WHICH ONE? Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham, P. D. James, Ngaio Marsh?

Question

These are five fantastic detective stories writers. If you have read, which detective would you consider the best? Why?
Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn
Lord Peter Wimsey
Comander Adam Dalgliesh
Robert Blair
Albert Campion.

Answer 1

Margery Allingham by several miles. She doesn't love her hero to anything like the same extent as the others, she isn't an anti-semite as Sayers is or a snob like Sayers and Marsh. Her books get better as she writes, more complex and trying to do more with the setting.

She doesn't shove the books full of quotes to make you feel stupid and Albert has a character, which is more than can be said for Blair or Dalgliesh who is chiefly remarkable for not being remarkable at all.

The books are harder to find but well worth the effort.

Answer 2

Since, in my opinion, P.D. James (No. 1) and Dorothy Sayers (No. 2) are the best writers you named (with Ngaio Marsh a close third), I'd say:

Commander Adam Dalgliesh

"Dalgliesh, who holds the high position of Commander in the Metropolitan Police Service at New Scotland Yard in London, is an intensely cerebral and private person. He writes poetry, a fact which his colleagues are fond of reminding him. Several volumes of his poetry have been published. Dalgliesh lives in a flat above the Thames at Queenhithe in the City of London and drives a Jaguar. He was described as being "tall, dark and handsome" by some women, alluding to Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
His father was the rector of a Norfolk country parish. His sole family relation was his aunt, Jane Dalgliesh, whom he held in high esteem. After her death, Dalgliesh inherits, among others, a converted windmill located on the Norfolk coast. Dalgliesh rose within the ranks of Scotland Yard, from Constable to his present rank as Commander. In his lengthy career, he has been quite astute and successful, and now heads a squad of CID officers working on only the most sensitive cases.
Dalgliesh is a widower; he lost his wife at childbirth many years ago and was reluctant to commit himself ever since. His relationship with Deborah Riscoe ended because of this. However, during his time at St. Anselm's in Suffolk, he meets Cambridge lecturer Emma Lavenham and later finally decides to ask her to marry him."

"Dalgliesh may indeed be the best Scotland Yard has to offer these days. His reputation for never theorizing ahead of the facts is legendary, yet his success at solving complex cases in record time is astonishing. He's more experienced than Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, for instance, and much less trouble-prone. And he's the equal in every way of Inspector Morse, without the endearing imperfections. All of that may accouunt for the string of promotions that have raised him to the rank of commander, in charge of a special unit of the Metropolitan Police that handles only the most "sensitive" murder cases. In fact, along the corridors of power at New Scotland Yard, the worst you will hear about Commander Dalgliesh is that he may be a litttle hard to know. He's an intense, rather solitary man whose taciturnity often is interpreted as intimidating aloofness."

Answer 3

You forgot the BEST - Agatha Christie.