Who is Your Favorite Character in a Book?

This is getting hard. These daily topics are either too similar or too difficult to make this fun, but I did say I was going to do this and keeping my commitments is important to me. Even little, seemingly insignificant commitments. Commitments that don't matter to anyone else in the world.

So Day 14: Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)

Okay, first of all, any sex OR gender? Wow, that just opens up all sorts of possibilities.

This is a tough question for me. I have lots of favorite characters in books, all for different reasons. My reading tastes are varied. I don't read just one kind of book, so it's not like I can stroke my chin for a minute and say, oh, sure, Anne Tyler's Maggie Moran from Breathing Lessons. It has to be her. Or almost any one of Susan Howatch's characters. She brings every one of them so brilliantly to life, they're each my favorite when I'm reading from their point of view.

Maybe I should default to George Fayne from the Nancy Drew series. Nancy was swell, but George was my gal. I also loved George Harrison best of all the Beatles, but that's a topic for another day.

A sweep of my keeper shelf helps me narrow my search for Favorite Character of all Time down a bit. I have a few keepers on the shelf, including other books I've mentioned during this challenge, but some of my prize books (besides Nancy Drew, of course) are my collection of Agatha Christies. And that narrows down my options down considerably.

Marple or Poirot?

For me, it's gotta be the delightful Miss Jane Marple. She was sharp. She was an amateur. She solved complex crimes based only on her ability to notice things about people, and everyone underestimated her.

What about you? Who is your favorite character in a book? Of any sex OR gender?