For the mystery genre in particular, a series allows the story and its sleuth to come alive as more suspense and more crimes can unfold over several books. A series invites readers to become submerged in a story and connect more intimately to the author’s imagined world. And isn’t that the point of reading, after all?
{buybutton id=9068/}J. K. Rowling thinks so. According to the Guardian, Rowling announced that there’s a possibility she’ll write more than seven Cormoran Strike novels. Crime thrillers are open-ended, and the Rowling wouldn’t be tied to one time-bound storyline like she was in the Harry Potter books, which is what gives the genre so much possibility. “I really love writing these books, so I don’t know that I’ve got an end point in mind,” she said. “One of the things I love about this genre is unlike Harry Potter, where there was a through line, where there was an overarching story, a beginning and end, you are talking about discreet stories. So while a detective lives, you can keep giving him cases.”
{buybutton id=9846/}In a post called “Keeping a Professional Distance from Our Book” on the blog Mystery Writing Is Murder, Elizabeth S. Craig says that gaining distance from books is “vital to both editing them effectively, gaining a critical perspective of them, and learning from negative feedback.” Writing a series is one way to create that distance.
{buybutton id=15790/}It is interesting how social media can influence a book series and contribute to the distance between authors and their stories. Today, authors have the immediate ability to know exactly what their readers think of their books via Facebook and Twitter, for example. This feedback serves as a useful reference for authors when they begin writing again.
Looking to dive into a great new mystery series? Check out Dorothy L. Sayers’s The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries, Lawrence Sanders’s Edward X Delaney series, and Malcolm Shuman’s Alan Graham Mysteries series.