Americans are crazy for crime stories. From bestselling books to top-rated TV shows, we love a story with a bit of mystery, a bit of gore, and (ideally) a dash of romance. So perhaps it's not so surprising that some of TV's most interesting characters are also authors who write about crime. From "Dexter" to "Bones," TV fans love these fictional writers.
Sal Price, "Dexter"
Sal is a new character who is introduced in the Season 7 episode "Do the Wrong Thing." Unlike many other characters introduced in recent years, this character is very intelligent and poses a serious threat to Dex because of his strong ability to review evidence and formulate theories about crimes and criminals.
Sal writes books about true crime and is investigating Dex's current love interest, Hannah McKay. Meanwhile, Sal is also dating Dexter's sister and may have an interest about writing a book about her relationship with the Ice Truck Killer.
Temperance Brennan, "Bones"
Bones may spend most of her time onscreen dealing with murder victims or making googly eyes at Agent Booth, but the main source of her income is actually the royalties from her series of crime novels, starring her character Kathy Reichs. Bones seems to have a tendency to repurpose events and people from her own life for the plots of her books, though Angela also helps when Bones needs to write believable love scenes.
Rick Castle, "Castle"
Rick is a best-selling mystery author in search of a new story to tell. Like Bones, Rick decides to model his characters on people from his real-life exploits. In a cool twist, real-world crime authors like James Patterson and Dennis Lehane guest star on the show as regular members of Rick's poker game.
Jessica Fletcher, "Murder, She Wrote"
Though it has been long off the air, "Murder, She Wrote" remains a classic example of a TV show based wholly on a crime writer. Elderly Jessica Fletcher was a sort of American take on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple character. Jessica's story played out over 12 seasons, during which time she tried to balance her writing career with her knack for amateur sleuthing. Cabot Cove seemed like a nice place to visit, but boy, did it have a shockingly high murder rate for such a small town.
Jonathan Ames, "Bored to Death"
While "Bored to Death" may not have dealt with murder, all kinds of other crimes were seen during the show's run, including insurance fraud, drug use, and a missing persons case. Jonathan becomes a private investigator after his writing career stalls and hilarity ensues. Maybe if the "Bored to Death" movie ever gets made, Jonathan will actually publish a proper crime novel.
