A favourite case in point: Robert B. Parker’s admirable Spenser first turned up in The Godwulf Manuscript in 1973. In early books in the series, the erudite Spenser admitted to giving up boxing after having his face rearranged by Jersey Joe Walcott. The fact that Walcott climbed into the professional ring for the last time in 1953, along with references to Spenser’s time in the Korean War, means that Spenser (taken care of by writers-for-hire since Parker’s death in 2010) continues to go toe to toe with Boston bad guys even in his early 90s. Visualise, if you can, the movie world equivalent: Clint Eastwood shuffling on set as Dirty Harry with a .44 Magnum prop rendered totable by being carved from polystyrene.
Another favourite: James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux first appeared in The Neon Rain in 1987, when Vietnam vet Dave was around 52. Today, he continues to take down Louisiana’s worst at 96. Fortunately for us, his task is made easier by frequent collaborations with the greatest sidekick in crime fiction, Clete Purcell.
Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch, another Vietnam vet, seemingly dates from around 1950, meaning he continues to solve cases in his mid-70s. In this company, he is a relative spring chicken.
Of ages with Bosch would be Kay Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell’s Chief Medical Examiner and dissector of bodies and inspiration behind interminable decades of CSI television drama, who first donned mortuary scrubs in Postmortem in 1986. In 2025, at the age of 75, Kay was still slicing and dicing in the 29th book in the series.
Terrific prose
On the other side of the pond, at the ripe old age of 79, Ian Rankin’s John Rebus (first fictional appearance in Knots and Crosses, 1987) continues to fight Scottish crime and to sup pints at Rankin’s favourite Edinburgh pub, the Oxford Bar. The Rebus series, already boasting 25 titles, now approaches its fifth decade with only subtly rendered signs of Rebus slowing down.
At the relatively youthful end of the age spread is Lee Child’s permanently itinerant Jack Reacher, who first drifted onto the written page carrying nothing more than a toothbrush in 1997’s Killing Floor. Child has now delegated the task of adding to the series (30 books and counting) to his brother; fortunately for the new man at the keyboard, readers will seldom consider that Reacher must now be 65 years old. Or about the same age as Tom Cruise, though certainly a lot taller.
Author Janet Evanovich has taken a different tack with New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum remaining in her early thirties since her debut in 1993’s One For The Money. To this reader, early books in the series (which now stretches to 32 titles) were sought out due to the hilarious relationship Stephanie enjoyed with her Grandma Mazur, who if she’s not suspended in time like Stephanie, must now be a candidate for the world’s oldest woman.
I highlight these series because I have enjoyed them for decades and heartily recommend them to unfortunates who have not encountered them before now. I eventually became a little weary of the Scarpetta and Stephanie Plum books. And I confess to having had enough of Jack Reacher, albeit only after reading 20-plus books with him towering over opponents; lately I have been put off by the Parker estate’s need to keep the money flowing while employing stand-in authors, none of whom ever matched Parker’s terrific prose. But I continue to seek out anything that features Dave Robicheaux or Harry Bosch.
In another world are detectives born of a different century who continue to pop up, three of them hailing from the mid-1850s. The company rigorously hoarding rights to characters created by Agatha Christie makes sure of the regular occurrence of new titles featuring Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot (The latest Jane Marple book, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley, is due out in September, 2026.) And, enabled by lapsed copyrights, a plethora of authors eager to exploit the sales leg-up from the enduring appeal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, pump out Sherlock titles as if their incomes depend upon it. Which they most certainly do.
It occurs to Ron McMillan that he has unconsciously adopted the Stephanie Plum model for Rabinder Singh, Scotland’s only Sikh police detective. The second title in the series takes place, like the first (Don’t Think Twice), in 1993. My Aim Is True is now being reviewed by long-suffering beta readers and will be published soon.