Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your eyes.
The time has come to do a giant, comprehensive ranking of the detective sidekicks that have graced crime fiction. This list spans books, film, and television. It’s big. It’s long. And it’s necessitated a lot of thought about what it means to actually be a sidekick, versus the other archetypes that frequently appear in the genres where you expect to find sidekicks.
So let us define the qualifications for sidekicking. The detective, the one who has the sidekick, is probably the story’s clear protagonist. But the most difficult thing about putting together this list was making sure that none of the assembled sidekicks are actually, technically partners with their detectives. If two people open a PI business together, even if one of them is clearly the protagonist and the other is supporting, there is no “sidekick” in this dynamic. Britt Pollack is not Hank Dolworth’s sidekick. Nor is Burton “Gus” Guster Shawn Spencer’s sidekick. Same with Maddie Hayes and David Addison (if all those names don’t ring a bell, go watch Terriers, Psych, and Moonlighting, respectively. Three very different shows, all excellent for very different reasons.)
Now, if the two collaborators are fellow police officers of equal rank in a department and they are paired on cases together (or from different departments brought on to a case to work on it from different angles), they are also “partners” and not sidekicks. This rules out some big pairings, like McNulty and Moreland, Booth and Brennan, Cagney and Lacey, and Mulder and Scully. And, certainly, if there are two amateur detectives working on a case together, like Frank and Joe Hardy, they are also doing so as partners and without sidekicks.
Okay, now onto genre. We thought long and hard about the different genres that this list might include. We’re including detectives of every kind, but NOT spies. NOT spies. Which is a shame, because Ron Stoppable is the BEST sidekick there is (and I would really love to put Kim Possible on a list one of these days). No spies or secret agents, alas. The spy genre is just too distinct.
What about superheroes? My first instinct is “no,” because, while superheroes are crime-fighters, by and large, they aren’t detectives… but then again, Batman, who has one of the most classic sidekicks, is technically a detective and not even a real superhero. And the Green Hornet is in a similar situation. So, we included superheroes on this list as long as their primary work is solving crimes, as opposed to simply using extraordinary abilities to fight them.
Cowboys and “sheriffs” are also fine, as long as they, also, primarily function as detectives. Same with “adventurers.”
What about fantasy or science fiction? Sadly, no. We’ve got to keep this list to “detective sidekicks” and keep it generally defined.
Moving on! Ensemble casts can be difficult to house a sidekick-detective relationship. This rules out all the Law and Orders, NCISes, CSIs, True Detectives, Leverages, and procedurals of this general ilk.
Villains who tag along with or assist detectives are not sidekicks, which rules out, say, Alice Morgan from Luther, and absolutely Hannibal Lecter. And of course, victims or traumatized witnesses who accompany the detectives are also not included, which rules out Hooch, the dog from Turner & Hooch. (On another note, that is the most upsetting movie I’ve ever seen in my LIFE.)
Speaking of dogs, can animals and non-human entities count as sidekicks? Yes, absolutely.
The main function of the sidekick is to be a supportive friend and loyal helper to the detective—so protégés and assistants definitely qualify. Deputies, however, only count as sidekicks if they stick with the main investigator and help; if they’re simply lower in command and they also cause stress, they don’t qualify. Barney Fife is not a sidekick. Do you hear me? Barney Fife is not a sidekick. He is a stressful supporting character and that is all.
But a sidekick isn’t just a friend, either. Detectives can have friends and relationships that have nothing to do with sidekick-dom. And more often than not, the main relationship between the detective and sidekick should not be romantic. If a romance forms, it has to be after the detective-sidekick dynamic has already been established. But a character who is not initially set up to be a sidekick cannot become a sidekick. Harriet Vane, for example, is not a sidekick to Lord Peter Wimsey, and don’t ever let anyone call her that. Neither is Nora Charles, even if Nick ends up doing most of the legwork.
A sidekick is probably not a parent or a superior officer (though exceptions can be made for retirees), but a sidekick can be more knowledgeable than the detective, like if the sidekick is a computer wiz.
And remember folks, we’re not ranking the “best” sidekicks, but the “most iconic” ones,” because there are ultimately too many to do an all-inclusive list.
Okay, that was a lot. Everybody good? Here we go.
45. John Bacchus
Works with: George Gently
From: the Inspector George Gently TV series
John Bacchus is the headstrong, difficult assistant paired with senior investigator George Gently. Bacchus becomes very loyal to the staid, proper George Gently, but he’s kind of terrible in every other way? He’s extremely impatient and often prefers to bend rules or take easy ways out, which can put the investigations at risk. More than that, though, he’s a kind of a bigot, very sexist, and a terrible father.
44. Dr. Hubert Ford Cumberledge
Works with: Hilda Wade
From: the Hilda Wade stories by Grant Allen
Hubert is a fairly useless sidekick, as far as sidekicks go. He’s a narrator. But he also has a debilitating, and fairly disrespectful crush on his subject, the brilliant nurse Hilda Wade, an amateur sleuth. They meet while working at the same hospital, both associates of a Professor Sebastian, whom Hubert worships and whom Hilda exposes as being a horrible criminal. Hubert can’t believe Hilda is as smart as she is, and every time she amazes him he tries to joke about how she’s actually probably just a witch. Sadly, they eventually marry.
43. Tonto
Works with: The Lone Ranger
From: The Lone Ranger TV series, created by Fran Striker and George W. Trendle
Tonto’s low on our ranking because he’s kind of a racist caricature (not his fault, and he deserves better). The extremely popular show The Lone Ranger ran on ABC from 1949 to 1957, and was about a wealthy masked cowboy who drifts, along with his “faithful” Native American companion, from town to town on his beautiful white horse, ridding the West of bad guys. Unlike the 2013 movie adaptation, in which white guy Johnny Depp played Tonto, the role was originally played by an indiginous actor, Jay Silverheels, of the Cherokee nation. But yeah, all Tonto kind of does is follow the Lone Ranger around. Which is not great. Not great.
42. Cato Fong
Works with: Inspector Clouseau
From The Pink Panther film series
Cato is also a fairly racist caricature (also not his fault). A martial arts expert, he is Clouseau’s personal servant, who has been instructed to attack Clouseau at random to help keep Clouseau on his toes. It’s not clear if he’s super brilliant or super not brilliant, because he ambushes Clouseau at the absolute worst times (though this leads me to think the former), and completely mortifies his bumbling boss in these moments. Clouseau always gets to have the better of Cato, though, frequently sucker-punching him after the fight has ended—in a clear gesture of who is supposed to retain superiority over the other.
41. Theodore “Teddy” Winters AKA Mozzie
Works with: Neal Caffrey
From: White Collar TV series
I’m going to get groaned at for this one, but I don’t care. White Collar is a quality show and I will defend it until the day I die. Mozzie is one of the rare sidekicks who assists in pulling off capers and heists, and therefore he is the best kind of sidekick. He’s the helper/friend to criminal-turned-FBI-asset Neal Caffrey (who is also in a crime-solving partnership with a federal agent). Mozzie is the show’s unrealistic jack of all trades, a tech genius, surveillance guy, encyclopedic know-it-all, helpful distraction, and he’s also the one who always knows how to get building blueprints and other security details. So he’s kind of the show’s easy machina, which makes him more of a means to an end, but WHATEVER.
40. Cletus Purcel
Works with: Dave Robicheaux
From: The Robicheaux novels by James Lee Burke.
The best friend of gritty, depressive, widowed and recovering alcoholic ex-New Orleans police officer Dave Robicheaux, an investigator who absolutely never plays by the rules, is an equally never-plays-by-the-rules guy, Cletus Purcel, who is also an alcoholic ex-police officer turned PI and bail-bondsman. And he’s kind of violent. But he’s loyal? So.
39. Eric Shelton
Works with: Cam Jansen
From: the Cam Jansen books by David A. Adler
I’m going to level with you—it’s been a real long time since I read the Cam Jansen books. Then again, they are very memorable. Cam Jansen is a fairly fearless kid who has a photographic memory that she activates by saying the word “click” (like it’s an actual camera). Her best friend and helper Eric Shelton is her polar opposite. I definitely remember him being a fraidy-cat.
38. Jean Passepartout
Works with: Phileas Fogg
From: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne and subsequent adaptations
Around the World in Eighty Days has an entire full-length plot involving mistaken identity, and one of its main characters is a detective (besides the fact that its main character has to solve a problem thought to be unsolvable), so I’m counting it as a crime story. Jean Passepartout is the French assistant hired by inventor Phileas Fogg to accompany him on his proposed eighty-day trip around the world. Passepartout is the one who ultimately saves the day at the end of the story by providing its famous aha-moment about time zones, but he also easily gets drugged and tricked into revealing stuff about their adventure, so he’s not exactly batting a thousand. He’s also a kind of boring character in the (somewhat Orientalist, what’d you expect, it’s Victorian) book, but subsequent film adaptations, in which he is played by the Mexican comedian Cantinflas and Jackie Chan, make him significantly more memorable.
37. Rina Lazarus
Works with: Peter Decker
From: the Peter Decker series by Faye Kellerman
Rina is the formerly-widowed wife of detective Peter Decker. After they marry, she helps him solve crimes, but she also helps him grow spiritually. She, an Orthodox-Jewish woman, meets Peter at a yeshiva during an initial murder investigation and helps Peter to explore and embrace his own Jewish roots. But she, it is worth saying, is also a great assisant to crime-solving, because she has medical experience, having cared for Israeli soldiers before coming to America. She, a former math major, is a strong and thoughtful woman, with great value in her faith, and she helps provide the crime novels’ moral center.
36. Dr. David Q. Dawson
Works With: Basil of Baker St.
From: The Great Mouse Detective film
Dr. Dawson is the friend and companion of the greatest detective in all the mouse world, Basil of Baker Street. He is earnest, brave, and very British. He’s very good at giving “pull yourself together”-style pep talks. I wish he did more, because he is VERY adorable and he’s clearly smart (he’s a doctor!), but he mostly stands around scratching his head and looking cuddly.
35. The Unnamed Narrator
Works with: C. Auguste Dupin
From: the Dupin stores by Edgar Allan Poe
Dupin’s unnamed narrator is (like many great sidekicks) also his roommate. The two met by accident one day, while searching for the same rare book, and hit it off. The narrator does very little other than marvel at Dupin and tell his story, but those are not unworthy qualities. Dupin is worthy of marvel, and of having a story told about him. Plus he likes books!
34. Kazumi Ishioka
Works with: Detective Kiyoshi Mitarai
From: The Detective Kiyoshi Mitarai books by Soji Shimada
A freelance illustrator and avid fan of mysteries and detective stories, Ishioka introduces Mitarai to his first case as a detective, and then accompanies him on his crime-solving adventures. Like many crack sidekicks, the affable and pleasant Ishioka narrates the Mitarai stories, and it’s a good thing, because Mitarai’s skills are unbelievable.
33. Mrs. Bucket
Works with: Inspector Bucket
From: Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
One of the loveliest moments in Charles Dickens’s large multiplot novel Bleak House is when Inspector Bucket, the detective (whose work collides with many of the novel’s discreet arcs), is revealed to frequently bring his cases home to his wife, to work on them together. In a momentary narrative aside, she, the minorest of characters, is described as “a lady of a natural detective genius, which if it had been improved by professional exercise, might have done great things, but which has paused at the level of a clever amateur,” and this is a wonderful moment specifically because it is so minor, it could just have easily not been there at all. I wish she could have done more. But still, Mrs. Bucket helps her husband solve crimes, and when she’s not there to help him in the field, he imagines she is. “‘And there you are, my partner, eh?’ says Mr. Bucket to himself, apostrophizing Mrs. Bucket, stationed, by his favour, on the steps of the deceased’s house. ‘And so you are. And so you are! And very well indeed you are looking, Mrs. Bucket!’” Lovely. Lovely.
32. Steve Sloan
Works with: Dr. Mark Sloan
From: Diagnosis Murder TV series
Steve Sloan is the police officer-son of Dr. Mark Sloan, the chief of Internal Medicine at Community General Hospital and amateur detective. It’s fortunate that Dr. Sloan has Steve to help him out when he suspects that yet another person at the hospital has died of not-so-natural causes. Steve was played by Barry Van Dyke, the real-life son of national treasure Dick Van Dyke, who played Dr. Mark Sloan. If you need to feel happy, you should watch this show. It’s adorable. Barry Van Dyke is adorable. Dick Van Dyke is the greatest person alive on the planet, aside from his friends Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks.
31. Archie Goodwin
Works with: Nero Wolfe
From: The Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout
The young Archie Goodwin does all the legwork for the affluent, grouchy, high-on-the-horse bibliophile and private detective Nero Wolfe who hates leaving his luxurious brownstone. Archie, a handsome and dapper young man, is a quick-witted, fast-talking deputy. But, wow, is he a skirt-chaser. He reeeeally gets distracted by beautiful women. I, mean, wow. Pull yourself together Archie.
30. Danny “Danno” Williams
Works with: Detective Captain Stephen “Steve” McGarrett
From: Hawaii Five-0 TV series
Danny Williams is one of the younger members on Hawaii’s elite crime-fighting squad, and he’s the second detective in command. How did he get there? No clue. When we meet him, he’s fairly insecure, always getting into arguments with his superior, Steve McGarrett. But over the course of the series, he grows more confident and mature, settling into a groove with McGarrett’s and cementing their indomitable partnership, putting away the countless bad guys who apparently operate in the tiny, island state of Hawaii. But still, after all these years, it remains the case that no one can quite book em’ like Danno.
29. Bess Marvin and George Fayne
Work with: Nancy Drew
From: The Nancy Drew book series by Carolyn Keene
This is a two-sidekicks-for-the-price-of-one deal, since Bess and George are cousins and at least one of them is always at Nancy’s side. But they’re not interchangeable! The author always wants us to know that Bess is a blonde girly-girl, while George is a dark-haired tomboy. Based on what I remember from the 56 yellow-spined Nancy Drew books on the bookshelf in my childhood bedroom, George might be more helpful than Bess when it comes to some of the more extreme parts of crime solving? Why do I seem to remember that Bess really only cared about eating? (Nothing wrong with that, sister!) But if we’re being honest, sidekicks or no, Nancy’s the one out there making things happen. Nancy Drew and no one the hell else.
28. Joseph “Rocky” Rockford
Works with: Jim Rockford
From: The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files is a personal favorite of mine, as well as my grandfather’s (who just turned 90! Happy Birthday Joe!), and why not? The adventures of a laid back ex-con-turned-PI who lives in a trailer along the beach in Malibu and drives a Pontiac Firebird, our hero, Jim Rockford, focuses on helping the downtrodden. He is sometimes helped in solving cases by none other than his father, Rocky, a retired truck driver. Maybe his job is to give his son advice more than hunt down criminals, but he’s an essential part of the crime-solving process at hand. My grandpa’s favorite part of the show is when Rocky calls his tough middle-aged son Jim “Jimbo.”
27. Inspector Lewis
Works with: Inspector Morse
From: the Inspector Morse TV series
Lewis is the only character on this list who is included both as a sidekick and a detective, because he was featured in two separate shows, Inspector Morse, in which he is decidedly a sidekick, and then his own spin-off, Lewis, in which he takes over for Morse. On Inspector Morse, Lewis is the unassuming, gentle, and very earnest sidekick to Morse’s cranky, quick-witted, and sometimes too-highbrow lead investigator. Their dynamic is adorable.
26. Kato
Works with: Britt Ried, AKA “the Green Hornet”
From: The Green Hornet comics, created by Fran Striker
Kato is the friend of and valet to wealthy businessman Britt Ried’s, but he’s also the masked driver and assistant to the Green Hornet vigilante superhero. There’s some murky backstory about Ried saving Kato’s life long ago, causing Kato to pledge service to Ried, and okay, the details sound too much like indentured servitude to be super good (and there are way too many badass POC servants who help wealthy white guys, when it comes to stuff like this; Fran Striker also co-created The Lone Ranger, so you get what I’m saying here). But Kato chooses to accompany Ried in his crimefighting and detection. In the TV show adaptation, Kato was played by Bruce Lee, whose fighting skills made Kato an icon.
25. Mervyn Bunter
Works with: Lord Peter Wimsey
From: the Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy L. Sayers
Bunter is Lord Peter’s personal servant, but their relationship runs so much deeper than that. Wimsey’s batman during World War, Bunter is constant and loyal, and has saved Wimsey’s life both on and off the battlefield. Pretty unflappable, Bunter also a complete expert on fashion, etiquette, and other matters of decorum. And although he helps Wimsey more with day-to-day matters he also has very strong observational skills, which means that he ends up involved in more than his fair share of cases. A skilled photographer who keeps state-of-the-art equipment, he also has a spy camera in his pocket at all times. Just in case.
24. Captain Arthur Hastings
Works with: Hercule Poirot
From: the Hercule Poirot series by Agatha Christie
Captain Hastings is the narrator of many of the Poirot stories, and the best friend of the Belgian detective. Honestly, he’s a lot like Dr. Watson. A lot. A military man who served in the Middle East, the sometime-roommate chronicler of his detective friend, not exactly super good at figuring out clues himself… very Watson, indeed. But if a sidekick’s job is helping the detective to shine, then Hastings is doing a brilliant job.
23. Gabriel Betteridge
Works with: Sergeant Cuff
From: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The best part about Wilkie Collins’s detective novel The Moonstone is that, when the eponymous jewel disappears from an estate during a party and the famed detective Sergeant Cuff shows up to solve the crime, he enlists the help of the family’s honorable elderly head servant Gabriel Betteridge to assist him look for clues and interview suspects. Gabriel initially wants no part of the process, but can’t resist when Cuff asks him for help here and there, until he eventually comes down with a full case of “detective fever” and becomes subsumed in the thrill of the mystery.
22. Sergeant James Hathaway
Works with: Inspector Lewis
From: the Lewis TV series
Sergeant James Hathaway is a brooding, Cambridge-educated know-it-all and former seminarian, and for this he can be annoying (plus he has terrible, terrible hair) but he refuses to define his sexuality when Lewis, his superior asks him to, and he chastises Lewis for small-mindedly trying to break down sexualities according to binding, stereotypical characteristics. This is quite impressive and very powerful.
21. Hercule Flambeau
Works with: Father Brown
From: the Father Brown series by G.K Chesterton
A reformed criminal and former jewel thief, Flambeau helps Father Brown solve crimes. But this was not always the case! They first encountered one another oppositionally, with Father Brown foiling Flambeau’s thievery attempts. Eventually, though, they become friends, with Father Brown eventually persuading Flambeau to change his ways, give up his stolen booty, and become a detective, himself. And in case you’re wondering if his first name is a hat-tip to Hercule Poirot, no, because Hercule Flambeau came first.
20. KITT
Works with: Michael Knight
From: the Knight Rider TV series
In this beloved 80s TV show, David Hasslehoff is Michael Long, a normal crimefighter, after a near-fatal accident and being saved by the mysterious chairman of Knight Industries, is reborn and rebranded as the ultra-cool crimefighter Michael Knight. He receives intel and gadgets from Knight Industry’s emissary Devon Miles, including the best gadget of all: a sleek high-performance, all-terrain, artificially-intelligent sports car named KITT (short for “Knight Industries Two Thousand”). That’s right. The car is the sidekick.
19. Officer Bill Gannon
Works with: Sgt. Joe Friday
From: Dragnet TV show
We often think of Jack Webb’s badass Sgt. Joe Friday working alone, but where would he be without Harry Morgan’s Bill Gannon? And making this even better is that Webb and Morgan were longtime friends in real life.
18. Huggy Bear
Works with: David Starsky and Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson
From: Starsky and Hutch TV series
Huggy Bear, originally played by Antonio Fargas, is the funkily-dressed, street-smart, slang-slinging Criminal Informant who assists Starsky and Hutch on their cases. A former petty criminal and bar owner, Huggy Bear was so beloved a side character that he was considered to receive his own spin-off.
17. Cindy “Mac” Mackenzie
Works with: Veronica Mars
From: The Veronica Mars TV show
Veronica Mars is totally, beautifully neo-noir, and one of the best things about it is that it does not ask Veronica, our gritty teen PI, to be a whiz at all the tech stuff that comes with the turf of a contemporary-set detective show. Veronica is our heavy, while Mac is our hacker. And she also provides some necessary strong female friendship to our girl Veronica, who basically always has to deal with men.
16. Samantha “Sam” Stewart
Works with: Christopher Foyle
From: Foyle’s War TV series
Sam Stewart is one of the few sidekicks on this list whose existence offers a productive re-reading of the archetype. Foyle’s War is about a police detective unable to serve in WWII who decides to help on the home front by keeping his English coastal village safe from crime. Sam Stewart works for the Mechanised Transport Corps, an organization that enlisted women to work as drivers. And she becomes Foyle’s driver, slowly becoming invested in cases and assisting Foyle (and his fellow detective Paul Milner). What’s so wonderful about this is that this exact situation is so traditionally masculine. But Foyle’s War not only allows the workplace gender integration of wartime Britain to give a woman a new job, but also give a longstanding persona new dimensions. I also like how she’s hungry all the time.
15. Riley Poole
Works with: Ben Gates
From: The National Treasure movies
Justin Bartha’s Riley is really the quintessential sidekick, in that he contains so many multitudes of sidekick-dom. He’s the computer guy, the comic relief, the loyal friend. He also might be the best part of those two movies, in part because he’s the one who figures out how to steal the declaration of independence in the first place, and it’s a really cool plan. I also had a crush on him when I was thirteen. What.
14. Bobby Crocker
Works with: Theo Kojak
From Kojak TV series
Bobby Crocker is the favorite assistant of Theo Kojak, the tough, lollipop-sucking commander of Manhattan’s South Precinct detective squad. He’s a young, impressionable plainclothes officer, but most importantly, he sets up Kojak’s mystique for the audience: he asks why the lollipops. Kojak doesn’t give him a straight answer. And there you go.
13. Dick Grayson, AKA Robin
Works with: Bruce Wayne, AKA Batman
From: Batman comic books and franchise
Robin is no one’s favorite sidekick, except maybe Batman’s, because he lets him come along in the first place. Bruce Wayne’s teenage ward (amusingly played in his first TV appearance by Burt WARD) can be a little cloying, but what he lacks in general skills, he does make up for in enthusiasm and catchphrases.
12. Snowy
Works with: Tintin
From: The Adventures of Tintin comics by Hergé
Tintin would not be anywhere without his faithful, clever, and very communicative (speech bubbles!) white, wire-haired fox terrier Snowy, whose name in the original French is actually “Milou.” He is an expert tracker and constant defender, but the most important part is that he never leaves Tintin’s side. Not once.
11. Sharona Fleming
Works with: Adrian Monk
From: The Monk TV series
Justice for Sharona. She left the show too early. The overly professional Natalie, her replacement, is fine, but nothing beats the relationship between the quiet, OCD-addled detective and his clever, Jersey Girl assistant. An ICON of the USA Network character pantheon.
10. Kobayashi Yoshio
Works with: Kogoro Akechi
From: The Kogoro Akechi books by Edogawa Ranpo
Another sidekick cut from the Watson mold, Kobayashi Yoshio is the roommate and narrator of detective Kogoro Akechi. The leader of a Baker Street Irregulars-style group called the Boy Detectives Club, he is an expert at disguise (especially drag), and immerses himself deeply in cases along with his equally disguise-prone friend.
9. S.S. Van Dine
Works with: Philo Vance
From: The Philo Vance series
S.S. Van Dine takes the Watson gambit even further than Watson does. He is a real person, the real-life writer of the Philo Vance books, who writes himself in as the best friend of the brilliant, suave, dandyish detective Philo Vance. He’s not Vance’s creator, merely his chronicler, and the two solve innumerable mysteries together during the Jazz Age.
8. Sallah
Works with: Indiana Jones
From: The Indiana Jones movies
Yes, Indiana Jones is a detective, and Sallah is one of the best sidekicks ever. Overlooking that he, an Egyptian man, is played by a Welsh character actor (though we do love John Rhys-Davies), and just generally overlooking all the weird Orientalism in the Indiana Jones movies, we have to acknowledge that Sallah is the best guy you can have on your side when you’re stealing religious artifacts or running from the Nazis. He’s friendly, he’s clever, he can think on his feet, he seems to be really rich and have lots of connections and supplies, and he’ll stay with you to the end.
7. Tapesh “Topshe” Ranjan Mitra
Works with: Prodosh Chandra Mitter AKA Feluda
From: The Feluda mysteries by Satyajit Ray
The Watson figure to Feluda’s Sherlock Holmes, in this bestselling Bengali detective series by Indian filmmaker and auteur Sattyajit Ray, Topshe is both assistant and narrator. But, cleverly, he’s also an enormous fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories, which means he styles himself after Watson deliberately, in certain ways, in the novels’ wry commentaries about the natures and pleasures of derivation and pastiche.
6. Hawk
Works with: Spenser
From: The Spenser series by Robert B. Parker
Hawk is the right-hand-man to the PI Spenser; the brawn to Spenser’s brains (and brawn). Formerly having served in the French Foreign Legion, he’s a good-old-fashioned mercenary when he teams up with Spenser in the fourth book in the series (after meeting him in a boxing match they both think they have won). Their bond runs deep; more than friends, they are practically brothers. They are family.
5. Raymond “Mouse” Alexander
Works with: Ezekiel “Easy” Porterhouse Rawlins
From: The Easy Rawlins books by Walter Mosley
Mouse is one of those wonderfully complicated sidekicks. Plenty of sidekicks will die for their detectives, but will they kill for them? He’s the childhood best friend of Easy Rawlins and has since become an insane and remorseless killer (you know, one of those we all have so many of). Many of the Easy Rawlins stories have Mouse trying to help his friend by killing a whole bunch of people, and Easy trying to solve the mystery at hand and prevent Mouse from murdering anybody. Classic.
4. Henry Standing Bear
Works with: Walt Longmire
From: the Longmire books by Craig Johnson
Henry and Walt go waaaaay back. They have been best friends since they were kids, and worked together at various odd jobs throughout the years. Henry, a bar owner and member of the Cheyenne reservation, is Longmire’s trusted friend and assistant, but he’s also a crime-fighter (who protects the Cheyenne people) in his own right. His love for his friend Longmire doesn’t dominate his identity; he’s also moved by the love of his heritage.
3. Walter Sobchak
Works with: Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski
From: The Big Lebowski film
I don’t think I really even have to defend this one, but here goes. Condescending, pedantic Vietnam vet Walter Sobchak is the ultimate ride-or-die. Our makeshift-detective hero, the Dude, would be nothing without him. Then again, the Dude might be out of trouble more often, but that’s not the point.
2. Sally Kimball
Works with: Encyclopedia Brown
From: The Encyclopedia Brown Books
Encyclopedia Brown may have an incredible memory and impressive deductive skills, but he would be nothing without his best friend, bodyguard, and manager Sally. The best part about her is that she’s the muscle in their team, while he’s the thoughtful, analytical one—she flips the script entirely on the expectation of what girls (and little girls! she’s 10!) can do. And her strength and courage are not given to her at the expense of her looks or “girliness”, either (she’s super pretty, if I remember correctly). She is what she wants to be, and doesn’t have to sacrifice anything to be it.
1. Dr. John Watson
Works with: Sherlock Holmes
From: the Sherlock Holmes stories and novels by Arthur Conan Doyle
Watson may not be the best sidekick (like Hastings, Dupin’s friend, and so many others, he doesn’t really help solve crimes ever, so much as chronicle them). But this is a list of most iconic sidekicks, and the fact that so many assistants, lackeys, deputies, and friends on this list are so clearly cut from Watson’s cloth is all the evidence we need. I will say, as a defense of him, that in Conan Doyle’s series, Watson’s nowhere near as dumb as he is portrayed in pop culture (especially by Nigel Bruce in the Basil Rathbone adaptations). Really. He’s not that dumb. He’s a doctor. A DOCTOR.