Detectives are Visionaries who like to solve puzzles. Whether they do crosswords, enjoy guessing games like Twenty Questions and Charades, or read mystery novels because they want to figure out who did it, they can’t walk away from hard questions. It’s no wonder that the genre of the mystery novel has remained popular among smart and analytical readers for hundreds of years, from Edgar Alan Poe to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett and straight through to Agatha Christie and Stieg Larsson.

Whether in real life or in fiction, Detectives follow carefully calculated quests that take them on dangerous and heroic journeys. They are always on the lookout for clues and unafraid to look for them in dangerous places. But in addition to being brave, organized and intuitive, they have to be people-oriented enough to see inside the heads of others and be able to charm answers out of unwilling suspects and witnesses.

Unlike other Visionaries who let their imaginations lead them, to do good detective work they have to be critical of themselves, and smart enough to know when to discard their hard-won hunches. “It is always the facts that will not fit in that are significant,” Agatha Christie’s Inspector Hercule Poirot says in Death on the Nile. Archetypal Detectives know which facts matter most.

Other Examples
Perry Mason, Nancy Drew, Nero Wolfe, Eliot Ness

Strengths
Detectives are well-organized and curious. They are articulate by nature because their work requires them to be excellent conversationalists whether as small-talkers or good listeners.

Weaknesses
These Visionaries can be cynical. Never ones to be fooled, they take convincing when it comes to taking bold risks or throwing caution to the wind.

Passions
Puzzles, police blotters, mystery novels, guessing games, and police procedural shows on television

Reading

Words
“The world is full of obvious things that nobody by any chance ever observes.” -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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