Lars Kepler and Jo Nesbo each have series’ that I enjoy
Jo has the Harry Hole detective series. His first book kinda sucks (The Bat) and his second sounds shitty (Cockroach), but once he got into his groove I think he is an awesome writer and the Hole character is great
Kepler has been awesome from the beginning. The Hyptnotist and beyond all follow Joona Linna and this is my favorite current series BY FAR.
Both are Swedish serial killer/detective type novels FWIW
Oh, crikeys, how could I have forgotten Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe?
The Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout–I specify him because I don’t like that poseur Goldsborough who continued the series against Stout’s will (“Let them roll their own,” as Stout said). But the character is Archie Goodwin. Although I love Wolfe, it’s Archie’s narration that draws me in and makes the books (and crabby Wolfe himself) so endearing.
And the Little House books, for Laura. Ooh and the Betsy-Tacy books, for Tib. Again, original authors only, even though Roger Lea McBride is still pumping out books using the Ingalls/Wilder/Quiner family tree. Officially kids’ books, but I still love them both.
I’m currently about eight books in to the Richard Sharpe series, and enjoying it hugely!
Comparable series are the Napoleonic-era Naval Adventures of…
Thomas Kydd, by Julian Stockwin
Alan Lewrie, by Dewey Lambdin
Nichola Ramage, by Dudley Pope
All of these are in the grand old tradition of the Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey series. (I’ve read the Hornblower books and loved them. However, I’ve had a number of people warn me against the Aubrey books, so I’m reluctant to try them.)
(Any opinions on the Richard Bolitho novels by Alexander Kent?)
Also…pushing the terms of the OP somewhat – the “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” stories by Fritz Leiber. TWO characters, but they’re necessary to each other, like two halves of a whole. (This is actually formalized late in the series.)
Finally, the Dominic Flandry stories and novels by Poul Anderson. Spacegoing SF – space battles and evil empires – very thoughtful and deep – and, yeah, kinda depressing. “A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows,” the climax of the whole series, is just about the most goddamn depressing book I’ve ever read.
And it’s good enough, I’ve read it five times.
“Repairman Jack” by F. Paul Wilson.
Love that Fuckin’ Flowers!
Forgot to mention Kate Atkinson’s four Jackson Brodie novels, starting with Case Histories. These were made into a TV series that was also pretty good. I wish she’d write more of them.
David Weber’s Safehold series
Hannu Rajaniemi’s Jean Le Flambeur series (3 amazing books, btw)
Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files for about 12 books or so; now he could eat a bag of dicks for all I give a shit about this series
Brandon Sanderson’s The Reckoners
I think those are most recent ones, anyway.
Oh! I almost forgot! David Gerrold’s soon-to-be-completed Chtorr series! WOOT!
I stopped at about book seven, as it was getting repetitious. I was still kinda liking 'em, but they were a bit weak and wearying. What went wrong after that?
Recently, Atticus O’Sullivan in the Iron Druid series, and I just finished the last of Baldacci’s King and Maxwell series. Right now I’m reading his inexplicable rip-off of Jack Reacher (John Puller? Seriously?).
All time? I’ve read all of the Woosters and Continental Op stories.
Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple both by Agatha Christie.
I never got into her other detectives.
Another one for Dave Robicheaux, from James Lee Burke. (he’s a bit like Robert Parker, has turned out a zillion starring Dave, but he has a couple of other series as well.) I have enjoyed Elvis Cole and his sidekick, Joe Pike, by Robert Crais, for decades now. Elvis has really grown and developed. He and Pike are as fine a pair of literary characters as any of the classic teams.
I loooved the Fletch novels when I was younger. I still have all the paperbacks, but I haven’t reread any of them in 20 years.
One of my favorite authors is the previously John Sandford, both the Davenport and Flowers books.
My other favorites are Lincoln and Child who cowrite the Agent Pendergast thrillers.
Anne Perry has the Monk series and the Pitt series both set in Victorian England.
Mo Hayder has the excellent and creepy Jack Caffery series.
Tana French has the Dublin Murder Squad.
Karin Slaughter has the Will Trent series and the Grant County series.
Laurie R. King has the Mary Russell series and the Kate Martinelli.
Walter Mosley, the Easy Rawlins series and Leonid McGill series; Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series; Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar series; for a dick so hard boiled :eek:that it is almost satire, Loren Estleman’s Amos Walker series. Bonus read for the anarchist Dopers: Mosley’s novella, “Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large: Walking the Line,” is kinda fun; Lawrence Block’s Keller series is about a hit an and a lot of fun, but not quite what the op called for.
How about the Kurt Wallander books by Henning Mankell?
And I’d second Nero Wolfe. I am reading one again now, after many years.
I really like Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton, but they might be a little girlie for you.
Michael Talbot from Mark Tufo’s Zombie Fallout Series.
In Changes (#12), Dresden’s sort of GF is killed but he discovers he has a daughter. He commits himself to a course of action to save her, knowing that he is sacrificing his life in order for his daughter to have one at all. It was, IMO, the pinnacle of the series.
Unfortunately, IMO (YMMV), Butcher also seems to have taken it as his cue to change everything about everybody everywhere. Rather than quote the whole post, here’s what I wrote about it back when Ghost Story was published.
Seconding Bertie Wooster. It’s actually pretty amazing that Wodehouse managed to have all those stories narrated in a highly stylized tone from the perspective of a complete idiot and they’re still a pleasure to read. (Toodle-pip!)
Jeeves kinda helps with that 
Sherlock Holmes and James Bond are the granddaddies of this type of thing, but that’s too obvious.
I’ll go with Keith Laumer’s “Retief” series, about the futuristic two-fisted diplomat who solves problems behind the scenes while his bumbling superiors hem and haw and still end up taking all the credit.