…meet my scribbler pal, Tony McManus… here’s his brilliant and highly erudite (knowledgeable, Mabel… knowledgeable) take on how we LUV to hate, and then LUV again, the best of criminal characters…

VILLAINY

by Tony McManus 

So, what happened to villains then, those exciting bad guys who featured so prominently in crime and adventure fiction over the years? To my disappointment, most of the thrillers I’ve read recently has been sadly lacking in decent nasties. I wonder why the paucity?

As a reader and writer, the villain of the piece is every bit as significant and essential to the narrative as the protagonist; sometimes more so. After all, it’s the cut, thrust and parry between the hero and the villain that creates the conflict and mayhem that is at the heart of the drama. A hero is a hero, but it’s more often the quality of the…