I grew up reading Encylcopedia Brown, The Hardy Boys, and The Three Investigators. The tv shows that I watched included Murder She Wrote, PBS Mystery, and the occasional detective show like Magnum P.I., Matt Houston, Remington Steele, and of course Quincy M.E.. As an adult, I continue to seek out additional mystery series, though for some reason I’ve usually read more SF&F than mystery (I’m currently devouring the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, getting a little bit of peanut butter in that chocolate).

From this emerged my Murder-verse head cannon, placing as many of these shows together into one setting as possible. Eventually I had to expand it to a Mystery-Verse for those shows following a similar formula but not always with a dead body. For some shows it works great while others just refuse to share a universe. In any case, I’m putting together a list of television detectives that I’ve enjoyed over the years, along with some thoughts on the genres that have emerged.

Television Series

One & Done Movies