Dead Boy Detectives Fic Recs
This is a collection for all the Dead Boy Detectives fics I've recced on Tumblr (adventures-in-mangaland). There are a lot! For International Fanworks Day 2025. Mostly bookmarks, but if I've recced your fic and you'd like to add it, feel free!
(Open, Unmoderated)
Random works
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the king gone mad within his suffering (someone cure him of his grief) by halffulljampot
Fandoms: Dead Boy Detectives (TV)
03 Nov 2025
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Summary
“I have heard that some famous ghost detectives from London are currently visiting Oxford— the Dead Boy Detectives?”
“Oh,” John says, furrowing his brow. “You know, I think I have heard some gossip about them over the years… do you think they may be able to help me learn what happened to my Edwin?”
“Better,” Emily grins, “for I learnt their names: Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne.”
Series
- Part 6 of my heart is like a haunted house
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we get to stay around and watch the stars come out by laiqualaurelote
Fandoms: Dead Boy Detectives (TV), Black Doves (TV)
09 May 2025
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Charles Rowland is having a bad day. His wife wants a divorce, his four-year-old daughter keeps biting the other kids for bullying her twin brother, he can't see how it can get worse than this. Then gunmen break into his house, it turns out his wife isn't who he thought she was at all, now he and the kids are on the run with her former best friend, a lethal and unnervingly attractive assassin everyone thought was dead, and, well. They say marriage is hard work, but bloody hell.
A Black Doves AU, written for DBDA Spy March
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They’ve been working their way up to this slowly. As Charles pointed out, they have forever, and, well, Edwin gets overwhelmed. In his defense, he’d existed for almost 130 years without really experiencing lust. It was a lot.
But they’re here now. Edwin is on his back, trembling, on a bed they’d acquired just for this because Charles insisted on doing it right. The trembling is less to do with feeling like his atoms are going to fly apart because surely he wasn’t made to be able to feel this good, and more to do with the fact that Charles has been fingering him for an approximate decade.
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Edwin blinked back tears as he met Charles's eyes. "It occurs to me now that this looks suspiciously like a wedding ring," he managed unsteadily, a question buried underneath the words.
Series
- Part 6 of The Best Part of Eternity
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(black is the colour) of my true love’s hair by ObsessedWithFandom for idliketobeatree, kira84
Fandoms: Dead Boy Detectives (TV)
25 Sep 2024
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Summary
“Edwin,” Charles said, one splendid morning. “D’you notice anything different? About me?”
With his face angled towards the window, Charles was lovingly lit by the morning sun, caught as it was on his forehead and cheeks and chin, limning the straight line of his nose and pooling in the depths of his dark eyes, lingering on his lips as if in a kiss. Beyond the light: the curve of his ear, his rather exquisite jawline, the glint of his earring and necklace, his bare shoulders, lean and strong, the curls of his hair just brushing them –Or: The boys spend a morning in the office; Charles has a lightbulb moment.
Series
- Part 1 of give charles rowland long hair 2kforever
Random bookmarks
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Summary
Five times Charles gave Edwin his jacket and one time Edwin stole it.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 9,988
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 138
- Kudos:
- 1,577
- Bookmarks:
- 431
- Hits:
- 10,050
Bookmarked by Xanoka
14 Sep 2024
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Bookmarker's Notes
Edwin shuts the thought down. If he let himself, his gratitude might unspool and never stop, flooding the room, filling the streets, drowning the city.
They hang on to each other, desperate, fused, and Edwin wishes, not for the first time, that he could absorb every bad thing that’s ever happened to Charles and take it into his own heart, cast it down into his own graveyard and give it a headstone.
Charles sinks down onto his knees, still clinging tight. Pets a hand down the back of Edwin’s head, over and over again, as if Edwin is the one in need of soothing; and, to Edwin’s horror, it starts, instead, to create that need: safe in Charles’ arms, in London, in their home, he feels as if some tiny loose thread of his being catches on Charles’ fingernail. Without much effort at all, first one stitch comes undone—then another. A single tug is enough to silently unravel the entire seam running down the length of his spine.
He gasps as he finds the extra space. His whole self expands, even if just minutely, and it’s enough leeway for the things that Edwin does not think about to come twisting into shape beneath his surface.
His mind is quiet but unsettled. Wind making ripples on the surface.
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Edwin is rendered immortal after a freak accident over a century ago. A very mortal Charles is hopelessly in love with him.
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“For someone who claims not to like thinking,” Edwin says, raising an eyebrow, “you do a remarkably good job of it.”
Charles laughs. “Tell that to my old teachers, mate.”
“If they disagree, then they can’t be very qualified.” Edwin says this simply, like it’s just a fact of life. Like it’s plainly obvious that if anyone thinks Charles is stupid, it’s they who are at fault.
Or: Charles grew up poor and is likely to stay that away, his job at the magic store notwithstanding. By the time he meets Edwin, he's decided that he wants a new life. In between figuring out what's up with the mysterious wish-granting pigeons, and whether he can go to the Royal Ball, Edwin makes him want to take a chance on being happy as well.
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Summary
Edwin thought his whole life that his soulmate would be in danger when they first met. It turns out he couldn’t be more wrong.
Or: A Soulmate AU where the first sentence your soulmate says to you is tattooed on your arm.
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The Case of the Antisocial Anime Aficionados by RoseGanymede95
Fandoms: Dead Boy Detectives (TV)
15 Sep 2025
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Summary
Melanie stared down at her fine leather handbag. “I don’t want him to do something stupid. Like find a way to hurt himself. Or… maybe hurt someone else.”
Ah. Edwin leaned forward on the desk, steepling his fingers. “I see,” he said. “In that case, you are not only looking for our help as investigators. You are also potentially in need of bounty hunters.”
“Of course not!” Melanie exclaimed, bristling. “I’m not asking you to kidnap him at gunpoint! I just want you to find my stupid little brother before he cocks up something serious!”
Edwin shrugged. “Semantics,” he said simply.
The boys take on a case that will be very easy to solve. It will definitely not bring about any unexpected complications or zany hijinks.
Series
Bookmarked by Xanoka
02 Sep 2025
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Bookmarker's Notes
Melanie stared at Charles like he was the messiah, offering her personal salvation. Edwin could sympathize. He, himself, looked at Charles that way rather often.
Charles’ intake of breath was too subtle for anyone else to notice, but Edwin heard it, and the sound made his heart ache.
Edwin extended his hand to accept the pen. “This,” he said. “Is a worthy bounty. We’ll take your case.”
The bashful way Charles ducked his head when Edwin handed him the pen was worth hours of grueling casework.Charles cleared his throat, having now exhausted his capacity to accept praise.
Charles, squinting down at a folding map of London, grunted his agreement. “Don’t look at me. If I had a little brother I’d be a fair bit more careful with him.”
What a dangerous thought that was. Charles was overprotective of Edwin, his equal, to such an extent that it was a well-known hazard among London’s ghosts. Anybody who had ever heard of the Dead Boy Detectives knew not to try and separate them, lest they face Charles’ wrath. If he had a younger sibling, someone he was responsible for—good Lord. Europe would never know a day of peace until Charles had personally removed all plausible threats west of France.
“It might be for the best that you’re an only child,” Edwin reflected. “If your younger sibling had gone missing, I expect you’d have torn the city to pieces by now.”“He wouldn’t have gone missing in the first place,” said Charles firmly.
Edwin quite liked ducks. He admired how gracefully they glided across the water, and how eagerly they attacked anyone foolish enough to disturb them.
A smile tugged at Edwin’s lips. He never grew tired of these glimpses into how Charles saw the world. Edwin had spent his years building an encyclopedic knowledge of how things worked: the chemistry and physics of the material plane, the laws of magic, the underlying logic of how buildings and machines were constructed. Charles, on the other hand, had been honing an ever-deepening sense of why things happened the way they did. He saw the motives behind every careless action, functions for every item in his pack, possibilities for connection in every empty space.
“You’re right,” Edwin agreed with mock seriousness. “Young people these days will never know the simple pleasure of being murdered without first considering whether the lighting is ideal.”
Charles hadn’t even looked down before stepping through the reflection Edwin conjured for him. For all he knew, Edwin could have been sending him straight to a Siberian prison. The absolute trust his partner placed in him was as precious as it was humbling.
With the exception of Charles, he’d never quite learned how to relate to other young men, and girls remained mysterious.