The best books with the baddest badass dudes of crime fiction

Dave Robicheaux is a New Iberia, Louisiana, sheriff’s detective in a series by James Lee Burke. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of Dave. He is righteous, but flawed. He regularly attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, struggles with nightmares of Viet Nam and other unseen demons, but has an acute sense of right and wrong. In Crusader’s Cross, his loyal sidekick, Cletus Prucell says of Dave, "He's got polka dot giraffes running around in his head, but he's the best guy I've ever known.” I’m a Burke fan, and I like everything he writes. In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead, and Purple Cane Road are my personal favorites. In Electric Mist, Dave is drawn into a 40-year-old unsolved murder that he witnessed as a college freshman. In the midst of his investigation, Dave has regular conversations with the ghost of Confederate General John Bell Hood. It’s a great read.

Cletus Purcell is Dave Robicheaux’s sidekick and, for my money, one of the best characters in crime fiction. He and Dave were detectives together at the New Orleans Police Department. “The Bobbsie Twins from homicide,” as Cletus likes to call them. Cletus, who wears a porkpie hat and drives a pink Cadillac, is now a private detective. This guy has more character flaws than any human being on the planet, but he is an absolute loyal friend to Dave. While I love reading Burke’s books, I get as much pleasure from listening to Will Patton read the audiobooks and bring Cletus to life. 

Yeah, I know, naming Jack Reacher as one of the badasses of crime fiction is the equivalent of a six-inch putt. A gimme. Child has taken a totally implausible premise—a six-foot-five former Army MP wandering around the United States and finding trouble with nothing but an ATM card in his pocket—and created one of the best characters in suspense literature. When Reacher is on the hunt, the results are never in doubt, which is why we love him. He’s the fullback coming through the line, time and time again, and no one can stop him. One reviewer of Child’s books said that Reacher is never the underdog. That’s a perfect description.

Walt Longmire is the sheriff of fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming. Longmire is a decorated Marine and played offensive line at the University of Southern California. He’s big, and he can brawl. He can be the cerebral Sherlock Holmes or Rambo, depending on the situation. In most of his books, Longmire teams up with Henry Standing Bear, but in Depth of Winter, Longmire is largely on his own as he sneaks into Mexico in search of his only child, Cady, who has been kidnapped by the leader of a Mexican drug cartel. Longmire is a bulldozer in his quest to rescue his daughter.

Seriously, who’s tougher than a Wyoming game warden? Box’s character in more than 20 novels is Joe Pickett, who, by the standards of most crime fiction protagonists, is... What’s the word I’m looking for here? Oh, yeah, boring. He’s married, has three daughters, no major addictions or hang-ups. Box describes his character as someone who tries to “do the right thing.” I think that’s what makes him such a badass and likeable character. After all, it’s not easy being a game warden when virtually everyone you encounter is armed. Nate Romanowski is Joe’s sidekick. He’s a great second banana, but without the personality and capricious temperament of Cletus Purcell.