This week’s Booking Through Thursday question was certainly relevant to me (I’m wondering if I’m the Jennifer who suggested it).
If you read series, do you ever find a series “jumping the shark?” How do you feel about that?
And, do you keep reading anyway?
I happen to be a big series fan. I enjoy the extended opportunity for character development, and how a story line may be revisited in later books. I read a number of mystery series by a number of different authors. Below is a short list of some that I can remember:
- Ann Perry
Sue Grafton
Janet Evanovich
Jeffrey Deaver
Robert B. Parker
Sarah Paretsky
At some point nearly all of the series that I’ve been reading take some sort of turn, either a change to more serious, characters make decisions that they’ve been putting off, or venues change. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it seems completely out of the blue.
I have to admit, that I have felt like some have jumped the shark, but I rarely give up on the series. I did stop reading James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club, but it was partly due to lack of availability (I pretty much only read library books at the moment), rather than a conscious decision to stop reading. I tend to keep hope alive.
I knit alone 
Janet Evanovich has been coming up in converstaion a lot lately-I just might have to look into her novels!!!
I’ve come across Jeffrey Deaver quite a bit lately, but didn’t realise he was a series writer. So many authors are these days though so that shouldn’t surprise me!
It’s good you don’t give up hope so easily. Sometimes they can get back on track and better to stick with it incase it does rather than being disappointed and wondering.