If true crime is the steak, detectives are the salt—they bring out the flavor. So let’s kick off by ranking our favorite fictional detectives who made crime-solving cool.

Icons:

• Sherlock Holmes – deductive genius with no patience for stupidity. Imagine him with Wi-Fi.
• Columbo – the disheveled detective who weaponized awkwardness.
• Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote) – small-town crime magnet. Cabot Cove had more murders than Chicago, but somehow nobody questioned it.
• Batman – yes, technically a vigilante, but also “the world’s greatest detective.” Plus, who else could afford a CSI kit with a Bat-logo?

Have more? Because we do...

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