Baldacci, Child, Connelly all have similar tint to their narratives that you may not enjoy.

My second novel Psalm of Vampires definitely borrows from that style to some degree. The villainy in it is a little more nebulous, although there are scenes in it where one of the villains seems pretty psychotic. To say more would be a serious spoiler.

As a writer, my characters take the lead. I don't have a lot of choices where they want to take me.

For sure, I agree that a good villain is key to any type of crime/suspense/thriller novel. A lot of times, writers these days seem to compensate for simple dark villainy by making their main protagonist terribly flawed, sometimes to an extent that feels forced.

As long as people like the folks you mention keep selling millions of books, though, I'm afraid you may be stuck with those kinds of villains, at least in those genres.