Max Manning started his career as a newspaper journalist in the United Kingdom, working for many years as a crime reporter before joining The Daily Telegraph in London as a news sub-editor. He is the author of Don’t Look Now and a psychological thriller, The Victim.At The Strand Magazine Manning tagged his "top ten crime and thriller characters, good and evil, with psychopathic traits," including:
Amy Dunne (Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn)Read about the other entries on the list.
Female psychopaths are relatively rarely depicted in thrillers. Research shows that there are far fewer female diagnosedpsychopaths in prison populations than males but that may partly be because they rely less on physical violence, are more subtle when it comes to manipulation, and are better at not getting caught. In Gone Girl, Amy Dunne is a fascinating and incredibly complex character. She’s devious, charming, has no conscience and is willing to do whatever she needs to get what she wants, no matter who gets hurt.
Gone Girl made Steven L. Kent and Nicholas Kaufmann's list of six favorite literary human monsters, Elizabeth Macneal's list of five sympathetic fictional psychopaths, Jo Jakeman's top ten list of revenge novels, Amanda Craig's list of favorite books about modern married life, Sarah Pinborough's top ten list of unreliable narrators, C.A. Higgins's top five list of books with plot twists that flip your perception, Ruth Ware's top ten list of psychological thrillers, Jane Alexander's top ten list of treasure hunts in fiction, Fanny Blake's list of five top books about revenge, Monique Alice's list of six great fictional evil geniuses, Jeff Somers's lists of the top five best worst couples in literature, six books that’ll make you glad you’re single and five books with an outstanding standalone scene that can be read on its own, Lucie Whitehouse's ten top list of psychological suspense novels with marriages at their heart and Kathryn Williams's list of eight of fiction’s craziest unreliable narrators.
--Marshal Zeringue
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