The best crime mystery books with unconventional characters

FBI Agent-in-training Clarice Starling is pulled into a manhunt to find a serial killer, known only as Buffalo Bill. Her best chance of finding the killer is to consult Hannibal Lecter, who is a former psychiatrist serving multiple life sentences for a series of murders.

While the main protagonist is superbly brought to life in the form of an ambitious Starling, it is Hannibal Lecter who breaks all convention as Clarice’s ‘partner’ in this tense crime thriller. He is calm, precise, clever, and, at times, unnerving, which makes this a compelling classic.

After a lonely barman, Bob, rescues an abused puppy from a trashcan, his mundane world is turned upside down. He befriends an emotionally scarred woman, which puts him at odds with her ex, and unknowingly gets drawn into a con against the Chechen Mafia that uses the bar for money drops.

Lehane is masterful at creating flawed characters that pins readers to the text. As a short novel, The Drop is loaded with punchy dialogue, rapid characterisation, and off-beat humour. However, it’s barman Bob’s stoic presence that makes this such a fascinating read. He fades sublimely into the gloomy Boston crime scene in a profound way, which makes him one of the most unconventional protagonists caught on paper.

As one of Norway’s top recruitment specialists, Roger Brown views himself as a ‘headhunter’ extraordinaire. The fact that he moonlights as an art thief, is simply a way of dealing with his own inadequacies and his reckless spending habits. Unfortunately, his next heist goes horribly wrong. The story unfolds evenly and cleverly, with blunt bursts of murder and mayhem around every corner.

What makes this such a fun read, is the duplicitous nature of the protagonist. The absurdity of his circumstances is directly caused by his inability to refrain from committing other criminal acts. This internal struggle is brilliantly depicted throughout and creates a palpable tension for readers.

An anonymous narrator working as a reclaim specialist for a car company, battles insomnia and severe boredom with everyday life. His mundanity gives rise to the introduction of the anarchic entity of Tyler Durden, an extremist who is the exact opposite of The Narrator in every way. Tyler coerces The Narrator into creating a club where similar-minded men can slog out their insecurities in bare-knuckle fights. Add a damaged damsel to the mix and Tyler quickly starts turning against The Narrator, who finds himself at odds when Tyler transforms Fight Club into an anti-consumerist movement that wants to bomb buildings.

While the narrator uses aliases when attending support groups to cope with his apathy, he remains unnamed throughout the novel, which creates a constant mystery for readers.

Miéville once more challenges conventional narratives in this crime noir, with Inspector Borlú investigating the death of a young woman in the city of Beszel. However, Borlú quickly discovers that the victim was a resident of Ul Qoma, a parallel city that coexists with Beszel in the way that conjoined twins occupy the same body. They share the same geographical location, but only insofar as borders permit. The only way to cross these invisible borders is through a stringent immigration process.

What follows is a cat-and-mouse chase between two cities, where inhabitants have been taught to ‘unsee’ what is happening on the other side of the street. Borlú’s investigation is caught up in red tape, while a faceless entity is bent on starting a war between the two cities.