Apologies to Poirot and KneadToKnow
In that same vein, who’s your favorite fictional criminal?
I vote for Dortmunder, the bumbling burgular from the series of the same name by Donald E Westlake. He could definetly pull defeat from the jaws of victory.
No apology necessary.
Since you said “criminal” and not “bad guy,” I’m going to have to stay in Robert B. Parker mode and say Hawk.
I vote for Parker, the ruthless and first-nameless heistmeister and killer from the long-running series by Richard Stark. Perfectly played by Lee Marvin in John Boorman’s brilliant 1967 film POINT BLANK.
Richard Stark is, of course, a pen name of Donald E. Westlake.
(Hey, cat, there’s a new Dortmunder novel coming out this month, called BAD NEWS! Got your copy yet?)
By the way, Dortmunder is NOT a bumbler. He’s an excellent planner, and his usual string…Kelp, Tiny, Murch, Murch’s Mom, etc…are all very capable criminals.
He is just very very very very *unlucky.
Definitely Snake Johnson from the Simpsons.
“Dude, I’m taking this thing to Mexico! Haw!”
My favorite fictional criminal is probably either Bard Falundir from my favorite fantasy trilogy or Michael from La Femme Nikita.
They’re both ‘good guys’, I suppose, but Falundir irked the lady who was in charge of, well, the world, and Michael kills people. It counts.
Ike It’s true, luck never favors Dortmunder, however, Kelp’s ideas often leave much to be desired. He suffers from the “It’s too good to be true syndrome.”
More Dortmuinder, Yay!
Off to Amazon
Definitely Duquesne from Doc Smith’s Skylark of Space series.
I vote for the leader of the Black Sun criminal empire.
Another for Snake. “Ahha! Goodbye, student loan payment!”
Don Vito Corleone and Family.
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!
Yeah, upon further review, I think we could move my original reply to the Way Too Obvious file. I never mean to be stupid, sometimes it just works out that way.
How about Mack The Knife? He sounds pretty evil.
Too easy. Fat Tony from the Simpsons.
“My wife has been most vocal on the subject of the pretzel monies…”
Arsene Lupin without question.
Even tough the latter stories weren’t that good he still is the single greatest thieve of all times.
The Joker.
I still can’t decide if Rorschach from Watchmen qualifies as a criminal.
Silk from “The Belgariad” (David Eddings)
Professor Moriarty.
All the people Jean Genet ever wrote about.
The guy in “Perfume”.
Ken from “London Fields”.
That guy the next cross over from Jesus.
“Why aren’t you getting the pretzel money now … and so on …”
Slippery Jim DiGriz.