I'm trying to get into the habit of doing an annual update post on the series I read and while we're in coronavirus lockdown seems like an ideal time to take a look at the list. It's not really for anything other than my own records and use but I always love it when someone comments with new recommendations for series to try. Also it's extremely useful to remind me that I haven't read a book from a certain series in a while. I notice it's been a year since I read a Kate Shugak book (Alaska based). Longer than that in the case of the Adamsberg books but I'll have to wait for the libraries to reopen before I can get the next one of those.
I've added two new series too, Mrs. Pollifax and Cork O'Connor, both seem very promising. And I have a couple of new ones to start, the Wiki Coffin series by Joan Druett and the Bell Elkins series by Julia Keller.
The
'I'll get back to them at some stage' list is still there too, and sometimes a series will shift off that and come back into circulation as in the case of the Sea Detective series by Mark Douglas-Home... I've just read book three in that series and it was 'excellent'.
So, series I read from on a regular basis:
Crime - currently reading:
Charlie Parker - John Connolly - (read 12... up to book 13)
Ruth Galloway - Elly Griffiths (read 11)
Lord Peter Wimsey - (read 11)
Bruno, Chief of Police - Martin Walker (Read 6)
Comm. Adamsberg - Fred Vargas (Read books 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9)
Kate Shugak - Dana Stabenow (read 9)
Armande Gamache - Louise Penny (read 9)
Simon Serailler - Susan Hill (read 3)
Rabbi Small - Harry Kemelman (read 2)
Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear (read 7)
Nick Dixon - Damien Boyd (read 3)
Romney Marsh - A.J. MacKenzie (read 2)
Sea Detective - Mark Douglas Home (read 3)
Cadfael - Ellis Peters (reread 5)
DCI Dani Bevan - Katherine Pathak (read 1)
Imogen & Hugh Croft - Katherine Pathak (read 1)
Cork O'Connor - William Kent Krueger (read 1)
Mrs. Pollifax - Dorothy Gilman (read 1)
Also crime, but series I haven't read in a while but will get back to at some stage:
Montalbano - Andrea Camilleri (read 5)
Matthew Shardlake – C.J. Sansom (read 3)
Flavia de Luce - Alan Bradley (read 7)
Daisy Dalrymple - Carola Dunn (read 22)
Rizzoli and Isles - Tess Gerritsen (read 8)
Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes – Laurie R. King (read 5)
The Lewis trilogy - Peter May (read 2)
Gordianus the Finder - Steven Saylor (read 2)
Medicus - Ruth Downie (read 2)
Kate Burkholder - Linda Castillo (read 2)
Reverand Clare Fergusson - Julia Spencer-Fleming (read 3)
No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency - A. McCall-Smith (read 11)
Hannah Scarlett - Martin Edwards (read 6)
Jacquot - Martin O'Brien (read 5)
Enzo McLeod - Peter May (read 2)
Inspector Wexford - Ruth Rendall (read 2)
Where the next genre is concerned the problem is a different one. This genre just does not interest me as much any more. And yet when I do read something from it, I usually enjoy it and find it a refreshing change. So this list will remain and I'm not going to put stress on myself over it, just read from it as and when I fancy.
Sci Fi, Fantasy and horror - both adult and young adult:
Mercy Thompson - Patricia Briggs (read 6)
Jackelian - Stephen Hunt (read 2)
Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch (read 4)
Liveship Trader - Robin Hobb (read 1)
Astreiant - Melissa Scott - (read 2 1/2)
Hyperion - Dan Simmons (read 1)
Lady Trent - Marie Brennan (read 3)
Cloud Roads - Martha Wells (read 1)
St. Marys - Jodi Taylor (read 1)
Pern - Anne McCaffrey (read loads... ongoing)
My tastes have changed so much over the years it's incredible. Even over the last three or four years I've developed a taste for vintage crime that wasn't there before, suddenly wanted to know more about WW2, I'm reading much more in the way of non-fiction travel writing, and am just starting to dip my toe into the modern fiction genre that tends to involve family secrets and a lot of history. It's all great fun and let's face it... we all really need that at the moment.
Keep reading and stay safe.
~~~oOo~~~