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The enduring appeal of the detective in fiction
For the first time, a British police force - the Metropolitan Police - will recruit people directly to become detectives without them working as beat officers in uniform.
But does popular fiction and drama accurately portray the life of a detective, or romanticise it?
Author of The Grantchester Mysteries, James Runcie and crime writer Val McDermid told Martha Kearney what lies behind writing detective fiction.
(Photo: A sign for the house of fictional character Sherlock Holmes. Credit: Getty Images)
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