
Guest Post: Top-Secret Sidekicks by David MacPhail
Posted on 14/07/2017 in Guest posts Top-Secret Grandad and Me
Many great detectives have a sidekick, or work in a team. Think Mulder and Scully, Charlie’s Angels, Scooby Doo and his gang, and loads more! Read on to find out my top 3 all time favourite detective teams.
Sherlock Holmes had Doctor Watson, who followed Sherlock about on his adventures and then wrote about them. In the books, Watson was far from the bumbling fool you sometimes see in the movies, but he was still miles behind Holmes’s lightning-quick mind.
Then there was Tintin and Snowy. Tintin was a young investigator with a quiff, who tracked down criminals with selfless bravery and determination. Snowy, his feisty little dog, often proved himself more useful than Tintin’s other sidekick, Captain Haddock.
And then there was Agatha Christie’s ‘Tommy and Tuppence’. This was not, as it might first seem, about some bloke called Tommy who was wondering what to spend the last of his pocket money on. Tuppence was actually a girl. Tommy and Tuppence went around solving mysteries together, and since their first adventure in 1922 they became one of the great crime writer’s finest creations, despite the total flop of the 2015 BBC adaptation.
Quite often only one of the team does the actual detecting, working out what’s going on from all the different clues. For example, Sherlock. The other has different roles. Sometimes, like with Doctor Watson, it’s the sidekick who tells the story. Sometimes they provide the brawn, and sometimes they just exist to make the main detective look clever.
As for Jay Patel, his sidekick is his annoying ghost Grandad. Half-Scottish and half-Indian, he hates being a ghost and finds it difficult doing all the things you expect ghosts to be good at, like walking through doors. He does have ghostly skills however. And he also has the one great talent that all the rest of the famous detectives would die for – he’s invisible. Jay is the brains of the outfit, but Grandad’s invisibility and his ghostly skills make this crime-fighting team that little bit special.
Find out more about Jay Patel and his ghostly grandad in Top-Secret Grandad and Me: Death By Tumble Dryer! We’d love to know who your favourite detective duos are, let us know on Twitter with #TopSecretGrandad!
If you’re a fan of detectives and mysteries, you might like some of these:
Explore the blog by category
Click to select a category.
- A Super Scotland Sticker Book
- Author Interviews
- Authors
- Alan Dapre
- Alex McCall
- Alex Nye
- Anne Forbes
- Annemarie Allan
- Carol Christie
- Caroline Clough
- Claire McFall
- Douglas Bruton
- E. B. Colin
- Elizabeth Ezra
- Gill Arbuthnott
- James Killgore
- Janey Louise Jones
- Janis Mackay
- Kate Leiper
- Kate McLelland
- Kathleen Fidler
- Lari Don
- Lindsay Littleson
- Michelle Sloan
- Mike Nicholson
- Robert J Harris
- Robert J. Harris
- Ross MacKenzie
- The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle
- Theresa Breslin
- Victoria Williamson
- Awards
- Book of the Month
- Book trailer
- Books
- Ally Bally Bee
- An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Mythical Creatures
- Artie Conan Doyle and the Vanishing Dragon
- Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries
- Black Tide
- Chill
- Cloudberry Castle
- Dragon Seeker
- Ferryman
- First Aid for Fairies
- Flash the Sheep Dog
- Haki the Shetland Pony
- Isla & Pickle
- Lily McLean
- Magnus Fin Moonlight Mission
- Mary, Queen of Scots
- My Luve is like a Red, Red Rose
- Ollie and the Otter
- Peg and Uan
- Porridge the Tartan Cat
- Pyrate's Boy
- Red Fever
- Rocking Horse War
- Ruby McCracken
- Silver Storm
- Soldier's Game
- Speed Bonnie Boat
- Spellchasers
- Storm Singing
- The Accidental Time Traveller
- The Chess Piece Magician
- The Elsewhere Emporium
- The Fourth Bonniest Baby in Dundee
- The Grouse and the Mouse
- The Nowhere Emporium
- The Wishcatchers
- Thor is Locked in my Garage
- Three Craws
- Top-Secret Grandad and Me
- Treasure of the Loch Ness Monster
- Ushig
- Wee Granny
- Wolf Notes
- Young Kelpies
- Christmas
- Competitions
- Danny Scott
- Edinburgh International Book Festival
- Extract
- Features for Teachers
- Folk and Fairy Tales
- Fun Stuff
- Guest posts
- Illustrators
- Kathryn Selbert
- Launches and Events
- Reviews
- Susana Gurrea
- Traditional Scottish Tales
- Traditional Scottish Tunes
- Uncategorized
- What We've Been Up To
- Writing