When I decided to bring back Robert B. Parker’s creation, Melanie Joan Hall, for my new Sunny Randall novel, Booked, I thought of her as a staple character in Sunny’s world – not quite as ever-present as, say, Spike or Richie. But close. While I only remembered Melanie Joan from two books—Parker’s Shrink Rap and Mike Lupica’s Revenge Tour—I assumed my memory was faulty and that she’d been in at least two more.
It turned out, though, that I’d been right all along. The divaesque romance author made her first appearance in 2002, when she hired Sunny to protect her from her psychopathic ex-husband. She didn’t appear on the page again until she came to Sunny for help after being accused of plagiarism in Lupica’s book—which came out a full twenty years later.
Like so many great recurring characters, Melanie Joan had left an impression on me that was far greater than the sum of her pages. Unique, complicated—and oh-so-memorable—these scene-stealers tend to be too compelling for a one-off appearance, but a little too colorful to blend in with series regulars. Whether we’re talking about a supervillain who refuses to die in just one book, or that sharp-as-a-tack friend who’s often (but not always) there in a clutch, the best recurring characters are remarkable creations, who keep their readers—and their authors—coming back for more.
Here are a few of my favorites.
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Professor James Moriarty (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Cold-blooded, manipulative and dangerously brilliant, this criminal mastermind leaves as indelible impression as his legendary arch-nemesis, Sherlock Holmes. Yet the evil doctor only appears in two Holmes tales: The Valley of Fear (a novel) and “The Adventure of the Final Problem,” the short story in which Holmes and Moriarty face off with (spoiler alert) lethal consequences. It takes a lot to be a worthy adversary for The Master Detective.
But Moriarty managed to be that—and more—while remaining largely sight unseen.
Carrie Grethen (Patricia Cornwell)
It was easy to see why Kay Scarpetta’s niece Lucy fell so hard for her fellow FBI trainee. Introduced in the fifth Scarpetta novel, The Body Farm, Carrie was sharp, charismatic and seemingly caring. Unfortunately for Lucy, her first love also turned out to be a raging psychopath. A computer genius, she started out her crime career by secretly helping out serial killers, and went on to do a lot of killing herself (alongside another great recurring murderer, Temple Gault) in Potters’ Field.
Carrie branched out into stalking and psychological torture in Point of Origin and reemerged—to terrifying effect—in 2024’s Identity Unknown. No doubt it won’t be long before we’re saying “she’s ba-a-a-ack” again.
Hester Crimstein (Harlan Coben)
If you’ve read any Coben books, you know (and most likely love) this spirited septuagenarian attorney. She’s appeared in more than twenty novels, both series and standalone, coming to the legal aid of everyone from Myron Bolitar (repeatedly) to Tell No One’s David Beck.
And who could blame them for seeking her out? Besides being a shark in the courtroom, Hester is a razor-sharp wit who hosts her own TV show—the catchily titled Crimstein on Crime. She even found time to fall in love, in the 2020 novel, The Boy From the Woods. Recurring or not, she’s downright aspirational.
Muriel Blossom (Laura Lippman)
Ironically, this sixty-something assistant began working for PI Tess Monaghan because of her ability to fade into the background while staking out subjects. But beneath that unassuming surface lurked a keen mind and vibrant personality that made Mrs. Blossom impossible to ignore. A minor character in earlier books, Muriel played a more pivotal role in The Girl in the Green Raincoat, running down leads and gathering evidence while a pregnant Tess was on bedrest.
And more recently, she struck out on her own, winning the lottery and taking a very fateful European cruise as the lead character in 2025’s delightful Murder Takes a Vacation. The book is the first in a new series—in which Tess is, of course, a recurring character.
Hannibal Lecter (Thomas Harris)
It’s strange to think of Hannibal the Cannibal as recurring. But that’s the way he started out, in my favorite Thomas Harris novel (and one of the scariest books I’ve ever read) Red Dragon. The Big Bad in that novel was serial killer Francis Dollarhyde, aka The Tooth Fairy, while Lecter, then behind bars, acted as the world’s most terrifying consultant for FBI profiler Will Graham. He did similar work for Clarice Starling as she tracked Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs.
But he proved too big a character to simply recur. Dr. Lecter devoured Harris’s canvas in Hannibal and Hannibal Rising and went on to become a pop cultural icon, meme and figure of speech. In my personal opinion, though, Hannibal has always been at his most compelling while lurking quietly in the background.
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