"My name is Detective Bell"- Mangling the English Language

The above quote is a line out of "The Vanished Man," a Lincoln Rhyme mystery by Jeffrey Deaver. Leaving alone numerous issues about internal consistency of a story as well as the laws of averages, that rather contradict the likelyhood of any number of events in the story happening as they do, never even mind the WAY too obvious plot, what really annoys me is the sloppy use of language - and the lack of correction by his, obviously asleep at his or her desk, editor - by a New York Times top ten fiction list author.

In case of the example above, either "I am Detective Bell" or "My name is Roland Bell" would have worked; however, "My name is Detective Bell" does not, as detective is not a name but a title. That probably will be called minor stuff by most people, especially since it seems that now in the USA phonetic spelling and non standard abbreviations - 'cuz instead of because, for example - and on chat and the internet all grammar and spelling rules have been abandoned by a large number of users, but I personally would expect adherence to common standards from a published author, his editor, and for that matter reviewers who don't seem to pick up on such errors anymore.

Deaver isn't the only offender, and it will probably not be the last time I'll be complaining about something like that, but to me "language as a living entity" simply isn't any excuse for sloppiness.

Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!