Resolution: I'm taking a vacation from parenthesized characters

Here's what I mean. I happened to alight on Amazon and thought I'd browse their most popular (ok, ok) crime/thriller books.

And with some dismay realized that people now obviously want familiar crime-fighting characters. And yes, I know this is not new: Marple, Poirot, Dalgleish, Holmes, Sanders (huh? remember him?:-) - but they mixed it about, those authors.

But now its scary. I guess this is the thing: I want a good entertaining read. Which I have to fit in between cooking for the family, earning a living, socializing so I can pretend to be an extrovert and all that stuff.

So... I head for the familiar ... J P Beaumont, Harry Bosch, Kay Scarpetta, Inspector Gamache - haven't read all of them, but making a point here about why all the books at the top of the Amazon lists have a title with a parenthesized character name - so you know you are going to bite into a familiar taste.

Nope. Probably will break this resolution sooner or later, but my next 25 books are going to be authors I have not read before. And I shall let you lot pick them for me via the LT recos.

So there.

Still... there was that Lehane (Kenzie and Gennaro) that I have not read yet ... hmm....what was that about resolutions, again? ...

Cheers - and happy unfamiliar reading. If you dare.

so...I don't really know what you're getting at except that it might be that you don't want any more series books. right?

Ahh man I'd never torture myself that way. Paranthesized characters are my favs.

Well it's almost a foregone conclusion, SaraHope, with every book coming out these days as part of a series. It's difficult to find an author with enough clout to still do the one-offs. Everyone is looking for a franchise that will be a moneymaker because of readers like you. And me, to a degree, but I'm really sick of it myself and long for more Ross Thomases and Robert Goddards.

Sorry Bookmarque, if that came across a bit obscurely - I was just being facetious - it was more aimed at me, pushing myself to climb out of my familiarity-box for a while. Would never dream of discouraging anyone from reading *anything*.

And SaraHope: given that I've been enjoying parenthesized characters since Enid B's The Castle of Adventure .... Richmal Crompton's Just William ... and a gazillion others firmly surrounded by aforementioned parentheses for the past ...55+ years, I hear you!

Cheers

I gave up on series a long time ago. They are also the norm in science fiction, the other genre I heavily read. I find, with few exceptions, that the first one or two books in the series may be good, but it rapidly devolves from there. I think writers get bored with it, editors get lazy, because they know it's going to sell. So I also avoid parenthesized characters like the plague.

As for one-offs, have you tried any of Stephen Dobyns crime fiction? I can recommend The Church of the Dead Girls, for example. I don't think his stuff sold hugely, so it may be hard to find, though.

So no series, or just no series you've read before? Because looking through my books, I'm realizing that almost all my mysteries are in a series too! Which I like, because if I enjoy the book, I know there's more to come. But wow, do they even publish one-offs? That's a bummer!

So here's my recommendations. Some may be out of print, because seriously, it's hard to find stand alones!

Charters and Caldicott - English school tie types involved in a murder and dragged into the modern world.
Malice Aforethought - plotting English doctor
The Oxford Murders
The Crime Writer

Those last two are both newish, so it should be easy to find them.

Charters and Caldicott--is that anything to do with the two cricket-lovers in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes?"

Recommendations Bone by Bone by Carol O'Connell, also by the same author The Judas Child. Reginald Hill has written a number of stand alones in addition to his series books. a recent one is The Woodcutter. John D. MacDonald has some good stand alones Barrier Island and A Flash of Green also Ross Mcdonald' Blue City. Dark Places and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.

9 - Yes, I think they are the same. Very funny.

If you go to the websites of the big publishing houses and see what they are recommending for bookclubs you are more likely to get non-series books and, as an added bonus, some of them also give a list of questions or points for comment.

Can't guarantee it won't be the start of a series but I'm currently engrossed in The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi and having real trouble putting it down to sleep. I have a feeling we'll be hearing more of protagonist Mila Vasquez but I guess there's no rule that says anyone has to continue after the first book.

actually, from what I gather reading writer and publisher sites, it is a rule. Many new authors are contracted to multi-book deals with a single character; a series. It's more attractive to publishers if they know revenue streams will increase as the writer gains ground and the character popularity. One offs are far more risky and it isn't as probable that readers will buy subsequent books if they're not expanding the universe from the first one.

#14 I meant reading, not writing :)

oh gotcha...well of course, but usually I can't resist unless I hated the first one. But sometimes after a while, I go off a series, too and just drop it. there always seems to be new ones to take their places though. I feel so used. : )

I like my novels trashy and quick - which makes most series books perfect for me!! But it seems if you come across a book that is, initially, a standalone and it turns out to be a decent read (Butcher's Boy, the Informationist) it suddenly becomes book one of a series...

Kyle Mills has a numbr of books that are stand alone. Although beware, there are three that have the same character. Gregg Hurwitz is another author that has mostly stand alones, but again beware, there is a trilogy in there with the same character.

There are many standalone authors still out there! Depends on the Genre you are looking for. There are also some authors that have both a series and standalone novels:

Here's a few from the 21st century:

James Rollins (Thriller) - Ok, so his first book was 1999, close enough, majority are 21st century. He has many standalones - Subterranean, Excavation, Deep Fathom, Amazonia, Ice Hunt, and a couple of more recent ones, along with his Sigma Force Series that he started after Ice Hunt. My personal recommendation would be Subterranean and Deep Fathom, though the public seems to give the biggest thumbs up to Amazonia

M. William Phelps (True Crime) - All of his are standalone

Ann Rule (True Crime) - The vast majority, if not all of hers, are standalone

David Baldacci (Thriller) - While he has 3 or 4 series that are 3 to 5 books each, he also has about 10 to 15 standalones. Still writing in the 21st century.

John Grisham (Thriller - True Crime) - Of Grisham's 27 books, 2 are part of a series, 1 is Collections (short stories), one is a True Crime novel, and 23 Standalone Novels!

There's 5 I could name off the top of my head that were Crime or Thriller that feature standalone novels.

I've never read anything by Rule or Grisham, but I can speak in the case of Rollins, a character is occasionally used again in a second novel, like the main character from Subterranean is actually featured in one of the books from the Sigma Force series, but generally speaking, different cast each time.

Phelps has to do with different incidents. My favorite thus far has been Perfect Poison, which deals with the case of Kristen Gilbert, also known as the "Angel of Death", (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Gilbert).

There's plenty of stuff out there that's not a series. You just have to search around. A good site to see if an author has Standalones is www.fantasticfiction.co.uk.

"Trashy and quick" - I like that, @crazybatcow. So many of the recurring series books are an attempt by a once-successful author to capitalize on their new found popularity to keep the ball rolling, and so many lapse back into average novel quality. When I "Request" MG or ER books here on LT, I tend to avoid any and all books that are part of a series or that seem to indicate that a prequel is recommended to fully understand background. Yes, I've read a few including the Harry Potter series, The Belgariad series by David Eddings and all of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle. But I tend to stay away from multiple book commitments these days. There is just too much good fiction out there to get locked into to feeling like I have to finish a series.