Who is your favorite recurrent character in today's popular fiction?

[11 Bravo]

I've got many, among them: Robert Crais's Elvis Cole, Robert Tannebaum's Butch Karp, Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware, Robert B. Parker's Spenser, Parker's Jesse Stone, Carl Hiassen's Skink, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, and James Patterson's Alex Cross. But I don't see anyone out there right now as good as John Sandford's Lucas Davenport. Your thoughts?

[terrya]

1. Alex Delaware is my favorite. I used to like Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt...

but I got a bit tired of him and that series.

[11 Bravo]

2. I only read one Dirk Pitt, but he never grabbed me.

Alex Delaware, on the other hand, is a GREAT character.

[yellowdogintexas]

3. Alex Delaware, Alex Cross, Skink, Stephanie Plum,

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone, Kay Scarpetta,
Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme

LeStat

not really popular fiction, but excellent none the less.
Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Crawford and Nicolas (two separate historical series)

Father Cadfyle

[HeyManThatsCool]

8. Alex Delaware &

Alex Cross, Kinsey Millhone, Eve Dallas, Kathy Mallory

[youngdem]

19. I love Kathy Mallory:)

[HeyManThatsCool]

24. I dont think alot of people know about her, sadly

but Carol O'Connell is a great writer!

[youngdem]

26. It is sad.

Another good writer who I discovered through a friend, (not a series writer, and he is dead) is Milan Kundera, "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" is great.

[11 Bravo]

11. Thanks! I neglected to include Scarpetta and Rhyme.

Two more faves! (Yeah, I've got a whole room full of so-called "summer reading".)

[Nay]

4. I love Lucas Davenport, too. Try John D. MacDonald's Travis

McGee (they are older books, but Travis is da bomb, the precursor of a lot of the heroes of today's novels).

A new favorite of mine is Lee Child's Jack Reacher. If you decide to check out this series, make sure to read them in order for the most enjoyment. There are 6 novels out, I think.

And don't forget the Repairman Jack novels by --oh shit--a guy named Wilson?

[11 Bravo]

5. Travis is one of my all time favorites, but

since John D. McDonald has passed, I couldn't include McGee in the "current" category.

[Nay]

9. True. He's been dead a while. I used to live a few miles from his

house on Siesta Key. Never met him, though.

[ffm172]

6. Ian Rankin's JohnRebus

[Lars39]

7. Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody

Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell.
I like all you've listed, too. :)

I read Barbara Michael's/Elizabeth Peters' entire body of work
this winter.
She has been such an amazing voice for women's rights throughout the years.

[Nay]

10. I forgot to mention Arkady Renko novels by Martin Cruz Smith.

I didn't like the newest one, Wolves Eat Dogs, very much however.

[TN al]

17. Arkady Renko is the first one to come to my mind...

...but I would also include Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn from Tony Hillerman.

[Flaxbee]

12. I often think of Skink. He's cool.

I also love Horace Rumpole, but he's not really current anymore, I don't know how much John Mortimer is writing about him these days. I also like Richard Jury and Melrose Plant from Martha Grimes' mysteries, though the quality of the stories has gone down, the characters are still fun to "visit" with after all these years.

I like Tempe Brennan from Kathy Reichs' mysteries.

I like the type of female character in Barbara Pym's books, usually a 30ish woman in post WWII Britain on her own, very observant and witty and smart.

And, though I am tired of the series, I like Kinsey Milhone from Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" mysteries, and I love her landlord, whose name has temporarily escaped me.

I just finished "The Bean Trees" by Barbara Kingsolver and have ordered "Pigs in Heaven" b/c it features the same characters from "The Bean Trees" - Taylor Greer, her mother and her daughter, Turtle.

I'm sure there are more.

[elfin]

13. Stephanie Plum

and Joe Morelli and "Ranger" in the Janet Evanovich books.

[Bunny]

14. I like Peter Decker , from Faye Kellerman.

I like reading about the Orthodox Judaism aspect of his life.

[yellowdogintexas]

23. I am reading "Stalker" right now, first one of her books that I have

read. Focus is on Decker's older daughter but I am learning about Peter too. Now I want to read more of them

[Nikia]

15. Adam Dalgliesh

In the PD James murder mysteries.

[amazona]

16. I hate to say it but...

I'm tired of recurrent characters. I wish writers would make up a new character every time they write a book or go away. But I do like Skink, we'll call him the exception that proves the rule.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[youngdem]

18. Michael Connely's "Harry Bosch"

[Left Is Write]

20. I *love* Alex Cross. Unfortunately,

I am not a Morgan Freeman fan, so I have not seen any movies based on Alex Cross novels.

[since72]

21. Recurring character

Sir Harry Flashman K.B. O.B.E.

[yellowdogintexas]

22. Morgan Freeman is too old to be Alex Cross anyway. I have

always seen him as more of Danny Glover's or Denzel's age. It really bugged me when Morgan Freeman was cast as Alex Cross because of this.

[HeyManThatsCool]

25. Yeah. Morgan Freeman is SO NOT Alex Cross