Here’s a piece by Charles McGrath in the NewYork Times about authors who have killed off their most famous characters. I won’t list them since it’s a bigger treat to read the piece ;-)

For a hook, he reports that J.K. Rowling has hinted Harry Potter may be headed for an untimely demise . . . well, untimely in the eyes of readers, because think about it, when you become engrossed in a book you step into a fictional time, and that fictional time swells into its own infinite bubble with no relation whatsoever to the relentless line we normally walk — so from our perspective, it’s always too soon for a Harry Potter to go, isn’t it . . .