private detective
Unlicensed crime solver
A private detective is someone hired to investigate matters outside official law enforcement—tracking down missing persons, gathering evidence of infidelity, conducting background checks.
Also called a private investigator or PI.
The work involves surveillance, interviews, and records searches rather than the dramatic confrontations of fiction: She hired a private detective to find her birth parents.
- PoirotFictional Belgian detective
- whodunitCrime fiction identifying perpetrator
- magnifying glassHandheld lens for enlargement
- clueSolving aid
Sam Spade · Miss Marple · red herring · mystery · sleuth · casebook · deerstalker · Baker Street
Systematic observation of subjects
- stakeoutProlonged covert observation
- evidenceFacts supporting truth
- case fileDocuments about one matter
- interrogateQuestion formally and persistently
witness · testimony · alibi · forensics · suspect · informant · deduction · tail
Secretly engaged in espionage
- covertIntentionally concealed
- disguiseIdentity-concealing alteration
- incognitoWith identity concealed
- stealthSecret, undetected movement
wiretap · eavesdropping · bugging · tailing · stakeout · shadowing · unmarked · hidden camera
Tough, cynical fiction style
- femme fataleTreacherous enchantress
- smokyFilled with combustion haze
- pulpSoft wet mass
- speakeasyIllicit liquor establishment
gangster · blackmail · shadowy · alleyway · nightclub · double-cross · cynicism · corruption
Sherlock Holmes
- PoirotFictional Belgian detective
- whodunitCrime fiction identifying perpetrator
- magnifying glassHandheld lens for enlargement
Sam Spade · Miss Marple · clue · red herring · mystery · sleuth · casebook · deerstalker · Baker Street · sidekick
surveillance
Systematic observation of subjects
- stakeoutProlonged covert observation
- evidenceFacts supporting truth
- case fileDocuments about one matter
interrogate · witness · testimony · alibi · forensics · suspect · informant · deduction · tail · shadowing
undercover
Secretly engaged in espionage
stealth · wiretap · eavesdropping · bugging · tailing · stakeout · shadowing · unmarked · hidden camera · dossier
hardboiled
Tough, cynical fiction style
- femme fataleTreacherous enchantress
- smokyFilled with combustion haze
- pulpSoft wet mass
speakeasy · gangster · blackmail · shadowy · alleyway · nightclub · double-cross · cynicism · corruption · trenchcoat
private detectivepolice officer
Law enforcement agent
police detective · FBI agent · federal agent · cop · state trooper
private, privacy, detective, investigate, investigation, privately, detection, detector, detecting