I think, other than RJ, my two favorite novels of the past decade were written by Neil Gaiman..."Anansi Boys" and "American Gods".

Gaiman is second only to FPW in my favorite author hierarchy; his sense of imagination is unparalled IMO. Anansi Boys is my favorite novel followed by Neverwhere. I'm hoping he writes another novel soon But the real treasure in his writing is the Sandman series.

The Pendergast novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln ChILD are also fun reads.

This would also be my recommendation. Start with Relic and go from there. And, like The Keep, Relic was made into a bad movie... so do not judge the book by the movie!!!

Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series is excellent. Scudder once was a moderately corrupt NYC detective who resigns after accidentally killing a child in a gun battle. He's iconoclastic; he's not licensed as a PI, just does 'favors' for people who seek him out, doesn't do paperwork, doesnt pay taxes. He spends most of his time wandering bar to bar drinking, going to church, eventually starts going to AA meetings, and is rarely sober. He doesn't tolerate murder though and gets the killer in the end.
No fantasy elements, just noir-type mystery.

If you like Barry Eisler's "John Rain" series, you might also like Stephen Hunter's series about Vietnam vet Bob Lee Swagger, and his daddy Earl Swagger. No supernatural elements, but plenty of convoluted, interrelated plotting, and some darn good shooting. Bob Lee is credited as the second or third ranked sniper of the Vietnam war, behind Carlos Hathcock, presented in the books as "Carl Hitchcock." Only one of these has been filmed so far, Point Of Impact (movie title: Shooter), starring Mark Wahlberg as Bob Lee Swagger. aka "Bob the Nailer".

Fill in the blank please, waiting for the last book has my brain starving already. Looking for a long possibly open-ended series.

P.S. I enjoy fantasy as long as the characters & reactions in it are realistic. By that I mean they react the way people really act, not the fairytale bs mantra that fills most books. FPW, Chuck Palahniuk, & Robert Kirkman have pretty much spoiled me in that dept. To the point of finding the standard lovey dovey/good guys always win storyline to be boring.

Any & all suggestions would be appreciated.[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kirkman"]
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I know this post is old, but I'm new to RJ and this website and had two suggestions for you or anyone else with the same question:

1) If you like Dean Koonz, try his Odd Thomas novels (I think there are 3 of them)

2) My other suggestion is an e-book only author by the name of John Locke. He writes two series, a western style (reminscent of Lonesome Dove) with the character Emmett Love and a more brutal version of RJ with a character named Donovan Creed. "Lethal People" is the first of the Creed books and I think there's 8 of them. "Follow the Stone" is the first Emmett novel and there are 3 of them. The best part is they're only 99 cents to download.

Side note, thank you to all who have helped me untangle and interpret the best way to read Wilson's books. I've enjoyed most of them.

I still hop in here to read suggestions. Most great. None quite as good as RJ, but it's at least keeping me busy waiting for the last (super revised) one.

Starks Parker books are awesome, no supernatural, a vit colder than Jack, but just as ruthlessly efficient. Parker is a professional thief who always gets the job done, messily sometimes, but done. 20 something books in the series, unfortunately, Stark(Donald Westlake) passed away a few years ago.

MacDonalds Travis McGee books are also a great read, McGee is kind of a mercenary for hire, doesn't like to kill, more of a lover than a fighter really, but you don't want to be on hi shit list. No supernatural again, but again like Jack brutal efficiency. 21 books I think and again MacDonald died years ago.

I'd also 3rd the Dresden series, Harry is pretty much a badass and I haven't disliked one of the books yet.

The list of this genre goes way back, the times have of course varied the interpretations, but the field is rich with good characters

If you want a series with a supernatural bent; try George C. Chesbro's Mongo The Magnificent series. Mongo is a dwarf who earned his college tuition by being a Circus performer, then became a criminologist and PI. His cases seem to always get him involved with paranormal and conspiritorial elements. These books are simply wonderful.

Here's the wiki link that also links to the author's website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongo_the_Magnificent

Two of my all time favorite series are Richard Stark's Parker novels and John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series. No supernatural, but they are highly addictive.

Fourth on the Dresden series! It is well written, and the magic is both limited enough so Dresden cannot just teleport away from danger, but powerful enough to really enjoy the mayhem he gets down to toward the climax of the novels.

Sev

I replied to this post before, but it never appeared on the thread--I guess because I included a link to Wikipedia, which also lead to a website.

My suggestion is the Mongo the Magnificent series, by George C. Chesbro. Mongo is a dwarf who earned his tuition for college working as a circus performer. After completing college, he became a criminologist and PI, whose cases always seem to take a paranormal/conspiritorial bent. These are truly wonderful books. Mongo is the ultimate underdog (no pun intended) and always comes out on top. I would wager if you love Repairman Jack, you'll love Mongo--they're both righteous.

I'd provide links but last time it got my reply postponed/deleted, so simply type Mongo or Mongo the Magnificent in the Wikipedia search engine and it'll provide more info, as well as a link to the author's website. The books are readily available on Amazon, B and N, etc.

I'd also heartily recommend the Parker books by Richard Stark, and the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. Both highly addictive. Trust me.