Monday, June 20, 2011

Who Is It ?

Of the millions of novels on the market today, it's amazing how we become attached to certain characters. Characters we look forward to reading about book after book. Characters who remain timeless.

Who are your all-time favorite fictional characters and why? I mean other than Agatha Christie's, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, Sherlock Holmes. They are everyone's favorite characters. If they aren't yours, than I, and I'm sure millions of other readers, would love to know why.

Other than Poirot, Marple and Holmes, my favorite fictional characters are a toss up between Elizabeth George's, Inspector Thomas Lynley, and Carol O'Connell's, Detective Kathleen Mallory.

Let's start with Lynley. Extremely rich, intelligent, handsome, and fit, Thomas' disposition reminds me of that of Sherlock Holmes. Like Sherlock, Thomas is impatient, demanding, and often dismissive of others. However, as you get to know Thomas you fall in love with his vulnerability. He is insecure about his wealth, and has a partner who couldn't be more opposite of him if she tried. Short, fat, ugly and unable to work with any other officer, one would think Barbara Havers and Lynley wouldn't last a day. Thomas gave her a chance and it worked. Still, she refuses, while remaining respectful, to accept any of his impertinence. Lynley respects her for that and for her intelligence, and finds he doesn't want to work with anyone else. Opposite as night and day, these two make an amazing team and a great reading adventure.

Next is Carol O'Connell's main character. The abandoned little girl, Kathleen Mallory who grew up on the streets. She is taken in by a loving family only to later lose them. Her adoptive father is a cop and he and his loving and gentle wife raise Kathleen who grows up to become a cop herself. Through each novel, the author reveals a bit of Mallory's tragic past helping the reader, and Mallory, understand how she became abandoned at such a young age, forced to live years of her young life on the seedy streets of town, and how she survived that life.

Because of both characters, the novels are gripping and full of edge-of-the-seat suspense. I'm anxious to learn of your favorite characters.

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