Whose Body? , the first Dorothy Sayers novel (1923), features rich-twit-detective Lord Peter Wimsey. It seems at first a parody — alas, it's not. But amidst unconscious racism and class-conceit there are occasional gems, e.g., in Chapter IV:

... "The deuce you have–what an energetic devil you are! I say, Parker, I think this co-operative scheme is an uncommonly good one. It's much easier to work on someone else's job than one's own–gives one that delightful feelin' of interferin' and bossin' about, combined with the glorious sensation that another fellow is takin' all one's own work off one's hands. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, what? Did you find anything?" ...

and in Chapter VIII, a brilliant image when the puzzle is solved:

... And then it happened–the thing he had been half-unconsciously expecting. It happened suddenly, surely, as unmistakably, as sunrise. He remembered–not one thing, nor another thing, nor a logical succession of things, but everything–the whole thing, perfect, complete, in all its dimensions as it were and instantaneously; as if he stood outside the world and saw it suspended in infinitely dimensional space. He no longer needed to reason about it, or even to think about it. He knew it. ...

^z - 2020-05-25