Mark,
Of course, the perfect number of books in a series is
entirely arbitrary. Some series remain vital, some go on too
long. And Gerald, for all the crap I've been giving you (and
getting back, not claiming I came out ahead), I've got to
agree with your overall way of measuring Chandler vs. Parker.
It's like comparing the Beatles and the Stones. The Beatles
broke up at a good time. The Stones gathered moss -- what's
the last Stones album you cared about?
Anyway, in order for a series to remain vital, it needs to
remain fresh. I find it interesting how many PI writers hit
that wall at the same time. I'm not talking about at the same
time (or volume) within the series, but at the same real
time. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by the following,
considering most of them happen at the beginning of books:
John Francis Cuddy's girfriend died at about the same time as
Kat Colorado's boyfriend, which was around the same time that
not Everybody Dies, but a number of Scudder's friends did in
the book of that title (the second time Block changed the
state of that series). Finally, while Robert Crais didn't
kill off any regulars (too bad he did kill off a very
promising new character he probably couldn't have
controlled), he did seek to remake his series.
All of these series were of different ages at the time, but
these books all came out in 1998 and 1999. So what happened
the length of time it takes to write and publish a book
before that to affect that many writers?
Mark
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