Veteran Mysteries

In honor of Veterans Day, I thought it would be appropriate to feature crime fiction books either written by veterans or featuring a veteran as a protagonist. You don't have to look very far down current and former best-seller lists to uncover the latter, beginning with Walter Moseley's popular series set in the 1940s featuring Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, a black World War II veteran. The first installment was Devil in a Blue Dress (later made into a motion picture with Denzel Washington), and the most recent—and possibly the last—in the series, is this year's Blond Faith.

Travis McGee, a creation of mystery writer John D. MacDonald, appeared in 21 novels, from The Deep Blue Good-by in 1964 to The Lonely Silver Rain in 1984. Although a a self-described "beach bum," he was also a Korean War veteran. MacDonald himself was also a veteran serving first in the army Ordnance Corp, then the OSS in the Far East during World War II. While still in the military, his literary career began accidentally when he wrote a short story in 1945 and mailed it home for the amusement of his wife. She submitted it to the magazine Story without his knowledge, and it was accepted. In the first four months after his discharge, he allegedly concentrated solely on writing short stories, generating some 800,000 words and losing 20 pounds while typing during 14-hour daily sessions seven days a week.

Relative newcomer Chris Grabenstein features protagonist John Ceepak, a former military policeman in Iraq with a strict moral code and some leftover demons from the war, in a humor-tinged series with such titles as Tilt-a-Whirl, Mad Mouse, and Whack a Mole, although the subject material is often serious.

There are many other mysteries with veteran protagonists, but I'll post a few below grouped by war experience. Since November 11th is Veteran's Day in the U.S. I focused primarily on protagonists who are U.S. military veterans, the exception being Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear and Lord Peter Wimsey by Dorothy Sayers, since there are a dearth of American WWI veteran-related mysteries (and Sayers is of course a crime fiction legend).

American Civil War
Owen Parry, Faded Coat of Blue
Brent Monahan, a series with sheriff/veteran John Le Brun

Mexican-American War
Michael White, Soul Catcher

World War I
Baynard H. Kendrick, a series featuring blinded veteran Captain Duncan Maclain
Dorothy L. Sayers, series with Lord Peter Wimsey
Jacqueline Winspear, a series featuring nurse veteran Maisie Dobbs

World War II
Terence Faherty, a series featuring veteran Scott Elliott
William Hjortsberg, Fallen Angel
Robert B. Parker, Double Play (featuring veteran Joseph Burke, not Parker's usual Spencer)

Korean War
James Lee Burke, The Lost Get-Back Boogie
Stephen E. Miller (author and actor), The Woman in the Yard
Kris Nelscott, series featuring African-American detective/veteran

Vietnam War
Richard Barre, series with Wil Hardesty
Austin Bay, The Coyote Cried Twice
George C. Chesbro, Veil and Jungle of Steel and Stone
James Crumley, The Mexican Tree Duck
Nelson DeMille, Up Country 
Jerome Doolittle, several novels featuring protag veteran Tom Bethany
MIchael Allen Dymmoch, series with former medic John Thinnes
Joseph Flynn, Digger
Katherine Forest, series with former marine, Kate Delafield
Ken Grissom, Drop-Off
Gar Anthony Haywood, series with veteran Aaron Gunner
Jeremiah Healy, series with John Francis Cuddy
Craig Johnson, series feauturing Walt Longmire, veteran Marine Investigator
Rick Riordan, Cold Springs
Conall Ryan, Black Gravity
Howard Swindle, Jitter Joint
Sharon Wildwood, Some Welcome Home (one of the few featuring a nurse veteran)

Gulf War (Desert Storm)
Charles Benoit, Noble Lies
J.D. Rhoades, series with Jack Keller
Jim Tenuto, Blood Atonement: A Dahlgren Wallace Mystery

Other Veterans (non-war-specific)
Lee Child, series with Jack Reacher, former military police
Julia Spencer-Fleming, series with former helicopter pilot, Claire Fergusson
Wendi Lee, series with former marine Angela Matelli 

In addition to John D. MacDonald above, military veterans who have penned crime fiction include James Church (a pseudonym), a former Western intelligence officer with decades of experience in Asia. In A Corpse in the Koryo, Church introduced readers to elusive Inspector O. The mystery was named one of the best mystery/thrillers of 2006 by the Chicago Tribune.

Steve Coonts received his Navy wings in August, 1969. After completion of training in the A-6 Intruder aircraft, Coonts reported to Attack Squadron 196 at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington. He made two combat cruises aboard USS Enterprise during the final years of the Vietnam War as a member of this squadron. After the war he served as an instructor on A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an ssistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz, finally leaving active duty in 1977. His first novel, Flight of the Intruder, published in 1986 by the Naval Institute Press, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover. A motion picture based on this novel, with the same title, was released in 1991.

Chet Cunningham was drafted into the army in 1950. After nine months in Japan, he moved to the front lines of the war in Korea, participating in two battles and numerous line-crossing and prisoner patrols. Assigned to a heavy weapons company he served as an 81 mm mortar gunner, squad leader, and section leader. His service earned him the Combat Infantryman's Badge. After two years of service he was discharged in the rank of sergeant. Cunningham has written many mysteries and thrillers, under the pen names of Keith Douglass and Don Pendleton.

Samuel Dashiell Hammett joined the army during the first world war, serving in the Motor Ambulance Corps, unfortunately contracting TB in the process. He earned a disability pension from the Veterans Bureau on his discharge, and when his health permitted tried to resume his former work with the Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Sponsored by the Veterans Bureau, he signed up for a writing course and in a short space of time began a campaign of magazine submissions. Hammett went on to write several short stories and five novels, the most famous among them The Maltese Falcon.

Wayne Karlin's Lost Armies features a Vietnam vet teaching English to Vietnamese refugees in southern Maryland and a "tripwire" vet who is terrorizing them. Karlin served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1963 to 1967, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. His decorations include the Vietnam Service Medal, the Air Medal, a Presidential Unit Citation, and the Combat Air Crew Badge with three stars. Karlin is a professor of Languages and Literature at the College of Southern Maryland, and has also authored or editor other books and anthologies on the war, as well as essays.

Robert B. Parker, author of the popular Spencer series, served with the Army in Korea. His protagonist, the Boston P.I. Spencer, is also a Korean War veteran, and was first seen in 1973's The Godwulf Manuscript, with dozens more novels following. The character of Spencer was made into a TV series Spenser: For Hire during the 1980s.

Comments

[Mike (not Linda)]

I just wanted to let you know that I think your blog is terrific. The links alone are a valuable resource to a curious and aspiring writer like me.

Since almost no one seems to respond to your posts, I felt that a good blogger like you really would benefit from a word of encouragement now and then to keep at it; your efforts are not going unnoticed or unappreciated.

I found my way here from the DETECTIVES BEYOND BORDERS blog; the writer there knows quality work, and you produce it.

Keep up the good work!

--Mike Tooney

[Linkmeister]

A minor nitpick: MacDonald's protagonist is McGee, no "h."

I too arrived via Detectives Beyond Borders; Peter's an evangelist! ;)

[BV Lawson]

Oops! I guess that's what happens when you type something up around midnight. Thanks for the heads up!

[Linkmeister]

It's interesting that the Institute for Naval Proceedings would publish Flight of the Intruder. They later gave Tom Clancy his start, publishing The Hunt for Red October.

My dad was a Navy Civil Engineer, and as such a subscriber to the Institute's magazine for years. I used to page through it, and I sure don't remember fiction appearing in the Sixties or Seventies. I wonder what caused them to start publishing it.

[BV Lawson]

I found the following article originally from the "Baltimore Daily Record": http://tinyurl.com/yt9ft6. Apparently, the Naval Institute Press took a chance publishing "Hunt for Red October," its first fiction project. Out of over a thousand titles, they've only published a little over a dozen fiction works. Oddly, "Flight of the Intruder" isn't available on the USNI.org site anymore, although you can buy it via other stores. As far as I can tell, neither Clancy nor Coonts published any of their subsequent novels via USNI.

[Carol Novak]

Hi -- very much enjoyed your Veteran Mysteries blog.

Just can't resist this update:

The author of 72 Nero Wolfe stories, Rex Stout, served in the Navy c. 1910-1912 aboard Pres. Theodore Roosevelt's yacht.

Nero Wolfe served in WW I in the Austrian army.

Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's legman, assist, and nudge, served in WW II in the book NOT QUITE DEAD ENOUGH.

Regards,

Caro,
Web Mistress,
www.nerowolfe.org

[BV Lawson]

Good call! I'm beginning to realize that a few days' worth of research was definitely not enough to uncover the many Veteran-related mysteries through the years. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking a full-blown article may be in the works here. Thanks again for the additional info.

[LauraRoot]

I'm another one introduced to your blog by Detectives Beyond Borders.

A few more vets I've thought of:-

Ian Rankin's hero DI Rebus is a veteran of the British Army in Northern Ireland

US writer Charles Todd has written a series of books featuring british WWI vet Inspector Rutledge.

Newton Thornburg's "Cutter and Bone" features a maimed Vietnam war vet.

And of course Conan Doyle's Dr. Watson is a war Veteran (IIRC he served in Afghanistan)

[CQ]

George Harmon Coxe's photographer (Captain - The Jade Venus '45) Kent Murdock.
Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer (noted at The Rap Sheet). My ref. is from The Moving Target ('49) chapter 3: "I was intelligence."
Brit:
Philip Macdonald's Colonel Anthony Gethryn. The Rasp ('30/31) chapter 2, - enlisted as a private...
AND finally,
Ngaio Marsh's Chief Inspector Alleyn. From Scales of Justice ('55) chapter 4-II, "...but he used to be a nice boy twenty-five years ago before he left the Service to be a constable."

[CQ]

quote edit: "to become a constable."

[Charles Benoit]

Great list - I shared it with all the vets I know. And great blog, by the way. I know how tough they are to keep up and you do a fantastic job.

[SjP]

Let us never forget the brave men and women who paid the ultimate price for the freedom we enjoy today!

I invite you to read my Memorial Day Tribute entitled, The Price of Freedom

SjP

[chronic arthritis]

Why did the Veteran Hospital not help this veteran?
Oct. 2006 — New Orleans is still reeling from news this week that an Iraqi veteran reportedly strangled his girlfriend, dismembered her body, and cooked some of the body parts on his stove before jumping to his death.

[cialis online]

It says nowhere in here that this guy ever went to the Veterans Hospital for help. It only says the Vets said that funds were running low, but it says nothing about him asking for help, or being turned away by the Veteran Hospital. You know good and well that if this guy was that seriously screwed up and reached out for help, he would not have been turned down! And you probably can convince a few people on here that this is true about our Military and their support for our troops when they come home from Iraq, but you'll only convince those who have had no affiliation with the Armed Forces.

[John Purcell]

I'm surprised you didn't mention former Vietnam War tunnel rat Harry Bosch - Michael Connelly's series.

[BV Lawson]

You're absolutely right, John! And I LOVE Michael Connelly and Harry Bosch. When I made this list a few years ago, I knew I was probably going to overlook some folks who were important, but for the life of me I drew a blank on Harry. Thanks for the reminder.