Saturday, December 15, 2018

Series I love and re-read


Today at Sleuth Sayers, John Floyd posted a list of 20 of his favorite series (characters & authors) (https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2018/12/a-series-conversation.html).  So I wondered what my list would look like (restricting myself to mysteries; not necessarily in order of preference).  I want to emphasize that these are (clearly) not the only mysteries, or mystery series, I read.  But I own them all and re-read them all.  I got up to 17 series and stopped.

[Author, series character(s).]

Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe).  The best, number 1.  El supremo.  (http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/S_Authors/Stout_Rex.html)

Frances and Richard Lockridge (Mr. & Mrs. North.  I like their other series characters, but not well enough to put them on this list).
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/L_Authors/Lockridge_Richard.html
Michael Bowen (Richard Michaelson).  (http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/B_Authors/Bowen_Michael.html)

Tony Hillerman (Both the Joe Leaphorn and the Jim Chee books)
(http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/H_Authors/Hillerman_Tony.html)

Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey)
(http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/S_Authors/Sayers_Dorothy-L.html)

Len Deighton (his nameless spy series and the Bernard Samsom books).
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/D_Authors/Deighton_Len.html



Lawrence Block (Bernie Rhodenbarr; not really a Scudder fan)
(http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/B_Authors/Block_Lawrence.html)


Parnell Hall (the Steve Winslow books, written as J.P. Hailey)
(http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/H_Authors/Hall_Parnell.html)

Alan Furst (no single character dominates, but World War II is, really, the character)
(http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/F_Authors/Furst_Alan.html)

(Walter Satterthwait (Joshua Croft; Miss Elizabeth Borden))
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/S_Authors/Satterthwait_Walter.html



John LeCarre (George Smiley; but also the non-series books)
(http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/L_Authors/Le-Carre_John.html)

Alan Gordon (the Jester mysteries)
(http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/G_Authors/Gordon_Alan.html)

Dick Francis is not on this list because he didn’t actually have a “series” character (although Sid Halley does appear, what, three or four times?).
(http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/F_Authors/Francis_Dick.html)

Dashiell Hammett is not on this list because I’m not a big fan of the Continental Op; The Maltese Falcon, is, of course, in  a class by itself.

4 comments:

  1. Pronzini - Nameless?
    No Agatha Christie?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm not a big fan of Christie, to be honest. It's hard to say why I'm not, exactly. Partly it's that I don't like Poirot (he's a bit too mannered for me...Yea, I know Wolfe is over the top too, so sue me). I like the Miss Marple movies a lot better than the books (one example of a problem I have with the Marple books in in the immediately preceding post.


    And I like Pronzini; I just don't find his stuff re-readable.

    As I learned in my high school Latin class, "de gustibus non est disputandum."
    (There's no arguing abut tastes.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Have you tried The Pot Thief series by Michael Orenduff?

    KarenM

    ReplyDelete
  4. T read the first 2 or 3, and they were OK, but didn't hook me. For whatever reason, they didn't resonate with me. (I still have a couple, as yet unread, but I haven't been motivated to get to them.) Probably just me...

    ReplyDelete