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Who was the most compelling VILLAIN you've ever come across and why
Keri wrote: "I like Kyle Craig from the Cross series. You never know what he will do and how he manages to stay alive!" I love his character too Keri, have you read Cross Fire, fantastic book if you have followed the series.!!
Jeanie wrote: "Diane wrote: "My new favorite (well not new but) is Preacher Jack from 
. He is a psychopath with his own code of honor. He is scary because he seems to have n..."Love all the authors you mentioned but I have to admit I have quit reading Cornwell.
Diane wrote: "Love all the authors you mentioned but I have to admit I have quit reading Cornwell. I need to do that, too, Diane. There's simply too many fantastic books out there for me to feel compelled to buy and read those that are substandard...even if they're written by an author I once truly enjoyed.
I did not like this book,Feast Day Of Foolsbut I must say that James Lee Burke is one of my favorite authors. Yes Preacher Jack is anintriguing story, good and evil played out on the
Tex-Mex border, but it just didn't DO it for me.
JLB is an interesting guy. He lives where I do in Montana and speaks at our annual Festival of the Book in October. He seems to always do a reading for us. Listening to him read his work is an amazing experience. I wish he would do his own audio books.
Randall Flagg - Stephen King's The Stand. Creepy, charismatic, cold and cruel.
Jim wrote: "JLB is an interesting guy. He lives where I do in Montana and speaks at our annual Festival of the Book in October. He seems to always do a reading for us. Listening to him read his work is an amaz..."That would be pretty kewl, Jim, but would he do as good of a job as Will Patton?
Oh, and just so you know, I'm major league jealous that you've seen JLB in person. (laughing) No one ever comes here. Even most Southern writers don't make stops in the Nashville area unless they, themselves, are from Nashville. (sigh) You'd think all any of us do is sit around on the front porch drinking JD and picking our teeth and our banjos.
Timothy wrote: "Randall Flagg - Stephen King's The Stand. Creepy, charismatic, cold and cruel."Can't get much creepier than Flagg. I'm fairly sure I lost more sleep over him than even Hannibal Lecter. Maybe it was my Baptist upbringing that made the idea of Satan in the form of a man more likely to freak me out. Dunno. (laughing) Both, though, are extremely well-written.
One of the most terrifying villains that I think I've ever encountered in modern literature...was Melanie Fuller from Dan Simmons' excellent novel, Carrion Comfort. I don't want to give anything away...but she both revolted and fascinated me at the same time, her every action seeming to escalate from one horrifying thing to another with such casual and instinctive ease...kept me on the edge of my seat as I read through each of her chapters.
"Nashville Cats" Jeanie. JD is good. Porches are excellent. As long as you bring your book.
Acheron Hades, from the The Eyre Affair and later his sister (i think?) in later Thursday Next books.
Eleanor in The Manchurian Candiadate is pretty damn good as the Evil One. Hard to believe that in the book she was even more evil than Angela Lansbury who played her part in the movie. Great characters.
I have just finished
and I want to mention that Dr. Bekker would make a good nominee for a villain, (I don't know if I would call him compelling) but he sure was original in having a collection of eyelids!!!!!!!!! Can you guess why????????The book really wasn't too original. Really wasn't a good detective story.
Lector. I liked how he seemed to toy with the protagonists kind of like a cat with a mouse.
The "Bird" Wantanabe from "Unbroken" by Laura Hildebrand. What makes him the most compelling villian I've ever read is that he was a real person, an incredibly evil monster.
The most compelling villian I still think about is the villian in Michael Slade's bookHeadhunter. I can't say who that villian is, as that is the big mystery, but well worth the read, as are all of Slade's books.
I have a new one to add to my "extremely creepy bad guy" list: Dali, from Abandoned. The novel isn't really such a great addition to the series, but, EGADS, the villain's creepy factor is off the charts!
You guys pretty much covered my favorites:Hannibal Lector
Anton Chigurh
Wyatt Dixon
Preacher Jack
The first, for obvious reasons, the other three for their apocalyptic, philosophical brand of psychopathy. They're almost biblical; the four horsemen meets Shakespeare. Gotta love that.
Karendenice wrote: "Sharon, that was a good evil woman."I have to say, I liked Clara Rinker, and to a lesser extent, the Butcher's Boy. In fact, I found myself rooting for Clara near the end of the second book she was in. Of course, I'm a huge John Sandford fan.
Kathleen wrote: "Jim wrote: "Compelling villain? How 'bout Blue Duck?"Yes! Absolutely the most ruthless villain I have encountered in my reading."
I have been reading some of these posts, and thinking 'who would I vote for as the worst villain' and as soon as I saw Jim's post, I knew it was the right answer. Blue Duck was one of the best "worst" characters ever.
Jim wrote: "Compelling villain? How 'bout Blue Duck?"What book was Blue Duck in?
Donna wrote: "Jim wrote: "Compelling villain? How 'bout Blue Duck?"What book was Blue Duck in?"
Lonesome dove.
Jared wrote: "Lector. I liked how he seemed to toy with the protagonists kind of like a cat with a mouse."The brilliant cannibal gets my vote as well.
Jim wrote: "Eleanor in The Manchurian Candiadate is pretty damn good as the Evil One. Hard to believe that in the book she was even more evil than Angela Lansbury who played her part in the movie. Great char..."In reading all the posts with incredibly evil & nasty villains, the only 1 that I could come up with was the evil mom in
The Manchurian Candidate. I couldn't recall the name of the character since it has been so long since I read the book so I had planned to switch over to Wikipedia to search for the name. The story was very well done and her wickedness was the key to the story.
Yup, Hannibal was my first thought, too. One really creepy man.
Gretchen Lowell from Chelsea Cain's series.
Livia in I Claudius. "I want to be a goddess, Claudius."
Denise, by mentioning the Shadow of the Wind, you reminded me of Andreas Corelli from The Angel's Game. He is far more frightening than my first thought which was Hannibal.
Denise, I hated the Angel's game. But Andreas Corelli was terrifying. The Shadow of the Wind is one of my favorite books.
I'd suggest Samuel Whiskers, the blandly evil rat in the eponymous tale of...by Beatrix Potter. She is the unsung mistress of menace (see also The Tale of Mr Todd).
Denise wrote: "Francisco Javier Fumero from The Shadow of the Wind."Denise,
is wonderful and one of my favoite books. Loved it when Daniel? (it has been at least 3 yrs since I've read it)went into the library of forgotten books. Wasn't that a great thought??????????
Georgia wrote: "Denise wrote: "Francisco Javier Fumero from The Shadow of the Wind."Denise,
is wonderful and one of my favoite books. Loved it when Daniel? (it has been at lea...""Click" : like button pushed.
OH I had forgotten Livia In I Claudius. She could do it for me.Also the captor in Room
What was that dear woman's name who 'hosted' and 'nursed' the writer in Misery? She was a ray of sunshine, wasn't she?
That would be Annie Wilkes.
How about the sheriff in Pop. 1280, your typical average everyman who is liked by everyone but inside is actually a seething psychotic murderer? The great thing about Jim Thompson's villains is that they are often the main protagonists in many of his novels, thereby dispensing with the tired hero concept. In Thompson's world, the villain does not need to be vanquished by a better man, he simply does himself in. More true to life than the Hannibal Lectors who are brilliant and then fail in the face of goodness, which is rather goofy. I also very much like Long John Silver in Treasure Island, a most ambiguous villain. I love the fact that he gets away with it, that he is a cruel man, but with charm, grace and more charisma than all the do-gooders in the book put together. Everyone in Treasure Island, except for the boy Jim hawkins and Silver is replaceable. Nothing's more boring than literary comeuppance. The villain is the hero. Patricia Highsmith's Ripley is another sterling example of a great villain who gets his cake and eats it and runs circles round his pursuers. Let's celebrate the villains who triumph over good!
Kyle Craig, James Patterson Alex Cross novels, he's a supposed to be a good guy working with the FBI but is actually truely wicked!!
Tom what a great post, I now have to look up Jim Thompson a new author to me!!
Thanks, Donna, Thompson's best work is from the 1950s. You might want to start with Pop.1280 and The Grifters (also a decent film).
Tom wrote: "How about the sheriff in Pop. 1280, your typical average everyman who is liked by everyone but inside is actually a seething psychotic murderer? The great thing about Jim Thompson's villains is tha..."Was that Pop. 1280? Or The Killer Inside Me? Where the Sheriff is actually this psychotic killer (and by the way, there's no spoilers, it's a given from the first page, if memory serves)?
Anthony, the sheriff in both novels are psychos, though readers only find out gradually just how sick these guys are. One is gradually introduced to the true inner horrors of these men and just when one thinks they can't get any worse....they do. The Killer Inside Me was recently made into a movie by Michael Winterbottom with Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba. It has a few extremely violent scenes (violence against women) and received mixed reviews. It's interesting in an academic sense that pin-up girl Alba gets physically deconstructed by Affleck's psycho cop, not least because it is a deconstruction of Hollywood as well, but it's not pretty to watch and might add to all the other mysoginist trash coming with American movies. Lots of people complained. That's not to say Winterbottom (who is British) shouldn't do it his way, it's an opinion on how to bring a novel to the screen. For me, Thompson works better on the page.
Tom wrote: "Anthony, the sheriff in both novels are psychos, though readers only find out gradually just how sick these guys are. One is gradually introduced to the true inner horrors of these men and just whe..."Oh, i didn't realize. I had only read The Killer Inside Me...gosh it was years ago. Yes, I heard they had made a film of it, but never got around to watching it. Thanks for the clarification.
Regarding the movies...I actually really loved the movie version of The Grifters. I thought it was really well done. But the book was fantastic. I enjoyed them both, actually. I also really like the movie version of After Dark My Sweet. But that was years ago.
Maybe I'll check out The Killer Inside Me movie. It says it stars Casey Afleck, who was fantastic in Gone Baby Gone.
Yes, The Grifters was good. Never seen After Dark My Sweet, will check it out, thanks.
Charlotte (Buried in Books) wrote: "That would be Annie Wilkes."A-ha. Thanks, Charlotte. There's one for the nightmares.
Jim Thompson Film Adaptations:=============================
The Killer Inside Me - Have not seen it
After Dark, My Sweet - Fantastic film
The Grifters - Fantastic film
The Getaway - Two films, both good (even though Thompson's ending was changed)
And then there's Jim Thompson's Hollywood stint, where he wrote or co-wrote screenplays (with Stanley Kubrick) for 1956 noir heist movie The Killing and Paths of Glory - though he didn't get credited properly for his work. The Killing's still worth watching.
Dexter - he is a truly unique creature; he carries a dark passenger yet he has a moral conscience.
Rick wrote: "I found Red Dragon scarier than Silence of the Lambs!"Same here!
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I enjoyed that villain, as well. So many of Burke's evildoers are compelling and memorable. Though his writing style is completely different from that of James Lee Burke, Carl Hiaasen's bad guys are difficult to forget. Not so much for their evil value, but for their eccentric originality! Melki mentioned "Chemo" in an earlier post from Skin Tight, but my favorite from his novels is "Tool", the big, hairy lug who collected roadside crosses and was addicted to Fentanyl patches from Skinny Dip. I liked the suggestions of Clara Rinker and Kyle Craig, as well. Also, for your consideration, Robert Backus from The Poet and The Narrows by Michael Connelly and Le Loup Garou from Patricia Cornwell's Black Notice.