Cheers

I think we are the hardcore action thrill/intrigue fans here! I have read some of the Walt Longmire series books and I’ve also read most of C. J. Box’s books. I liked the Antonio Burns books by Clinton MacKenzie. Talk about an ambiguous hero! He stopped writing for a number of years but his website says he’s working on another novel now. I like most of James D Doss’ books as well.

I’ve read a lot of the Stephen Leather books, but I’ll make note of author Matt Hilton. Be sure to read The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie (yes the actor) He wrote it years ago and it’s a great off-beat caper/action thriller book that’s like what Ross Thomas used to write but with a former SAS para of ‘flexible morality’ as his hero. His heroine is just as ‘flexible’. It’s just a really, really good read.

For romantic suspense, I really like a lot of Tara Janzen’s books. Her heroine’s are interesting and get more so as the books move on. Shannon McKenna writes books with dark and slightly grim books that are good. I have an ARC of her latest on the TBR pile. Roxanne St Claire’s Make Her pay has a reformed (maybe) thief as the hero, which isn’t as interesting as when she used Yakuza in some of her earlier books. Those were just great.

Maybe the paranormal heroes are more appealing to those who read a lot of intrigue/action books because their ‘nature’ is to survive and violence is often just fundamental. Some interesting issues in what we find acceptable in behavior between the pages of books and real life. :-) Like you, I favor the ‘tough guys’, though I admit Rupert Carstairs from Loretta Chase’s Mr Impossible remains ones of my all time favorite heroes in any genre of romance!

Stephen Hunter’s first three Bob Lee Swagger books, Lawrence Block’s HitMan books, almost everything by Ross Thomas, King of the Caper novel along with Donald E Westlake. Or how about the Repairman Jack books or the very dark and grim Burke books by Andrew Vachss? Even the Connor Burke books by John Donohue.

I’d say the morally ambiguous hero is very common in mystery and action thrillers. Ever Robert B Parker’s Spenser and Jesse Stone are about what’s just rather than what’s legal. And Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole and Joe Pike have some wild shootouts in the course of their outings. Whether it’s the old Paladin series (Have Gun Will Travel starring Richard Boone) is about a moral man who operates outside the law.

The Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser is a classic against type anti-hero with few redeeming qualities, but funny as hell. The thing is, Flashman is NOT a moral man! The men named above are. The have a code and live by it. I can admire that, and like the man. In fact, it’s a very large part of the man’s appeal. He’ll do whatever is necessary to protect those that need it. The Avenger by Frederick Forsyth is about EXACTLY that kind of man. James Thayer’s White Star has as a protagonist a former sniper (now a prosecutor and father) being hunter by another former sniper. His heroine recognizes in him the same thing that Bob Lee Swagger’s wife see in him in A Time to Hunt – a man who needs to prove himself still the best, do the right thing and protect the innocent. How cool is that? More importantly, how seductive is the lure of a tough man you can rely on in extreme circumstances?

It’s not just mysteries or action/intrigue that loves the bad boys, romance loves them too. There are pirates, privateers, desert sheiks, men who commit rape (Whitney, My Love being a classic in that) and many others. I’ll take John Rain or Jack Reacher over Clayton Westmoreland any day!

I love Eve and would definitely want her in my corner.

And you can throw me on the Jayne wagon too (and the Titus one). *grin* One of my male friends is seriously disturbed that I have a thing for Jayne. I had to leave it with “I'm not saying I'd date him . . .” Oddly (or not oddly, depending on how you look at it) my girlfriends just nod and smile and shake their heads in agreement, LOL!

I have never thought about it that way, but you are so right! I love Titus. The gladiator fight scene when Lucius comes to his defense is one of my absolute favorites. Graphic as all out get, but hits me in the gut in the best way.

THIIIRRRRRTEEEEEN!!!!!!

I love Rome…

I can enjoy a criminal hero or heroine in romance, if they’re written as an underdog/Robin Hood, and I can definitely enjoy protags with questionable ethics in non-romance. I love the Song of Ice and Fire novels, for example, where many of the POV characters do nasty things for reasons they feel are justifiable. It’s fun being in their heads, at least for a little while.

I adore Titus Pullo in Rome, who is essentially Jayne pre-firearms

I have never thought about it that way, but you are so right! I love Titus. The gladiator fight scene when Lucius comes to his defense is one of my absolute favorites. Graphic as all out get, but hits me in the gut in the best way.

As for criminal H/H… I enjoy them for the most part. I enjoy them because they’re usually clever and quick on their feet, and they usually have a black sense of humor that I can appreciate. I don’t like it when they’re paired with a squeaky clean partner, though, because then the conflict between the H/H get too predictable.

I've been a fan of Timothy Hutton since I saw him on Nero Wolfe.

Me, too! He was perfect as Archie. I’ve listened to several Nero Wolfe audio books, and I always picture Hutton as Archie.

I’m a “sometimes” on the poll. I don’t generally like criminal protagonists but have liked some (Catspaw and Catspaw II by Anne Stuart come to mind), so I have to decide on a case by case basis. It usually depends on whether or not they’re using their con powers for good. :)

As far as Roarke being arrogant and pushy, I must say, Eve also has major faults. She’s extremely obsessive and neurotic and very childish, and they seem to deal well together. Would I like either of them if met them? No. Would either character work as a single character? I don’t think so. But they go well together, I think.

As for con artist and killer protagonists, only if their cause is just. As said above by others, if the protagonist is fighting on the behalf of the downtrodden or to right a wrong, I’ll go with it, if I also find the protagonist likable or sympathetic. If not, then it’s a no go for me. Basically, I root for a person with honor.

Assassin? Fantasy/sf doesn't bother me if there is a role for the assassin in the culture. Cherryh's Foreigner series have an Assassin's Guild that works for me.

It’s a great series. I think the reason that the Assassin Guild works so well for me is that A) they’re aliens and B) the culture seems vaguely based on Feudal Japan, with the Samurai and Ninja dynamic both folded into the Guild.

I seriously considered naming my latest dog (a black Neapolitan Mastiff) Banichi, which I know makes me an uber-geek, LOL!

I love Leverage on TNT.

Premise seemed like an American remake of Hustle, an English show that I adored. It's about a group who run long cons on not-so-nice people (“Only someone who thinks he can get something for nothing can be conned”). I highly recommend the first two seasons (the third one no so much, as they replaced one of the leads and it just didn't work as well).

I like conmen and women along these lines.