Joyce Porter (March 28, 1924–December 9, 1990)[1] is an English crime fiction author.
Porter created the characters of Eddie Brown, Constance Ethel Morrison Burke, and Wilfred Dover.[2]
In DI Wilfred Dover & his assistant Sergeant MacGregor, she created a template later used successfully, especially by Reginald Hill, in straight 'whodunnits', but Porter's novels, while intricately plotted, were always played for laughs.
Dover was obese, lazy, unhygienic (the only man in the Metropolitan Police Service with underarm dandruff) & bordering on corrupt. MacGregor was keen, clean & ferociously ambitious. However, on the rare occasions he was able to put aside plate, pint-glass & cigarettes long enough to concentrate, Dover usually saw the answer first.
The Honourable Constance Ethel Morrison Burke is an upper-class spinster who, armed only with pluck, a deep-rooted hatred of men & her family's enormous financial resources, sallies forth to fight crime with the aid of her devoted 'friend'.
The 'Hon Con' books are even less like straight 'who-dunnits' than the 'Dovers' because while Dover is an experienced copper who has, it becomes clear, a good brain, the 'Hon Con' is an amateur bungler of below-average intelligence. Therefore, her solving each case must be achieved entirely by a happy coincidence.
Detective Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover
Eddie Brown, The World's Most Reluctant Spy
Constance Ethel Morrison Burke