Lots of people know of one detective show/movie/character: Sherlock Holmes. But I think the star character of The Mentalist, Patrick Jane, is better. He is a detective for the California Bureu of Investigation (CBI) who had his wife and child killed by Red John, a serial Killer who Patrick is determined to stop.
One of the most memriable parts of the show is when Patrick talks to the wife of a man who murdered his daughter. He sdays to her that most wives can notice when their husbands are lying. Her husband then walks in and Patrick Jane says 'Hello, I'm ther Police. Did you kill your daughter?'  The husband denies it but the wife thibnks he was lying and walks of. Patrick says 'an innocent man would have punched me by now'. The wife then re-appears with a gun and shoots the husband three times on the torso. The rest of CBI hear the gunshots and come rushing in. Patrick Jane says 'It's not as bad as it looks!'