The perfect bad guy

[B.R.Stateham]

Suppose you're thinking about writing a series centered around one or two main characters. As the series goes along the readers get to know the good guys. But what about the bad guys?

Should . . . could . . . a series have a recurring bad guy? What would he look like in today's crime scene? How bad should he be? Should there be any good qualities about him or her?

Does having a recurring baddie hurt a series?

[John McFetridge]

I never understood the fascination with serial killers and now this desire to make them good guys, or in some way, "not all bad."

I guess we have a hard time accepting that sociopaths really exist.

[Jack Getze]

I haven't read the books either, and I agree that the whole concept stretches the imagination. I enjoy the TV series, though, and bought into Dexter that first season. He was no humanitarian. They did a good enough job, for many of us anyway, in showing Dexter to be a cold, emotionless zombie, very aware he didn't fit, running the constant risk of being found out. There was a cop on that first season who knew instinctively Dexter was a maniac.

I've been tired of serial killers since Silence of the Lambs, but Dexter was a new twist. I root for him to get the bad guys his police co-workers can't put in jail.

[Jack Getze]

Well, except for Criminal Minds. I don't know why ....

[Eric Christopherson]

How about Professor Moriarty? He only appeared in a couple of stories but Holmes was obsessed with him and mentioned him in many others.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

If an antagonist is to reappear, he/she should have as much or more sympathetic qualities as the protag.

As an example, I point to Sideshow Bob on "The Simpsons." Bob is intelligent, well-spoken and wants to destroy the status quo of mediocrity. This blows away the protag of Bart Simpson. Bart seeks instant self-gratification, disorder and lowest common denominator measurements of success.

The only difference is their methods. Bob will kill to achieve his goals. Bart's limit is physical harm to another.

[Bob]

I agree. I have a series (Thriller) plotted where the main character is a bad guy serial killer. He is charming, endearing, freindly and stands up for other people...his only problem is he is driven to complete his task, a task which involves many murders. His antagonist is a grumpy, easy to dislike, opinionated FBI agent.

[robert walker]

BR -- I have already done this with a recurring evil as hell guy named Mad Matthew Matisak; he ran through 4 books in my Instinct Series, and he was bad to the bone, a psychopath and a bloody one at that but he did have a human connection....he liked to paint his lightbulbs in his house with blood and burn them until the blood on the bulbs smoked and he relived the smell of hot blodd that way. Is that evil and huma enough? Matisak was Dr. Jesdica Coran's nemises until my editor at Berkley asked if we couldn't please kill the bleepin guy off, so I did in book four. But the worst by far of all my evil characters over the years was Lauralie Blodgett in Final Edge. She was based on my second wife, he,he,he....true enough. Why I was never banned by anyone anywhere is beyond belief.

[B.R.Stateham]

Robert, you need to be a bit more selective in the women you run around with, buddy!

[Aaron Hilton]

A recurring villain...? Absolutely! I think a good villain in any time period is one that blends in the scenery so well, the protagonist doesn't even know they exist till it's nearly too late. Maybe the clues point out the villain is a male, but in the final act the killer is revealed as a woman, and her habits appeared masculine because her mother died giving birth, and she was raised by her manly father and three brothers. A chameleon like that deserves to return. Another fantastic way to notch up the bad guys menace I think is to make them a colleague. It tightens the conflict for the hero, because they'll start to blame their instincts for not figuring it out. If the villain inflicts torture on the main character and a mono a mono showdown doesn't occur at the end of the story, I'd bring that villain back for the main character to have a shot at vengeance. Should they have any good qualities? Sure. Makes them human and sympathetic. A good example is Greg Rucka's assassin Drama in his Atticus Kodiak thrillers Smoker and Critical Space.