Series of Books

Have you considered the Alex Cross series by James Patterson, or the Women's Murder Club and for something in the fantasy line by more science then HP ..look into Maximum Ride.

All totally great books.

If you really like the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, you might like the Belgariad/Mallorean book by David Eddings. It has a similar premise where a teenage boy discovers he can do magic, and must use his powers to save the ones he loves. However, the Eddings books are a bit more "epic fantasy". There are 10 books in the series, and the read is a little heavier - although just as enjoyable IMO.

I am also a big fan of Grafton's alphabet murders. The problem I find with other series though is that you kind of have to read them in order, which can be difficult to do. Some authors like Barbara Taylor Bradford and Maeve Binchy like to carry their characters over into other books so I find myself with a bunch of books I can't read until I get a hold of the ones before.

Books like Lawrence Sanders Timothy series are good because they need not be read in sequential order. They have the same character but there is no lifestyle change that occurs in any one book that leaves you wondering if you read the latest book before a few of the others.

There are quite a few authors who like to use the same characters in all their books. As a writer, I would find that a little hard to do. I guess most of them are mysteries and our main characters are the crime solvers so of course their stories continue. Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels are a little different because their stories do change. They have a group of detectives. Now Ed McBain wrote a lot of books. I went back and read one of his earlier 87th Precinct novels and found one of the detectives was just a lowly cop on the beat in that book. And their personal lives do come into the picture and changes happen there as well. But I don't feel the need to read these books in order. It would be hard for me to go back and find the books he wrote back in the 1940's.

V.C. Andrews. All of her old books would be like 5 book series. She passed away a few years ago so she now how a ghost writer. I can't remember his name, but he is pretty good. But the publishers don't want the series to be that long now, which I feel isn't the same. You would "watch" the main character grow up throughout the series and now the books take place only over a year or so. And I know what you mean about being sad when you read the last book. I really felt that way when I read the last Harry Potter book. It was just like "Oh, wow, this is it!"