April is National Poetry Month

and it's a tradition ( with me at least) to try to write a poem a day during this month.  More like a first draft a day.  For today's effort, I am writing about my favorite detective novels

Litany of the Ten Detectives

Spenser, for your love of Susan

 your witty repartee with Hawk,      solve me a mystery.

Wallander, for your pursuit of predators,

of human traffickers,   solve me a mystery.

Harry Bosch, for your battles with  politicos,

 your beer drinking meditations

 on your deck above the Hollywood hills solve me a mystery.

Jack Reacher,  travelling without a suitcase,

furious at the bad guys, solve me a mystery.

Armand Gamache, beloved by Three Pines, solve me a mystery.

Commissaire Adamsberg, struck dumb by mysterious attacks of intuition, 

patient with your quirky detectives, solve me a mystery.

Lizbeth Sallander, hard drives within hard drives, solve me a mystery.

Harry Hole, for your care for the boy Oleg despite everything, solve me a mystery.

Dismas Hardy, wily San Francisco lawyer, solve me a mystery.

Matthew Scudder, guzzling coffee at AA meetings,

sitting in the back pew at the butcher's Mass,

agonizing over murder,

solve me a mystery.

All you flawed and suffering fighters for the right,

solve me a mystery.

  solve me a mystery.