* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/SubsurfaceCircular'' is a robot detective whose work consists mainly of talking to other robots and figuring out the picture from there.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': A private detective with a very literal case of SuperOCD (as in, on the few occasions that he tries to seek treatment for it, he completely loses his detecting mojo... and it's a RunningGag he drives everybody nuts with his nitpicking).

* As the page quote showcases, parodied (and taken UpToEleven) in a quick gag on ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': "exotic" detectives are so many on 31st-Century television that ''a detective that has absolutely nothing'' to help him on his snooping is pretty much considered one.

* ''Series/{{Life}}'': The main character, Charlie Crews, went to jail for murder, but was recently acquitted. He's also a millionaire from the wrongful imprisonment settlement. And he's developed a very Zen (or at least Zen-ish) mindset during his time in prison.

** The 1998 novel ''Scherzo'' by Jim Williams features an eccentric man of letters (who may or may not be Creator/{{Voltaire}}) investigating a murder in Venice with a failed castrato singer as his impromptu sidekick.

* The short-lived ''Blind Justice'' featured a detective who was blind, as did the '70s series ''Longstreet''.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'': Conan is a a TeenGenius-turned-[[KidDetective pre-Teen Genius]].

* The Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series by Creator/TonyHillerman would have originally come across as this. It's about detectives on the Navajo Tribal Police force who investigate crimes on the reservation. Thanks to Hillerman's [[TropeCodifier influence]], however, the Native American detective novel is today a popular subgenre.

** [[ComicBook/XMen Charles Xavier]] is the psychic detective (as in one who investigates mysterious psychic attacks, not as in investigating arbitrary mysteries using psychic powers.)

** ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'' gives us detective Bobby Fulbright, a hilariously hot-blooded detective with a burning passion for [[ForGreatJustice all that is just]]. [[Spoiler: Oh, and he's also been dead for a year and been replaced by an emotionally stunted super spy.]]