Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

It’s not uncommon for an author to have more than one series. Some authors showcase different main characters in their collections of short stories, too. What’s interesting is that very often, one main character will become far better known than the other(s), so that readers associate an author with that protagonist. Some readers may not even be aware that an author has more than one series or protagonist. I’m not sure exactly why this happens, but it seems to happen to a lot of authors.

Most readers of crime fiction, for instance, associate Agatha Christie with Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, her two best-known protagonists. Some fans love her Tommy and Tuppence Beresford stories, too. Fewer people, though, are familiar with her somewhat enigmatic sleuth, Mr. Parker Pyne. He’s a former government employee who describes himself as a ‘detective of the heart.’ He appears in fourteen of Christie’s short stories, so he doesn’t feature in as much of her work as do her better-known sleuths. Even so, it’s interesting that he never caught on as a popular sleuth in the way that Poirot, Miss Marple, and the Berefords did. What’s even more interesting is that both Felicity Lemon and Ariadne Oliver got their starts in the Parker Pyne stories. Before Miss Lemon was Hercule Poirot’s frighteningly efficient secretary, she worked for Mr. Pyne. And Mrs. Oliver knew him before she knew Poirot.

When you think of Reginald Hill, you probably think of his most famous sleuthing team, Superintendent Andy Dalziel and Inspector Peter Pascoe. Those stories are beloved by readers all over the world, and of course, the television adaptations have gained them even more fans. During the 1990s, at a time when the Dalziel/Pascoe series was being published regularly, Hill also wrote another series featuring Joe Sixsmith. Unlike Dalziel and Pascoe, Sixsmith is not a police officer. He’s a former lathe operator who’s hung out his private investigator shingle. There are (as far as I know) only five Sixsmith novels, and they don’t seem to be as well-known as are the Dalziel/Pascoe novels. And yet, fans of Sixsmith say they’re as good or better. It may be that the series didn’t go on long enough to catch on, or that the Dalziel/Pascoe series was already well established and was a fixture for Hill fans. It could be something else, too. Whatever the reason, people are much more likely to think of the Dalziel/Pascoe series when they think of Hill’s work.

We see a similar sort of phenomenon with the work of Ann Cleeves. Beginning in 1999, and through the 2000s, she’s become world-famous for her Vera Stanhope series and her Jimmy Perez series. Readers associate her with both of those series, and of course, both have become even better known through television adaptations. Prior to those series, Cleeves wrote a series of novels featuring Inspector Stephen Ramsay, who lives and works in Northumberland. The books were successful at the time, and in fact, are still sought out. But the Vera Stanhope series became extremely popular, arguably eclipsing the Ramsay series. The Jimmy Perez series has also won a worldwide audience. All three series are well written and arguably of high quality. And yet, we’re much more likely to think of Vera Stanhope and/or Jimmy Perez when we think of Cleeves. There’s no doubt that the television adaptations and the fact that those two series are more recent are both factors. So, very likely, is the fact that Cleeves hasn’t, to my knowledge, published a Ramsay mystery in several years. Still, it’s interesting to see how different protagonists catch on with readers.

Many Michael Connelly fans associate him most closely with his Harry Bosch character. And it’s not hard to understand why. Bosch has become a mainstay of the world of crime fiction, as has his creator. And Bosch’s half-brother, attorney Mickey Haller, is becoming well-known and popular, too. As with other fictional detectives, television and film adaptations have played an important role in that popularity. But even without them, Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller are, to fans, iconic figures. But Connelly has written other main characters as well. I’ll only mention two. One is former FBI profiler Terry McCaleb. He left the FBI for health reasons, but that doesn’t mean that he’s stopped using his skill as an investigator. Another is investigative journalist Jack McEvoy. Originally from Colorado, he moved to Los Angeles and became well-known for uncovering the identity of a serial killer (The Poet tells that story). McCaleb and McEvoy each ‘star’ in just a few books. But they also make appearances in some of the Harry Bosch novels. In that sense, they’re part of the Bosch universe, and it’s fascinating to see how Connelly weaves his protagonists’ stories together. But McCaleb and McEvoy are also individual protagonists, and that’s interesting, too.

Gail Bowen has garnered an international audience for her stories featuring political scientist and retired academic Joanne Kilbourn Shreve. These novels take place mostly in Saskatchewan, and weave together Joanne’s professional and political lives with her home life. In later novels, there’s also a look at the legal world of her husband, Zack. The series has been adapted for television, but even before that, the series was popular and gaining more readers all the time. What you may not know is that Bowen has also created a series featuring late-night radio host Charlie Dowhanuik, usually known as Charlie D. His callers depend on him, and in the first novel, Love You to Death, that relationship becomes crucial when some of his callers are murdered. The police begin an investigation and want to use his show to try to flush out the killer. It’s a different sort of series to the Joanne Kilbourn Shreve novels. There are four novels, written between 2010 and 2013, and it’ll be interesting to find out whether they’ll find a really wide audience.

There are other authors, too, who’ve written one series that really took hold, and another that isn’t so well known. There are several reasons why that can happen; many times, it’s likely a constellation of those reasons. If you’ve read more than one series by the same person, which do you prefer? Why do you think some series are less well known?

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Tom Springfield and Jim Dale’s Georgy Girl.