Months or years might pass before the next installment sees print. We are frustrated. We are no longer having fun.
Remember the Harry Potter books, or the mania that was 50 shades? By contrast, Robert B. Parker’s Spencer or Jesse Stone books, as well as Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, feature familiar characters who we know will face a new challenge in each book but which is neatly resolved by the time we turn the last page.
So, discovering a first-to-last already published set of books is a series lover’s dream. Impatience is a thing of the past: finish one and begin the next.
Enter Karen White, who just concluded her four volume Tradd Street series. For the uninitiated, you’re in for a treat. Visiting modern day but historic Charleston, South Carolina, you will encounter complex and mostly likeable characters, a few haunted houses, really creepy happenings, and ghosts with some serious anger issues. A little romance and a lot of humor help balance the scary parts of this compelling but entertaining series. As each book has a cliff hanger ending, you, the reader, know that the next volume is already on your nightstand. (F/White)
Series in order: The house on Tradd Street, The girl on Legare Street, The strangers on Montagu Street, Return to Tradd Street. (F/White)
James Patterson’s latest, with co-author Marshall Karp, is NYPD Red 2. The first in the series, NYPD Red was published in 2012. Set in Ireland, Shadow spell is the second book in Nora Roberts’ Cousins O’Dwyer series, following Dark Witch, released in October 2013. The series wraps up this fall with Blood Magick. Owen Laukkanen’s Kill fee is the third in his Stevens and Windermere Minnesota based crime thriller series. Debbie Macomber’s new Blossom Street release, Blossom Street Brides, takes place in the Seattle area, as does author Susan Mallery’s latest Blackberry Island title, Evening Stars.
So many series! So little time! But, oh so much pleasure.
Happy reading!