a good well-rounded villain

Every story needs a bad guy, someone who creates conflict and forces the hero/heroine to step up.  A really good villain is conflicted themselves and are deeper than their actions would perhaps suggest.  No one acts in a vacuum and no one is all good or all bad.  Isn't it boring to read a story where the good guy is perfect and the villain is straight evil.  Think Dudley Do-Right and Snidely Whiplash.  Sure, it's an enjoyable cartoon if you're a kid (at least a kid in my generation), but flat and dull for a mature reader looker for more.  

I admit that creating and sustaining a good villain is at times a struggle for me.  I want the villain to recognize the error of their ways and stop whatever evil thing they're engaged in.  Unfortunately, that doesn't make for compelling storytelling.  So, I've been actively working to add depth and nuances to my baddies.

In  When Broken Sparrows Fly, I started off with one main bad guy (Richard), his conflicted, tortured wife (Salome), two henchmen (probably a little one dimensional, but not everyone can have a deep backstory) and a female assassin who enjoys killing (Greer).  First off, I realized later that there were a couple of problems with Richard.  First of all, he was kind of flat, there wasn't anything driving him, no good in him--he was boring.  Second of all, he just didn't seem truly bad enough.  His motivations were kind of weak (yes, I know greed drives many heinous crimes, but it didn't seem enough for this story).  That's when I demoted Richard to second bad guy and gave him a few more dimensions.  

Henri Laroche became the big bad, and I gave him pain in his past, a driving need for revenge, and a more sinister, all-knowing presence.  Adding him seemed to spice up the story and made the action all the more imminent and potentially life-threatening.  

My current bad guy, (for W.t.W.W.Y.N.) was similarly, driven by greed, and I realized (only 34 chapters in) that that wasn't enough.  I won't go into details, but I hope that my vision for him brings more depth to the story and forces the heroine to lean not on her own understanding but on God.