We have noticed a trend lately of secondary characters so intriguing that they deserve a book of their own. The book that started our discussion was John Sandford’s Dark of the Moon which showcases Virgil Flowers. Frankly, I had gotten a little tired of Sandford’s main character, Lucas Davenport, who has gotten a little too full of himself. It’s nice to see Sandford take a risk with a different character and the result is a tightly plotted action packed mystery with interesting characters. I hope we will be reading a lot more of Virgil Flowers. Another author who shares characters between some novels is Mary Kay Andrews. I can’t get enough of her quirky and funny southern women so it’s a delight to see them popping up in books sometimes as a main character, or a supporting character. Who could resist names like BeBe Loudermilk and Weezie Foley?
In an interesting twist on this idea, two authors have teamed up together and have their series characters working together. Philip R. Craig’s J.W. Jackson and William Tappley’s Brady Coyne costar in three novels, the last being Third Strike.
Do you have a favorite author who has done this? Tell us about it!
Posts
Richard North Patterson does this with a twist. In many of his novels, a minor character in one book becomes the protagonist in the 2nd book. Then a different minor character in the second book becomes the lead character in the third. I think he did this through 5 or 6 legal thrillers that I enjoyed immensely. You can't really call them a series as they can be read independently, but they all have a connecting thread.
ReplyDeleteI also loved the Virgil Flowers take-off by Sandford. His next one, Heat Lightning, (due out Sept. 23) is also a Virgil book!
ReplyDeleteP.S. If you like Sandford, he also wrote two earlier mysteries (Empress File and Fool's Run) both excellent, under his real name, John Camp, and featuring a character named Kidd. A 3rd Kidd book, written as Sandford, is The Hanged Man's Song.