True Detectives

The search for truth and meaning makes sleuths of us all.

Hercule Poirot relied on his little gray cells. Sherlock Holmes flaunted his flawless deductive reasoning. Lisbeth Salander uncovered clues through deft hacking, Sam Spade through sardonic bravado, and Miss Marple through murmured, seemingly guileless inquiries.

Real gumshoes have their tools of detection as well, from suspect interrogations and witness interviews to forensic analyses and online surveillance.

Investigators in the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences are no different. They all begin with a puzzle. Sometime it’s a classic whodunit, but often the mysteries they tackle are more nuanced. Historians unlock cold case files, while sociologists search for missing persons and political scientists
uncover misdeeds cloaked in darkness.

They all follow a series of clues as they sniff out the truth, seek justice, and try—and fail!—to slake their never-ending curiosity.