Good baddies by Cathy Ace

Whom do you consider the most intelligent, diabolical, or frightening criminal you’ve encountered on the page, and why?

 

This is a great question, but should I go back to the early memories I have of characters that traumatised me…like the wicked stepmother in Snow White? Or should I fast forward to serial killers without a single redeeming quality from fiction I’ve read recently? To be honest, even from my early days, the baddies have often attracted me more than the goodies…but maybe that says more about me than them. Hmm…the psychologist in me says that’s true. So, if that’s the case…just how much do I want to give away?

 

#1: Thomas Harris’s cannibalistic forensic psychiatrist, and sometime FBI consultant, Dr. Hannibal Lecter has to be a candidate: intelligent, suave, and certainly mezmerising, he’s about as frightening as you’d want a villain to be. And I thoroughly enjoyed reading about him, in a chilling way. My top pick, because Lecter ticks all the boxes…in a really bad (and good) way.

 

#2: The Daleks. Yes, yes, I know that not everyone reading this grew up watching Doctor Who on TV during their formative years, hiding behind a cushion whenever the Doctor’s Nemeses-with-no-soul, the Daleks, made an appearance, but I did! For me, the scariest moment was when they were brought back by Russell T. Davies and suddenly…they could fly! Until then, all anyone really had to do to escape a Dalek’s death ray was to run off up/down some stairs, but once Davies gave them flight…TERRIFYING!

I once met a Dalek - in the barn of a Welsh stately home. No I'm not kidding!

#3: Iago, from Shakespeare’s Othello: I first read Othello when I was about fourteen/fifteen, so at an impressionable age, to be sure. We’d read Shakespeare’s plays aloud in our English Literature classes, and, when it came time to read Othello, our teacher, Mr. Lee read the title character and picked me to read Iago. So I first encountered him as his words came out of my mouth. And I learned to love, and hate and fear, him, from the inside out. He’s reasonable, winning, charming, persuasive…and utterly amoral, self-interested, and unforgiveable. As characters go, you don’t get baddies who come much better formed than Iago, who – at the tender age of 27 (a fact he states in the text…so, no, he’s not an aged person, as he is so often portrayed, which makes his relentless actions even more alarming)  - has already decided he hates all that is good, and wants to undo it.

Since I write about murder, and murderers, of course I write "baddies"...but, whilst I never want to mitigate their actions, I do try to write relatable baddies!

My new book has some...hmm...interesting characters. Find out more on November 13th, when the 13th Cait Morgan Mystery will be published. https://www.cathyace.com/