Re Mark's comment below:
> Well, he [the hero of *Memento*] was an
> investigator, fulfilling the I, but
> technically, he
> wasn't private, so no P. He was a company man,
on
> the staff of the
> insurance company, unlike Joseph Hansen's
David
> Brandstetter, say, who
> did most of his insurance work on a freelance
basis.
Last time I checked, insurance companies were
*privately* owned *businesses*, not government law
enforcement agencies. So he *was* a private detective.
Taking your assertion to its logical conclusion, the
Continental Op wasn't a PI because he worked for a large
company; Frederic Nebel's Donahue wasn't a PI for the same
reason; neither was Mannix during the initial "Interetect"
season; neither was Dave Brandstetter for the first few books
when he was still working for Medallion Insurance; and
neither was the character who works as an investigator for
the titular
*California Fire & Life* (a novel that won Don Winslow a
Shamus for best PRIVATE EYE novel, BTW).
A "private detective" is simply a professional detective who
works for private concerns rather than public ones.
JIM DOHERTY
JIM DOHERTY
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