Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters in X Genre

I've decided to jump on board with Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic, Top Ten Characters in any genre. I chose mystery/thriller. 

1. Carl Morck from Jussi Adler-Olsen's Dept Q series - he's a grouch after my own heart!

2. Nick Belsey from Oliver Harris's The Hollow Man - a true anti-hero but oh, so easy to like

3. Dexter Morgan from Jeff Lindsay's Dexter series - same reason as Nick Belsey, but Dexter is even more likeable!

4. Jack Caffery from Mo Hayder's series - Jack is a dark and stormy DI with major issues. As a whole, Hayder's characters are pretty great. (Flea is another favorite.)

5. Myfanwy Thomas from Daniel O'Malley's The Rook. This one is a cross genre with mystery elements and the whole thing is fun. At the beginning, Myfanwy has no memory at all and this makes for a great character as well as a fabulous read!

6. Peter Grant from Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series. Another cross genre, this time it's urban fantasy with mystery elements. Grant is a sorcerer's apprentice and constable. Seriously fun series as a whole but seeing Grant continue to come into his own makes it that much better. 

7. Jackson Brodie from Kate Atkinson's series. Oh, I loved Brodie before the tv show but seeing Jason Isaacs as the character won me over further. 

8. Carlotta Carlyle from Linda Barnes's old series. She's a super tall redhead who drives a cab in her spare time and works as a PI. Also, her boyfriend is a mob guy. And her little sister is the daughter of a Columbian drug lord. This was one of my favorite series to recommend as a bookseller and I'm sure you can see why. 

9. Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell/Susan Ward from Chelsea Cain's series. The whole cast of characters and their interactions make this series tops on my list. I just didn't want to eat up three entries with them :)

10. Kinsey Millhone from Sue Grafton's series. One of mysteries favorite PIs. Constantly stuck in the 80s and clever as all get out. 

Honorable mention: Irene Kelly from Jan Burke's series, Myron Bolitar from Harlan Coben's series (he would have been on the list but for the fact that I ran out of space!), Taylor Jackson from JT Ellison's series (and Sam!)...

I see I should have picked a narrower genre to make this more difficult on myself. It's so easy to get attached to series characters and there are so many great mystery/thriller series out there!