books with protagonists who are Anti-Heroes. Partly or wholly evil or bad. Dark anti-heroes. Murders or crimes in their background.

[Gini]

I am currantly reading As Meat loves Salt and I'm in love with somewhat or wholly evil main characters as I find them fascinating. Looking for books about murderers or other crimes in their background. No animal cruelty though please. I wanted to read "The Wasp Factory" but couldn't because he kills animals and I'm a huge animal lover. But other than cruelty to them I am looking for really dark main characters. Thanks in advance! Oh and mostly adult titles if I can get them.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

American Psycho
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

[Michelle]

Have you read any of The Immortals After Dark series? Great series and I think the most recent book Lothaire fits your needs. It is paranormal romance

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

The Dark Griffin

[Lbaker]

Try Carol O'connell's Mallory series - not many psychopath heroines, and she's been around since before Dexter!

[Kate]

I was going to suggest Mallory -- the first book is Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell -- definitely a psychopath.

And I was going to suggest Dexter -- a book series before it was a television series -- the first book is Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.

Another series with a criminal is the Burglar series. Again, the first book is Burglars Can't Be Choosers by Lawrence Block. This is more light-hearted than the first two, and it may be hard to cast Bernie as an anti-hero.

[Gini]

I've read the first Dexter book and I've read all the Immortal after dark series and Lothaire is my favorite! But I haven't read American Physcho or The dark Griffin, or Mallory series, so thank you and keep em coming, lol. Oh and I read Perfume and loved it!

[Valerie]

If you like crime thrillers, Ruth Rendell is always good. Also when she writes as Barbara Vine she is usually writing dark, psychopath-type characters.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Glamorama; like American Psycho, it is very dark.

[Yue]

If you like manga, you could try Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom

[Gini]

Thank you all so much and Rhinna I just bought "The Way of Shadows and can't wait to start reading it! I haven't read any manga but am open to trying some.

[Anna]

Hehe I suggested As Meat Loves Salt to you just few minutes ago in another tread.

I love Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom both main characters, Light and L, are not very nice people.

Few anti-heroes that comes to my mind-

The Collector
Sunglasses After Dark
Death Note: Another Note

[Pamela]

Tim Dorsey's novels about Serge Storms

[Sabrina]

Im not sure if its the same in the novels, but in the "Sherlock" tv show Sherlock is anti-hero in a way. He's the "Heros dont exist and even if they did I wouldnt be one of them"/ dont make people into heros kind of person, so the books they are based on should be similar.

[Bryan457]

and are about an assassin who specializes in death by apparently natural means.
Sword and sorcery fantasy: MC spends his time trying to take over the world.
One of my favorites.
"Evil" alien culture.

[stormhawk]

Flood - Andrew Vachss

[Jim]

For fantasy, I'd suggest Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series starting with Jhereg. He's an assassin & has a familiar that is a jhereg - a small flying reptile with a poisonous bite that he can speak to mentally.

Fred Saberhagen's Dracula series stars the vampire himself, although he feels that he's done as best he can. He's not a bad guy, really. Thorn is kind of in the middle, but it's my favorite & they stand alone well. The series goes from the 1800's to modern day.

Almost anything by Elmore Leonard has pretty damaged, tough protagonists & they're usually short reads. He wrote Hombre which was turned into a movie starring Paul Newman. "3:10 to Yuma" is part of The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard. The very end of that movie, the latest starring Russell Crowe, was the short story. The TV series "Justified" is also based on one of his stories. Most of his books that I've seen or read seem to be set more currently with not so perfect people in bad situations.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Villains by Necessity is an excellent "anti-hero" book. The main characters are--an assassin, a thief, a black knight, a dark elf and a druid.

They are opposed by a White Elf, a Hero (yes, Capital H-hero) and various other characters.

[Kate]

Fletch by Gregory McDonald -- it's a series

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

The Tin Drum

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

The Transit of Venus

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

The Debt to Pleasure

[Kristy]

Dark Mafia Prince for sure. It's the one that inspired the Fated Mates podcast expression "Take the Finger"

There's two sequels: Wicked Mafia Prince and Savage Mafia Prince

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Eileen

My Sister, the Serial Killer

[Yolanda]

The Risk It is a series of five books. The female protagonist is a serial killer and starts dating an agent. It's dark romance.

[Brittany]

Beast: A Hate Story, The Beginning and Beauty: The End by Mary Catherine Gebhard. It’s very dark and twisted. It got mixed reviews, but I liked it.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

The Silent Patient