My fave characters ...

I was thinking of whom my favorite pulp characters are and found it's mighty tough to start ranking them in order. Of the top 20 I put together, they all have their strengths. If they were fish, there's not a one of them I would throw back if they landed in my boat. Then again, with my fishing prowess, I never would have caught them in the first place.

My top 20 fictional action characters from a recurring series are ... envelope please:

Jack Reacher - Veteran (Lee Child)

Odd Thomas - Fry cook (Dean Koontz)

Virgil Flowers - Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension (John Sandford)

Gabriel Allon - Mossad (Daniel Silva)

Bob Lee Swagger - Former Marine (Stephen Hunter)

Matthew Scudder - PI (Lawrence Block)

John Dortmunder - Thief (Donald Westlake)

Lucas Davenport - Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension (John Sandford)

Alex Hawke - MI6 (Ted Bell)

Serge Storms - Homicidal maniac (Tim Dorsey)

Alex Cross - Psychologist (James Patterson)

Stephanie Plum - Bail bondsman (Janet Evanovich)

Evan Tanner - Adventurer (Lawrence Block)

Deucalion - Monster (Dean Koontz)

Spenser - Detective (Robert B. Parker)

Alex Delaware - Child psychologist (Jonathan Kellerman)

Bernie Rhodenbarr - Burglar (Lawrence Block)

Parker - Thief (Richard Stark/Donald Westlake)

Mitch Rapp - CIA (Vince Flynn)

Jack Ryan - CIA (Tom Clancy)

   Honorable mention:
Keller - Hitman (Lawrence Block)
Peter Decker - Detective (Faye Kellerman)
Jesse Stone - Police chief (Robert B. Parker)