Ask the Critic: Can you identify this book?

A librarian in Illinois writes in:

A library patron is looking for an author whose detective is a bumbler who does everything wrong; may be Irish or British; his boss drives a Jaguar; and in an early book, a suspect pees in the front seat of the detective's car.

It sounds vaguely familiar to me, but I don't know what it is. Can you help?

Comments

[Guyot]

It's either Barry Eisler's first Rain book, or Zsa Zsa Gabor's unauthorized biography.

[I.J.Parker]

It makes you wonder what readers look for in a book. Clearly the peeing in the detective's car was a major memorable event.

[David J. Montgomery]

"It's either Barry Eisler's first Rain book..."

I think you're right -- wasn't that Yellow Rain?

[Hank Shiffman]

Just a guess, but this reminds me a little of Parnell Hall's Stanley Hastings novels. Hastings was an insurance investigator for an attorney, and not the brightest guy in the world, as he admitted freely and regularly. The books are New York based as I recall.

[Bill Peschel]

The bumbling police officer sounds like Joyce Porter's Inspector Dover series, but I can't confirm that on Google Books.

[Patrick Balester]

That has to be "Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective" by Leslie Thomas. The character got his name because his reputation was so poor, he was the last detective you would send on a case. Good character, quite sympathetic, and in the end, he got the suspect.