A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes". Informally, and primarily in fiction, a detective is any licensed or unlicensed person who solves crimes, including historical crimes, or looks into records.
Read more about Detective: Overview, Organization, Private Detectives
Famous quotes containing the word detective:
“You can always tell a detective on TV. He never takes his hat off.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“Everybody thinks detectives do nothing but ask questions. But detectives have souls the same as anyone else.... You know, Mrs. Beragon, being a detective is like, well, like making an automobile. You just take all the pieces and put them together one by one. First thing you know you’ve got an automobile. Or a murderer.”
—Ranald MacDougall (1915–1973)
“What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.”
—P.D. (Phyllis Dorothy)