If you think about it, it’s natural enough that someone would take up the same career as a parent. After all, a person grows up seeing what that parent does for a living, so it becomes familiar. And some people actually work with a father or mother as an adult. That’s why you see companies called ‘_______ & son(s)’ or ‘______ & daughter(s).’ We  see that in crime fiction, and it’s especially interesting to see parent and child sleuthing teams. They may take different forms, but they all amount to what can be an effective blending of skills.

For example, fans of Ellery Queen will know that Inspector Richard Queen is a police detective with the New York Police. As such, he gets called in for serious cases like murder. His son, Ellery, is a writer who has a particular skill at noticing and making sense of evidence. The two of them work well together for the most part, and they complement each other’s skills. While there are some Queen mysteries that involve just Ellery, a lot of them feature both father and son. Admittedly, Ellery Queen doesn’t become a police officer. But he and his father do work as a team.

Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander is the divorced father of a daughter, Linda. When the series opens (with Faceless Killers), he and his ex-wife, Mona, have established lines of communication, but that’s not so much the case with Linda. As the series goes on, though, they do begin to communicate and get to know each other better. In fact, Linda decides to become a police detective. And in Before the Frost, she and her father actually work together on a case. She’s investigating the disappearance of one of her university friends, and her father is working on a case that turns out to be related. That doesn’t mean the two become best friends; their relationship still has plenty of difficulties. But they’re able to combine forces.

Regular readers of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch will know that he and his daughter Maddie are close. As she grows up, she learns more and more about what her father does for a living and how he does it. When the time comes, Maddie decides to become a police detective just as he is. In The Waiting, she’s a patrol officer who chooses to work in the LAPD Open/Unsolved Unit with her father and Renee Ballard. This series shows how parent/child partnerships get started and evolve. There’s no official word on whether Connelly’s next novel, The Hollow, will include Maddie, but it does involve a cold case, so it very well could involve her.

Michael Redhill/Inger Ash Wolfe created a series featuring Detective Inspector (DI) Hazel Micallef, of Port Dundas, Ontario. The town is not really a hotbed of crime, so when there is a murder (or multiple murders), there’s a real impact on the community. Hazel lives with her mother, Emily, former mayor of Port Dundas. They don’t always have an easy relationship; some people say they’re too much alike for that. But they do respect each other, and even though Emily wasn’t in the law enforcement business, they do team up. Each brings different insights, and it’s interesting to see how they tap those skills, even when they argue.

Doug Johnstone’s Skelf series sees not two, but three generations of people who work together. In A Dark Matter, we learn the family’s story. Jim Skelf was the owner of a funeral home. He was also a private investigator. When he dies, his wife Dorothy, his daughter Jenny, and his granddaughter Hannah take over the business. They’re soon drawn into a series of mysteries, including payouts to a woman they don’t know, the disappearance of one of Hannah’s friends, and an odd case of adultery. The Skelfs’ grief at the loss of their patriarch is difficult to navigate, but the business helps them to focus, and it allows them to forge new kinds of relationships to each other.

And then there’s Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders. In that novel, we are introduced to former police detective Steve Wheeler. He is content with a quiet village life, quiz night at his local, and doing crossword puzzles. His son, Adam, is a financial executive, and his daughter-in-law, Amy, works for a personal security firm. He doesn’t see Adam and Amy regularly because of their jobs, but everything begins to change when an up-and-coming influencer named Andrew Fairbanks is murdered. His death is connected with two others, and it turns out that all three victims were clients of the company that employs Amy. Now, she’s worried that she’ll be the most likely suspect. She turns to Steve, who’s just about the only person she trusts, and together with one of Amy’s clients, Rosie, they start to look for answers. By the end of the novel, the three have decided that they work well together. The next novel in this series, We Chase Shadows, is scheduled for release in September 2026, and features the detecting team working on another case.

Sometimes, children and their parents follow entirely different career paths. But sometimes, those paths can merge, so that detecting becomes a family business. When that happens, the result can be a well-functioning team whose members know each other well and complement each other. It’s not without stress, and it can be fraught, but it can also work remarkably well.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Lawrence’s Family Business.