Detective & Mystery Cat Names: Sleuths, Authors & Noir Picks
A cat watches everything and gives nothing away, which makes detective and mystery fiction a natural source for names. This guide leads with the genre's real crime-solving cats: Koko and Yum Yum from Lilian Jackson Braun's "The Cat Who" series, and the tabby sleuth Mrs. Murphy from Rita Mae Brown's cozy mysteries. From there it runs through the great fictional detectives like Sherlock, Poirot's circle, Nero Wolfe, and Nancy Drew, the loyal sidekicks and rivals (Watson, Mycroft, Moriarty, Hastings), and the hardboiled noir school with Spade, Marlowe, and mood words like Shadow, Clue, Alibi, and Gumshoe. It covers the mystery authors too, from Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle to Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote the first detective story in 1841. You will also find coat-and-temperament matches, such as Shadow or Noir for a watchful black cat and Mycroft for an aloof one, paired names for two cats like Sherlock and Watson, and practical notes on matching the name to a clever feline that keeps its conclusions to itself.
