In real life, police are privy to a lot of information that civilians can’t easily get. Even professional private detectives can’t get all of the information they might want because the law doesn’t require anyone to talk to them. Authors know this. That’s why many crime writers with amateur sleuths and PI sleuths include a police officer as a friend or at least an acquaintance. It doesn’t always meet the credibility challenge, but when it’s done well, an unofficial police partnership can be effective.

One of the most famous is, of course, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Chief Inspector Japp. In some of the earlier stories, Japp’s not entirely happy about Poirot’s investigations. But as time goes by, the two come to respect each other. And, since Poirot is often able to put people at ease in ways that a cop couldn’t, Japp finds it useful to work with Poirot. And in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (AKA The Patriotic Murders and An Overdose of Death), Japp finds himself taken off a case and depends on Poirot to keep looking into it. For his part, Poirot depends on the police for information. Their partnership works well for both of them.

There’s also an interesting partnership in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels. When many people think of Wimsey, they think of Mervyn Bunter as his partner/sidekick. But Inspector Charles Parker also plays an important role in the novels. He and Wimsey are friends to begin with, and Wimsey does take an interest in Parker’s cases. For his part, Parker appreciates Wimsey’s perspective, and finds his input very helpful. Their friendship only grows and deepens when Parker marries Wimsey’s sister.

Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe is a Los Angeles-based private investigator. When we first meet him in The Big Sleep, he gets enmeshed in a case involving the wealthy and powerful Sternwood family. General Guy Sternwood wants Marlowe to find and stop a man who’s trying to blackmail the family. Marlowe does just that, but when he tracks the man down, he finds that someone got there first, and the man’s dead. Marlowe thinks the case is basically over, only to find out the next day that the family’s chauffeur has apparently committed suicide. LAPD police detective Bernie Ohls visits Marlowe to see what he knows about what’s happened, and Marlowe tells him. It turns out to be a very useful visit, as Marlowe gets help from Ohls, too. And Chandler fans know that Bernie Ohls shows up in some other Marlowe stories, too.

It’s not just Golden Age novels that include these partnerships. For example, Martha Grimes’ Inspector Richard Jury is friends with Melrose Plant. Plant is a ‘blueblood’ who gave up his peerage, much to the consternation of his Aunt Agatha. He’s fascinated by police cases, and finds what Jury does interesting. And he has his own set of skills when it comes to detecting. Because of his background (and the fact that he’s a civilian), Plant has an ‘in’ in certain places that would be harder for Jury. And Plant has a way of being charming when he wants, which means plenty of people talk to him in a way they wouldn’t to Jury. The two men work well together, and although they’re very different as people, they have a friendship as well as a partnership.

Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware is a Los Angeles-based psychologist. His specialty has been child psychology, but he takes an interest in other branches, too. One of his friends is Milo Sturgis, an LAPD cop. Sturgis knows Delaware’s professional background and finds it very useful when he’s investigating certain cases. And when Delaware gets a case that may involve criminal activity, he knows that Sturgis can be trusted. Over the course of the series, the two have developed a friendship as well as a working relationship. In fact, in When the Bough Breaks, the first Delaware novel, it’s Sturgis who draws Delaware out of his self-enforced retirement from psychology to help with a difficult case.

Anthony Bidulka’s Russell Quant is a Saskatoon-based PI. A former police officer, he still has contacts in the Saskatoon Police Service. One of them, Darren Kirsch, actually returns his calls even though private detectives aren’t really popular among the police. He sometimes co-operates with Quant, too. Here’s what Quant has to say about it:

‘But I knew if I wanted to make a go of it as a private detective, I’d need some friends in the police department. And a smart cop would know that being friendly with a detective who wasn’t employed by the city and was out there on the streets was not altogether a bad idea either.’ 

It’s a useful relationship for Quant and for Kirsch.

Of course, sometimes the police don’t want to have a working partnership with a civilian sleuth (right, fans of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe?). But that co-operation can be very useful in an investigation. It can also make for interesting character interactions. I’ve only mentioned a few here. Which ones have stayed with you?

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from – Awww… you know this – the Beatles’ With a Little Help From My Friends.