Captain Vimes

The main character throughout the 'City Watch' series of Discworld books, Captain Vimes is the hard-boiled, frowning, practical, and cynical leader of the Night Watch for the city of Ankh-Morpork. During the course of the events in the novel of 'Men At Arms' we find Captain Vimes finally approaching the spectre of retirement as he is about to marry Sybil Ramkin, one of the wealthiest women of the old noble families of the region. This prospect of giving up the job that he grew up in, and loves so much causes a crisis for the character, as he tries desperately to solve the biggest case he has had to deal with so far, whilst wondering how he is going to live with himself when he becomes one of the 'landed gentry'.

The character of Captain Vimes is heavily based on the detective noir stereotypes of Sam Spade...