This wasn't easy. I didn't realize how many books containing
of these characters I had read Removing characters I as
unfamiliar with was simple, as was removing characters I
didn't think belonged. Getting down to forty wasn't too bad,
but then I had to remove some I thought were worthy. I had to
leave out a lot of my favorites As some others have written,
if I chose tomorrow the a lot of the twenty might be
different.
I tried to include supporting as well as main characters and
at least one from the 20's as through 2000.
Grofield - Donald Westlake is one of my favorite authors.
Grofield is the link between his comic characters and his
more serious ones. Grofield is is a supporting character as
well as main one. Artie Wu & Quincy Durant. I like Ross
Thomas and caper novels. I think these two are his best.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy - Maybe the model for all femme fatales
in hard boiled. Elvis Cole - Started off very much Spenser
but has developed past that. Hawk- I actually would have
liked to put the early Hawk if I could. He may not have been
the first, but I think he was the most influential of
the
'psycho sidekicks' Hoke Mosely - A real person. What other
hard boiled character had concerns like his teeth or taking
care of his daughters? Jack Liffey - Rarely able to control
his life let alone the environment, he's an uncertain
character in an uncertain world. Jack Wild - I probably would
have forgotten to nominate him if miker hadn't mentioned him.
He also appears in Devil To Pay under another name. His life
is clearly is a fictionalized autobiography of someone who
managed to climb out of the depths of poverty to become an
author. Jane Whitfield. A well drawn half Native American who
helps people to disappear. Cuddy - He has remained a grieving
middle class Irish widower who is a caring private eye. Lew
Archer - Maybe not as tough as Spade, but he's tough enough.
I recommended reading him to a child psychologist I know.
Matt Helm - A better realized secret agent than James Bond
without the glamor. Michael Schaefer - Another Perry
character. He had no name in the first book, the Edgar Award
winning Butcher Boy. He is a tougher hitman than Keller. Neil
Fargo - SF private eye who Jim Doherty described as Gores'
Sam Spade. Nick Stefanos - Fully realized part time PI and
bartender who is knowingly is drinking himself to death.
Parker the ultimate thief Philip Marlowe - The father of many
of the popular PIs of today such as Spenser and Elvis Cole
Continental Op - The father of the rest. Tres Navarre- A
PI/martial expert who moved back to his home, San Antonio. He
provides a twist on the established PI traditions.
Wyatt - An Australian, more human version of
Richad Stark's Parker.
1 - 3. Alan Grofield (Parker & Grofield series, Richard
Stark)
2 -11. Artie Wu & Quincy Durant (series, Ross
Thomas) 3 - 28. Brigid O'Shaughnessy (THE MALTESE FALCON,
Dashiell Hammett) 4 - 82. Elvis Cole (series, Robert Crais 5
- 112. Hawk (Spenser series, Robert Parker) 6 - 113. Hoke
Moseley (series, Charles Willeford) 7 - 121. Jack Liffey
(series, John Shannon) 8 - 124. Jack Wild (GARDEN OF SAND AND
TATTOO, Earl Thompson) 9 - 128. Jane Whitfield (series, Tom
Perry) 10 - 138. John Francis Cuddy (Cuddy series, Jeremiah
Healy) 11 - 152. Lew Archer (series, Ross Macdonald)
12 - 170. Matt Helm (series, Donald Hamilton)
13 - 179. Michael Schaefer (SLEEPING DOGS and THE
BUTCHER BOY, Thomas Perrry)
14 - 197. Neil Fargo (Interface + short stories, Joe
Gores)
15 - 202. Nick Stefanos (series, George
Pelecanos)
16 - 205. Parker (series, Richard Stark)
17 - 212. Philip Marlowe (series, Raymond
Chandler)
18 - 253. The Continental Op (series, Dashiell Hammett)
19 - 262. Tres Navarre (series, Rick Riordan) 20 - 272. Wyatt
(series, Garry Disher)
Mark
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