The arrival this week of Janet Evanovich's newest Stephanie Plum caper,
Notorious Nineteen, is a reminder of how popular a mystery series can be. In addition to Evanovich's count-up, Sue Grafton's 'alphabet' books featuring Kinsey Millhone have 22 installments (
V Is For Vengeance was just released
in paperback),and Michael Connelly's just-published
The Black Box is his 18th Harry Bosch novel, a number matched by James Patterson with his Washington D.C. detective Alex Cross with the recent release of
Merry Christmas, Alex Cross. There are dozens more, of course, and that's not counting classic series from the likes of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Rex Stout.
And then there are authors whose series continue after their death. The most recent example is Robert B. Parker, who wrote 39 Spenser novels and 9 featuring small-town chief of police Jesse Stone. Boston detective Spenser's lineage has been extended by author Ace Atkins with
Robert B. Parker's Lullaby, and Michael Brandman has already penned two more Jesse Stone volumes,
Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues (now out in paperback) and
Robert B. Parker's Fool Me Twice. If you are fans of either series, these won't disappoint
- both authors have captured Parker's style nicely.
But what if you've never read these authors, and you try one of their books and like it? If you're like me, you'll want to go back and start at the beginning to see how the character has changed or progressed over the life of the books. That means finding the first book in the series - pretty simple with Evanovich's
One For the Money or Grafton's
A Is For Alibi, but others don't reveal themselves as easily.
So for those of you who are interested, here is a first-book-of-the-series list to get you started. I've noted all those mentioned above and thrown in a few other contemporary authors whose names might be familiar. (The name in parenthesis is the author's protagonist.) Email me some of your favorite firsts as well at
hut@nciba.comCara Black (Aimee Leduc)
Murder in MaraisLee Child (Jack Reacher)
Killing FloorAgatha Christie (Hercule Poirot)
The Mysterious Affair at StylesAgatha Christie (Miss Marple)
The Murder at the VicarageMichael Connelly (Harry Bosch)
The Black EchoPatricia Cornwell (Kay Scarpetta)
PostmortemRobert Crais (Elvis Cole)
The Monkey's RaincoatLaurie King (Mary Russell)
The Beekeeper's ApprenticeHenning Mankell (Kurt Wallender)
Faceless KillersSara Paretsky (V.I. Warshawski)
Indemnity OnlyRobert B. Parker (Spenser)
The Godwulf ManuscriptRobert B. Parker (Jesse Stone)
Night Passage James Patterson (Alex Cross)
Along Came A SpiderDorothy Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey)
Whose Body?Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe)
Fer de Lance
this week. 
rhymes with 'betray us') was due to publish in December, but recent events surrounding Petraeus and the book's author, Paula Broadwell, caused publisher Penguin Books to get the book into stores sooner.