John Crow
The name of John Crow will not be foreign to the ears of any true aficionado of the mystery novel genre. Taking after the original master of the genre, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Roy Lewis shapes the settings that John crow must encounter in a way that presents the reader with a baffling criminal situation which no one but the sharpest minds can decipher. Like Sherlock Holmes, John Crow has to untangle puzzles that are virtually unsolvable by almost any other police officer, fictional or otherwise. This is where the fascination for the sober heroic romanticism of the English mystery novel is rooted. And whether the main character is a helpless narcissist or alienated from the rest of society does not detract in the least from the heroism and inspiration John Crow is to any a would-be detective.