Why Inspector Lestrade?

I have been asked why I chose to make my protagonist a descendant of Inspector Lestrade. After all, next to Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Professor Moriarty, and Irene Adler, Lestrade is pretty bland--which is exactly why I wanted to probe further.

I am very interested in minor characters: the clerk who sells the protagonist a shirt, the hotdog vendor on the street when the protagonist walks by, the deceased aunt who raised the protagonist, etc. Sure, they have bit parts in this particular story, but in others they might be the stars. More than that, their lives might affect this protagonist more than we know. But even if they don't, there's probably something fascinating about them. We have only to look.

That's how I feel about Lestrade, a supporting character no one likes. Sure, he's a foil, but if we look a little further, I think we'll find that he's much more than that. That's why I decided to create a legacy for him--so I could explore the influence of someone who is famous only by association.