A line in a recent review of one of my books gave me the idea for this blog post. “I loved the way in which even the so-called unsavory characters have been endowed with humane and just feelings.” Villains in mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels are many times more important than the hero and heroine. Antagonists drive the story, create the suspense, and put the main characters at risk. The worse they are, the more tense the story. We want our readers to turn the pages as fast as they can, but if they don’t feel the hero or heroine is threatened, that their life is on the line, we probably haven’t written a memorable villain. However writers craft their villains, we have to be careful, especially with unrepentant psychopaths and truly evil characters. Perhaps it's worth imbuing bad guys or gals with characteristics that make the reader care about them, otherwise, they become stereotypical clichés, direct from central casting. Authors spend so much time creating their h...