detective

The literary and otherwise artistic connotations of today's word inevitably overwhelm the commonplace. The fact is, there are thousands of detectives that are hopelessly mixed in with the seemingly homogeneous mass known as "police." "Detective" is to many of us a symbol of that prototypical figure in fiction who stands alone, often the only one with both the capability and willingness to swim against the oppressive current of deception and ignorance to uncover the truth. Despite the fact that many of the detectives we encounter in fiction are as flawed as any other character, they are usually the ones we align ourselves with; both they and we are trying to unravel the mystery, and the detective is the reader's (or viewer's) best chance of doing so. After all, he (or she) is a professional, a stoic crusader who will hopefully stop at nothing. When so many of our lives are filled with mystery and uncertainty that will never be uncovered, it is something of a relief to accompany an endeavor that will almost certainly be successful, and to know that even if the detective falls in his efforts, the reader will still be standing when it is all over, and will learn the truth.