Great Expectations

No, this post is not about the great Charles Dickens book. Instead, its about some of my favorite literary characters, whose next books you wait eagerly for. This is in no particular order, am just rattling off names as and when I get them:

• Lincoln Rhyme & Amelia Sachs from Jeffrey Deaver's series commencing from 'The Bone Collector' - the whole idea of having a quadriplegic as the main character of the book is fascinating. And the stubborn, dynamic Amelia makes a perfect counterpart.
• Agent Pendergast from the book series beginning with 'Still Life With Crows', written by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - to call him eccentric would be an understatement. A razor-sharp intelligence, the prim attire and the fastidious attention to his diet maketh Pendergast one helluva strange man!
• Harry Potter, Hermoine and Ron - but of course !!
• Patrick Genzie & Angela Gennaro from the book series starting with the fantastic 'Gone, Baby Gone' by Dennis Lehane. They are partners in a detective firm, and are ex-lovers. The sexual tension and the banter to camouflage it makes for some great reading (of course, the outstanding writing and a great plot helps too). Every single book in this series is awesome.
• Paul Madriani from the legal thriller series by Steve Martini ('Compelling Evidence' etc). If you thought Grisham was good, then you are still to graduate !! Madriani is as opinionated and sarcastic as they get.
• Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling probably need no introduction - after all, who can forget 'Silence of the Lambs' by Thomas Harris? This was probably the best personification of a character in cinema, right along with Vito and Michael Corleone; Anthony Hopkins was downright terrifying.
• The Hieronumus Bosch alias Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly/Dennis Lynds includes some fine books, such as 'The Black Ice' and 'Trunk Music'.
• Jack Ryan is the quintessential American, who goes on to become the President of the country. This series by Tom Clancy includes some terrific books - 'Patriot Games' and 'Hunt for Red October' amongst them. All the Jack Ryan novels are very, very good. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the movies based on these books.
• Fatty (Frederick Algernon Trotville) by Enid Blyton is one of my all-time favourite characters. The Five Find-Outers rocked !!
• Jupiter Jones from 'The Three Investigators' was pretty cool too. Unlike 'The Hardy Boys' and 'Nancy Drew', old 'Baby Fatso' used his brains. I got hooked onto these at school, and teachers were perpetually catching me reading a '3 Investigators' mystery under the desk :). Those were the days, I have to say !!
• The Jack Reacher series by Lee Child (full series here) is also pretty good, although I found the character merely a more intelligent version of Rambo. Lee Child writes pretty well, though - he is somebody I regularly 'repeat-read'.

This series (pun intended!) will be continued !!