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Endearing fictional characters NOT COMIC BASED
TheEdge949
Member Posts: 5,686
What is it about a really good fictional character than gets us eager for more? Whatever it is, it keeps us buying the books and eagerly waiting for new releases.
Here's my top choices and the authors who created them.
Jack Reacher - Lee Child
Harry Bosch - Michael Connelly
Dan Sheppard - Stephen Leather
Lincoln Rhyme - Jeffery Deaver
Michael Haller - Michael Connelly
Viktor - Tom Wood (Tom Hinshelwood in early copies)
Alex Cross - James Patterson.
Rebus - Ian Rankin
These are here on account of the fact that they are the main character in at least 6 Novels.
Other authors such as Harlan Coben, David Baldacci and Robert Crais have created memorable characters but for me they don't qualify as endearing, however feel free to disagree and post your candidates.
Here's my top choices and the authors who created them.
Jack Reacher - Lee Child
Harry Bosch - Michael Connelly
Dan Sheppard - Stephen Leather
Lincoln Rhyme - Jeffery Deaver
Michael Haller - Michael Connelly
Viktor - Tom Wood (Tom Hinshelwood in early copies)
Alex Cross - James Patterson.
Rebus - Ian Rankin
These are here on account of the fact that they are the main character in at least 6 Novels.
Other authors such as Harlan Coben, David Baldacci and Robert Crais have created memorable characters but for me they don't qualify as endearing, however feel free to disagree and post your candidates.
Comments
I have read all the Bosch, Rebus, and Haller books, and most of the Reachers.
Others I would add,
Harry Hole Jo Nesbo
William Wisting Jorn Lier Horst
Cormoran Strike Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling 6th book due out in August)
D C Smith Peter Grainger.
DCI Banks Peter Robinson.
Roy Grace Peter James.
Walt Longmire Craig Johnson.
Jimmy Perez Ann Cleeves.
Jackson Brodie Kate Atkinson.
Karen Pirie Val McDermid.
Bob Skinner Quintin Jardine.
Martin Beck Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö
Rebus - even though he's a polis I can't help but find him endearing, a grumpy Fifer who likes a **** and a drink just like me, even supports same wee football team I do.
Nick Stone - Andy McNab Probably my favourite series of books.
Pick any two audiobooks with your 30-day free trial.
https://www.audible.co.uk/
Renée Ballard. (3)
Jack McEvoy. (3)
I have got a couple more.
Raylan Givens Elmore Leonard (tv series Justified)
Vic Mackey Kurt Sutter (The Shield)
Criminal heroes! Seven of the best
https://crimefictionlover.com/2012/04/criminal-heroes/
Top 10 female detectives in fiction
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/26/top-10-female-detectives-in-fiction
Audible is quite handy as you can just stick them in your wish list, and have a proper look later.
Bosch is consistently brilliant. Just behind that, for me, includes:-
Cormoran Strike
Harry Hole
Roy Grace
DCI Banks
Some started great, and the earlier books stand comparison, but later books do not:-
Reacher
Alex Cross
To add some that I think are extremely good:-
Kinsey Millhone-Sue Grafton's Alphabet series (may be on TV soon)
Hamish McBeth-MC Beaton
King & Maxwell-David Baldacci
Summary
The case was closed. The records were sealed. But they haven't forgotten.
Detective Eira Sjödin is just old enough to remember the summer when 16-year-old Lina Stavred went missing. Her entire community was haunted by the disappearance - especially when Olof Hagström, just 14 himself, confessed to her murder.
That was two decades ago. No one in their small rural community has seen or heard from him since, but the spectre of his crime lingers in the forests around the town.
But now Olof is back, and he stands accused of another brutal crime. Eira will have to untangle years of well-kept secrets to get to the truth...because in Ådalen, where Eira knows everyone, nothing is what it seems.
Winner of Best Swedish Crime Novel 2020 and The Glass Key Award for Nordic Crime Fiction 2020, We Know You Remember is a brilliantly atmospheric police procedural guaranteed to keep you guessing to the end.
Summary
Shots fired on Bitter Wash Road....
Hirsch is a whistle-blower. Formerly a promising metropolitan officer, now hated and despised. Exiled to a one-cop station in South Australia’s wheatbelt. Threats. Pistol cartridge in the mailbox.
So when he heads up Bitter Wash Road to investigate gunfire and finds himself cut off without backup, there are two possibilities. Either he’s found the fugitive killers thought to be in the area - or his ‘backup’ is about to put a bullet in him.
He’s wrong on both counts. But the events that unfold turn out to be a lot more sinister.
Summary
The first book in the acclaimed Wyatt series, by one of Australia’s most revered crime writers.
Wyatt robs banks and payroll vans. Most men like him are dead or in jail, but Wyatt stamps a cold, pitiless style on his heists and has never been caught. Now his funds are low and his luck is running out - until the day Anna Reid explains about the kickback in her partner’s safe.
But other players are involved. In Wyatt’s world, there is no yielding, no redemption, and when he’s crossed, the outcome is inevitable.
I read this the other day.
Summary
Detective Alan Auhl does things his own way - and gets results. He works cold cases now. Like the death of John Elphick - his daughters are still convinced he was murdered, the coroner not so sure. Or the skeleton that’s just been found under a concrete slab. Or the doctor who killed two wives and a girlfriend and left no evidence at all....
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
The gripping new Jack Reacher thriller from the number one best-selling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child.
Gerrardsville, Colorado. One tragic event. Two witnesses. Two conflicting accounts. One witness sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus - clearly suicide. The other witness is Jack Reacher. And he sees what really happened - a man in grey hoodie and jeans, swift and silent as a shadow, pushed the victim to her death, before grabbing her bag and sauntering away.
Reacher follows the killer on foot, not knowing that this was no random act of violence. It is part of something much bigger...a sinister, secret conspiracy, with powerful people on the take, enmeshed in an elaborate plot that leaves no room for error. If any step is compromised, the threat will have to be quickly and permanently removed.
But when the threat is Reacher, there is no plan B...
Dragon Man
Peninsula Crime, Book 1
By: Garry Disher
Narrated by: Colin McPhillamy
Series: Hal Challis, Book 1
Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 01-06-18
Summary
Summer on the Peninsula.
The heat’s ramping up, the usual holiday madness building. D.I. Hal Challis is already recycling his shower water and starting to dread Christmas. But this year there’s something more. Women abducted and murdered on the Old Highway. A pall of fear over the scorched paddocks. The media are demanding answers - and Challis’s sleepy beat is set to explode.
A solid story could well tempt me to invest in a good yarn.
I just looked back in my Audible library.
I kept reading them until I returned Blue Moon.
This is number 24 in the series, the new one is number 27.
Audible allow you to return books you are not happy with, and get a free replacement.
I sent Blue Moon back because it was shocking.