Lou Ford, Jim Thompson's anti hero of Wild Town and The Killer Inside Me is certainly the most interesting, realistic, and complex.
Patricia Highsmith's Thomas Ripley, the world's most successful, unrepentant murderer, from The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Underground, Ripley's Game (to name the best) and several others, is captivating.
And John Buchan's Richard Hannay of The 39 Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, and The Three Hostages was the original resourceful wildman, the human chamelion, able to fool his adversaries to their faces.
Patrick King
--- On Sat, 8/1/09, Chuck Emerson <chuckelp@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
From: Chuck Emerson <chuckelp@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: RARA-AVIS: greatest noir or detective protags
To: "Rara-Avis" <rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Saturday, August 1, 2009, 1:15 PM
It's Saturday.
Thought I'd ask those with a moment to list their three favorite noir
characters in a recurring role, preferably the protag. And I'm assuming
that he is flawed.
A detective / cop would be okay. The recurring aspect is the important one.
Thanks.
Chuck
near Houston
whose mind can get much past Jack Reacher today.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 02 Aug 2009 EDT