Alatriste
Hello,
Brenton is right about the identity of the figure. He's a veteran of the Tercios, more of an adventurer/mercenary, than a detective, although he does get involved in some mistery plots. I, for one, enyoyed the books.
Last year a film, "Alatriste", was released, based on the books, starring Viggo Mortensen. It was a fairly good historical film, although in my opinion they should not have tried to compress so much book material (they adapted the first five books in the series, no less!) in a single film.
Regards,
Dani