One of my favorite series is "Broadway Is My Beat". It's about a homicide detective. The writing is colorful and often poetic, in a hard-boiled-cop kind of way. I prefer Larry Thor as Danny Clover (the main character) over Anthony Ross, who played that role in the first 3 months of the series.
Danny Clover himself is a hometown boy, tough in speech and action, with a quick mind and quick fists. Underneath it all lies the heart of a poet.
It's generally not a good series for figuring out "whodunit" before the detective reveals it, but the characters are engaging, and their relationships to one another are often amusing. Sgt. Gino Tartaglia (played by Charles Calvert) has an ongoing rivalry with Sgt. Muggavan (later Det. Muggavan, played by Jack Kruschen). Tartaglia is my favorite character in the series.
You can find episodes, free to listen or download, on many websites. One example: https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Broadway_Is_My_Beat_Singles
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