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*** And remember that Holmes could still manage a lot of those cases in his career,[[Literary Agent Hypothesis|but given Watson is the guy who publishes Holmes cases]], [[Fridge Brilliance|it only makes sense that he publishes the most interesting cases (when Holmes does something) rather than those that could be solved by phone, or telegraph or consult or whatever]].
* [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s C. August Dupin solved ''The Murder of Marie Roget'' by reading newspaper accounts.
* [[Encyclopedia Brown (Literature)|Encyclopedia Brown]] sometimes, especially when solving cases for his father over dinner.
* [[Nero Wolfe]] who rarely left his brownstone, having Archie Goodwin act as his leg man and collect all the information he needed to solve the crime.
** And Nero Wolfe had an [[Expy]] in the ''[[Lord Darcy (Literature)|Lord Darcy]]'' stories: Darcy's cousin the Marquis of London. As brilliant a mind as Darcy, but lazy (and cheap). So much so that he once had Darcy's assistant Master Sean arrested for murder so Darcy would be forced to solve the crime in order to prove his innocence.
*** D'arcy countered by proving that the most likely suspect was Lord Bontriumphe, the Marquis' personal assistant (the Goodwin expy).
** Parodied in ''[[The Areas of My Expertise]]'' with a detective who never leaves his bathtub.
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* Henry, of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''Black Widowers'' mysteries, can solve any mystery after hearing it described over dinner.
** Another Asimovian detective, Wendell Urth, was so afraid of travelling that he, like [[Nero Wolfe]], worked almost entirely from home.
* ''The Old Man in the Corner'' stories by the Baroness Orczy, creator of [[The Scarlet Pimpernel (Literaturenovel)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]. A classic armchair detective, the Old Man relies mostly upon sensationalistic "penny dreadful" newspaper accounts, with the occasional courtroom visit. He narrates all this information, while tying complicated knots in a piece of string, to a female Journalist who frequents the same tea-shop (the ABC Teashop on the corner of Norfolk Street and the Strand). They enjoy an antagonistic relationship, as the Journalist attempts to cut the Old Man's ego down to size and the Old Man trumps her every time.
* [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]] had [[Tommy and Tuppence (Literature)|Tommy and Tuppence]] solve one case in the style of the Old Man In The Corner in ''Partners In Crime''.
* In ''[[The Roman Mysteries (Literature)|The Roman Mysteries]]'', [[Kid Detective]] Flavia solves several mysteries this way in some of the short stories, though in the regular novels she generally investigates mysteries on the scene.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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** In direct parallel with Sherlock Holmes, we have Adrian's much smarter brother Ambrose, who never leaves his house. Unlike Mycroft's laziness, Ambrose is severely agoraphobic.
* ''[[Psych]]'': Shawn began his crime-solving career by reporting anonymous tips to the police through the phone based off observations he made watching news reports.
* [[House (TV series)|House]], the medical detective, once had to solve a case through the phone while at the airport. Another case was solved over a webcam since the patient was stuck in Antarctica. Even in normal circumstances, he often can't be bothered to talk to the patient, and phones in a diagnosis via his underlings.
* The Fat Man of ''[[Jake And The Fat Man]]''?
* Patrick Jane of ''[[The Mentalist]]'' once spent most of an episode in prison and ''still'' solved the case. One memorable trick: knowing Rigsby was on his way to interview a suspect, Jane phoned the suspect using Rigsby's name and insulted him, provoking the suspect to attack Rigsby and get himself arrested... and put in the same prison as Jane, who could then talk to him in person.
* Arkady Balagan in ''[[Endgame (TV)|Endgame]]'' suffers from agoraphobia, and refuses to leave his hotel. So he has Sam, and various hotel staff members, do his legwork for him.
* [[Sherlock]] Holmes, during "A Scandal In Belgravia", solved a case via webcam, which gave him a few quick glances at the crime scene.. While wearing nothing but a bedsheet.
 
== [[Manga]] and [[Anime]] ==
* The manga ''[[Remote]]'' was about such a detective--he'd developed agoraphobia, so was assigned a young policewoman with a two-way radio who did the leg work.
* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'': L has been in hiding his entire career, and communicates via phone, computer and his intermediary Watari, emerging only on special occasions for particularly complex crimes {{spoiler|or particularly helpful assistants}}.
* Victorique from ''[[Gosick (Light Novel)|Gosick]]'' isn't allowed to leave the Academy until later in the story, so she often solves cries based on descriptions of the circumstances given to her by witnesses.
* Shinchi from [[Detective Conan]] pretends to be this sometimes when Conan reveals the answer to a case, but is actually there at the crime scene himself (as Conan).
 
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