Ryan Hardy

Grew Up... in Albany with his sister, Jenny; his brother, Ray; and their parents. Ryan lost his mother at the age of 14 and his father when he was 17. Not surprisingly, that led to a pretty dark childhood. Ryan grew up close with Jenny but as his life went on, things continued to go down a dark path. Ray was a New York City fireman who died during 9/11.   

Living... in a bachelor-pad-type apartment in Brooklyn. He lives by himself and his best companion these days is a trusty bottle of booze.  

Profession... former FBI agent about to drop the “former.” Ryan left the Bureau a burned-out mess after putting serial killer Joe Carroll behind bars, but not before Carroll killed multiple times while taunting him all the while. Ryan found some minor fame due to the case – writing a book on his ultimately successful hunt for Joe called Poetry of a Killer – and moved on to teaching and consulting for the FBI. But when Carroll escapes from prison, Ryan is recruited back by the FBI because he is the only one that truly “gets” Joe’s mind. (That’s Joe’s belief as well.)  

Interests... drinking. That’s his main method of forgetting the horrific killings he was unable to stop Joe from committing a few years back.  

Relationship Status... strained, at best. After catching Joe, Ryan had a romance with Joe’s wife (now ex-wife), Claire Matthews, who never suspected that her Edgar Allen Poe-loving, college professor husband was also a serial killer. Ryan and Claire have a complicated relationship to say the least given her history with Joe – and because now Joe wants he and Claire to have a future, as well.  The FBI rulebook also generally frowns on dating the spouses of serial killers you’ve arrested. 

Challenge... facing Joe Carroll again and again. Joe and Ryan have a bit of a Batman/Joker-style relationship where they love to drive the other person insane. Their verbal sparring matches often leads to physical blows, but this is more of a mind game than anything else, and a very twisted one at that. Joe is brilliant, charismatic, melodramatic, and completely psychotic, which makes him a very dangerous opponent.  

Personality... dark, jaded, and sarcastic. Ryan has seen a lot of death and darkness in his life. The fact that he’s made it his professional mission to chase the most twisted of killers, while noble, doesn’t do much to lighten things up. When Ryan gets angry, he turns up the sarcasm: “Sorry about your friends, though. They’re kind of dead.” He often goes to extremes, drinks frequently, and has a raging fire of anger inside of him. You might too if you’d seen true evil from up close as often as he has.