After a long hiatus, I had already decided it was time to resume blogging. Now I have a wonderful impetus to move on that resolution.
The blogger JoAnne Isgro at http://litlequeenrules.blogspot.com has issued a reading challenge for 2014. She has invited her readers to read (or in my case, re-read) the entire 15-book series of Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mysteries by Deborah Crombie and comment upon them. Deborah Crombie has been one of my favorite authors for a long time, so going back and re-reading her entire series will be pure pleasure for me. I look forward to watching the growth of the characters over time with the omniscient view of one who has already seen many of the twists life will hand them.
I know that series like this one aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they are actually my favorite type of novel. While I like mysteries because of the enforced structure (you start with a problem and end soon after the mystery is solved) I am drawn to series because in them, unlike some other mysteries, authors really can't cut corners on character development. If a series is going to be any good, the characters have to be multi-dimensional and they have to grow and change over time in believable ways.
I don't own the earlier books in this series, so I had ordered the first two from my local library. They just arrived and are now sitting on my kitchen counter. I can hardly wait to dive into them!
No comments:
Post a Comment