Let's say that a member of your family disappears and "foul play is suspected."

Which fictional detecive would you want on the case? Jack Reacher? Spencer? Patrick Kenzie? Elvis Cole? Sherlock Holmes?

As for me, I have to go with Spenser. Much like Cole and Kenzie, he won't give up until the job is done to his satisfaction, but Spenser has something else going for him that the others don't, namely he can assemble a virtual army of fellow tough guys/thugs/gunmen if things get ugly. Kenzie does have Bubba and Elvis has Joe Pike, but that's it. Spenser has Hawk, Quirk, Belson, Chollo, Bobby Horse, the gay cop, the gay bouncer and the dude who lives in Vegas.

It might not be the most creative answer, but I'd take Sherlock Holmes. I would trust that he would pursue the investigation to its conclusion, if for no other reason than to satisfy himself. Plus, I finally started getting into Doyle's stories a couple of years ago and found I like them quite a lot. That said, if we expand "fictional" to include comic characters, I'd want Batman on the case. But then, that's my default choice for any "If you could..." question involving fictitious characters.

I was about to say Spenser but I gotta go with Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.

Harry Bosch.

Monk.

Spenser

Mike Hammer. Not only would my family member be recovered safe and sound, but the mastermind behind the abduction will be horribly killed.

Charlie Chan. He could go out and solve the case, and I'd stay home to bang whichever of his hot daughters he brings along.

Hercule Poirot. He is discretion itself. If it turned out that the relative wanted to disappear, or that the whole family was in on the plot, Poirot could be counted on to do the right thing.

I JUST got into mysteries, and Bosch would be my guy because he simply has nothing else to do

R. Daneel.

I'd be too jealous of Bosch, and while I"d definitely like Batman to be on my case [or the case of the crime that affected me], he's difficult to hire.

I hope I'm not in the kind of trouble that would require Dresden.

I'd have to go with Matt Scudder.

Batman. Err wrong forum.

No it isn't.

I was thinking I would pick Batman too.

I find your lack of reading comprehension skills ironic.

Thing about Batman is that he's never going to find out about or have time to do anything about it unless the following conditions are met:

1)You happen to live in Gotham City. Not just staying there on business or holiday but actually live there.
2) You have to rich and famous enough to get the news into the papers and news media and have it stay there for several days.
3)The kidnapping has to happen at a time when ALL of Batman'sd rogues gallery are behind bars either at Blackgate or Arkham, 'cause otherwsie he's just going to focus on them to the exclusion of everything else and in this scenario the kidnappers are just ordinary mooks, no supervillians.

Lisbeth Salander.

When you hire a private detective, you don't want him or her to get into physical altercations with the suspects; you want her to gather evidence that you can give to the police. She can do that better than anyone else.

1) Nah; Bats gets around. But it does help if you live in a city with its own superhero. That way, when he starts investigating, he and that hero can have a tense rivalry that yields to grudging mutual respect by the conclusion of the case.

2) Again: Nah. Batman likes showing off how closely he monitors things, frequently plucking out seemingly obscure cases just to prove the police missed something fundamental.

3) Who's to say the kidnapping wasn't the work of one of the Rogues Gallery? I like think it would be Catwoman, but that's just me.

Sure Batman gets around, to the JLA's headquarters which is on the moon, and when he's there he's always botching and moaning that "his city (Gotham) needs him. The only other times he gets around are when he's chasing Rahs Al Guhl to the middle of some godforsaken mountain top or desert or when he goes off on a year long voyage to "find himself." In both cases he is solely focused on one thing, Rahs and himself to the exclusion of all others.

I completely misinterpreted this thread title

If you want your identity stolen

Bonus: For whatever reason she might just walk up and ask if you want to fuck

Daryl Zero. That's going into movies, but given that the character was clearly inspired by recognizable literary detectives, I don't feel so bad about that.

I went into this thread not thinking of Lisbeth Salander..for whatever reason. I'd have to go with her.

However, I initially thought of John Connolly's Charlie Parker.

Spenser