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Series you used to like ...
I was close to bailing on the Joan Hess Claire Malloy books for a while, but the last one was decent. Her other series set in Maggody is better but not as popular for some reason.I mentioned this in another thread but the Jill Churchill series featuring Jill Jeffrey became unreadable.
I've always liked Claire Malloy, but I do understand your feeling; I haven't read any Maggody.
Two series that I used to like and miss very much are, first, Dennis Lehane's Patrick and Angela series and Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series.Lehane said he's out of ideas to continue his series with Patrick and Angela.
Coben decided to write a new series with Mickey Bolitar, Myron's teenaged nephew. It's a YA series. I read the first book in the series. Myron does make an appearance, but the book is below my reading level and teenagers bore me. So the rest of the series doesn't interest me.
The Robin Cook series with Jack Stapleton / Laurie Montgomery. It started off pretty good but the last few books have just been unreadable. Very sad because with my nursing background, I love medical thrillers. Cook has really lost the "thriller" part of his writing.
I have given up on the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell the plots have become more and more unbelievable and the main characters have become too self centred and thoroughly unlikeable.
I gave up on that one when the werewolf "Loup Garou" appeared - ugh!
He was introduced a few years ago; I think there must have been at least a half dozen books written since then.
John wrote: "He was introduced a few years ago; I think there must have been at least a half dozen books written since then."yeah, that's when i stopped liking the series but i must be a glutton for punishement because I TRIED to read a couple after that & i really suffered thru them!
I like the Scarpetta as well, although I haven't read her newer novels yet.
Jenni wrote: "I won't touch anythng with a werewolf, a vampire, or a zombie in it! I might though watch a distopia film with an odd zombie."I can understand why people might not like the genre, Jenni, but there are some excellent series out there, like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series and Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series.
The Sookie Stackhouse series is pretty good.
Jenni wrote: "Still won't touch it. I haven't even watched any of the Twilight Saga movies; and I shan't."You aren't missing anything, but maybe a few laughs.
Just like many of you, I have become disenchanted with the Kay Scarpetta series. However, I am a loyal reader to a fault and can't seem to stop reading the series. I still love the main characters, I just wish Cornwell would write some happiness into their personal lives. I feel so depressed when I am done reading one of her books.
I have read five titles, that I remember. And yes, they do get a bit samey.
My focus used to be on SciFi and Fantasy too, Ashton, but nowadays, I'm definitely more mystery-centric. I have been getting back in to SciFi and it's rekindled my interest in it.
Jenni wrote: "I won't touch anythng with a werewolf, a vampire, or a zombie in it! I might though watch a distopia film with an odd zombie."Have your tried The Passage by Justin Cronin? It is quite the read and, I think, worth the time. It is post-apocolyptic with locust-like vampire entities serving as the terrifying enemy of the surviving humans. Not your usual monster fare.
The two series I can think of that I've given up on have already been mentioned: Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski series and Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series. It's been years since I read anything by either. I gave up on them for somewhat different reasons, though. With Warshawski, I just got tired of the main character's abrasiveness, which seemed to get worse as the series progressed. I couldn't figure out how someone that touchy could even make a living, and I realized that I didn't much want to read about her. As for the Cornwell, well, it was a combination of factors. Scarpetta herself also became increasingly difficult to stomach, but the real turning point for me was the same one mentioned above, the werewolf books (he wasn't a "real"--as in supernatural, actually changing into a wolf--werewolf); one was bad enough, but when it continued on into another book (and for all I know, beyond that one), the idiotic, baloney plots just were impossible to swallow.I was going to give up on Dexter after book three and its bizarre swing into dark fantasy, but I've been told that the subsequent books basically ignore all that guff about the serial killer spirit being some sort of primordial malevolent supernatural force. So, I might go back. I do have book four somewhere, but I got it before reading book three.
I wouldn't say I've given up on Grafton's Kinsey Milhone books, as I haven't made a conscious decision not to read them any more, but at the same time, while writing this post and thinking about the question, I realize I'm not quite sure where we are in the alphabet, nor which was the last one I read. T, maybe? Or was it U? That I don't remember is not a good sign. In that case, though, I can't really put my finger on why it's palled for me, as I don't recall becoming disaffected with the character and/or finding the plots lame or stale (as in the above examples). Maybe because stuff about Kinsey's family and past seemed to be becoming more prominent and just didn't interest me as much as her solving mysteries with no personal component.
Haven't read a Matt Scudder book in years, either. Not sure why, as I've read other stuff by Lawrence Block recently. Just lost track, I guess.... I'm not even sure how many I've missed.
I gave up on P.Cornwell as well....it just got toooooo gruesome for me, and yet I'm really into the Scandinavian, Nordic, Russian, writers that have burst onto the scene lately.I started reading Dexter, then got into the TV series big time!
I'm finding lots of books are cookie cutter books and am trying desperately to fund something that isn't,
I love Dexter!!! Have you read Dexter After Dark?
I used to really enjoy Kate Atkinson's 'Jackson Brodie' series and for some reason I just forgot about her (although I'm def. interested in reading her books again!). I left most of my books at my dad's house and without skimming my bookshelves regularly I tend to forget certain authors. I also used to enjoy John Sandford's 'Prey' series but I have zero interest in ever reading that again. I can't even remember why I enjoyed the series in the first place! I would rather read books that are less commercial with more depth, I guess.
I used to run out and get Elizabeth George's books as soon as they were published, but she has become unreadable. The books are too long and ponderous and bloated. As Jenni mentioned in aother post, sometimes the personal lives of the recurring characters overwhelm the mystery plot. When the inspector's wife, Helen, was killed in one of the later books, I was actually happy--that's how sick I was of her!
Leigh wrote: "I was close to bailing on the Joan Hess Claire Malloy books for a while, but the last one was decent. Her other series set in Maggody is better but not as popular for some reason.I mentioned th..."
I love the Maggody books. They're my go to books when I need a laugh.
S.W. wrote: "I used to run out and get Elizabeth George's books as soon as they were published, but she has become unreadable. The books are too long and ponderous and bloated. As Jenni mentioned in aother po..."Lol! I remember thinking, when I read that one, "damn, she killed the wrong wife!"--that's how sick of Deborah Alcourt St-James I was by that point. I forget which book it was--one or two before Helen got killed--when Deborah was presented in such absurd, unbelievable terms that I was beginning to hope she'd fall off a cliff or something. However, post-death of Helen, I've enjoyed the ones I've read. The one about the kid who shot Helen is hugely long and grimly depressing but very well done, I thought, and the one after that was solid, as well. Mind you, I'm two books behind (at least) at this point.
I used to like Lilian Jackson Braun"the cat who" series. Very well written and entertaining mysteries - with wonderful characters - for a long time. Then the series declined and the last few books are simply unreadable. Sad.
I would rather the author end a series when they loose interest, than drag it out and ruin it.
It's such a disappointment when you start a new book in a series that you loved and you can't see why you loved it before. I agree with so many people here! After book 5 Cornwall got repetitive. Never could get into Patterson at all. I liked the last Warshawski, but a few of the ones before then I had to stop reading before page 50. To add a new name into the mix, I would wait anxiously for the latest Jeffrey Deaver, but I haven't been able to get into his last couple of books.
I no longer read John Gresham. I read many of the first few books but then decided he was writing with a formula. He took a lot of time developing the plot and then concluded so rapidly I was disappointed. It seemed that he knew how many pages he would write and did not allot enough for the conclusion.
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series has lost its heart and warmth. It started about three or four books ago, and it's just gotten so ho-hum. Her Lizzy and Diesel series also lacks warmth which is what the Kay Scarpetta books lack these days.
I think they get bored with tithe characters and the need stay within the parameters of the story.
I imagine that after say 15 or 20 years they might like to exercise their creativity and make new characters and stories but the public, when we love a character want more and more. It happened to Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Patricia Cornwell, right off the top of my head. I think sometimes we expect too much!
I liked Sue Grafton books, but they have suddenly took a turn to the macabre. I like classic writing. Her other alphabet series is good. M.C. Beaton's books her earlier ones are good, Hamish Macbeth is better. Have not read any of her regency books, though,
I think I stopped reading Sue Grafton after letter "L". I just got bored with it.
It does get old really fast, she should have another series about her older gentlemen Henry and his wife, that would make for some hilarious insightful reading!
Beth wrote: "Two series that I used to like and miss very much are, first, Dennis Lehane's Patrick and Angela series and Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series.Lehane said he's out of ideas to continue his serie..."
I LOVED Lehane's characters and the books they were in. Too bad he's done with them, but better to let the series die a natural death than prolong it unnaturally, don't you think?
Jenni wrote: "Oh and Kurt Vonnegut books. I haven't picked one up in a decade."Sadly, they don't all hold up as well as you'd imagine. But I love Vonnegut. He spoke at my son's college graduation and I'll never forget his theme. Every so often, he said, when you're enjoying something, you've got to stop and say to yourself, 'Is this great or what?' Sounds simple, but I think of it as a way to live consciously and ensure that the good moments don't pass unnoticed.
I've bailed on a couple series.Pat Cornwell because her characters seemed more intent on exercising their egos than solving crimes.
Elizabeth George because her books just became too long-winded and slow to be enjoyable.
Janet Evanovich because Sephanie Plum never improved her skills, stayed as inept in the fifth book (the last one I read) as in the first.
Dave wrote: "I've bailed on a couple series.Pat Cornwell because her characters seemed more intent on exercising their egos than solving crimes.
Elizabeth George because her books just became too long-winded a..."
I too bailed on Cornwell but I stuck it out a lot longer than I probably should have. I read 15 books and the last 5 I was annoyed with them. I only read the first Plum book and just can't bring myself to read more because, you're right, she never improved her skills - you can see it in the first one. And while I'm a ditzy clumsy person myself, I at least know better than to put myself in an idiotic situation like she does.
The one I'm having a hard time with right now is the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay - they started out with a bang and seem to just be getting worse and worse. The Tess Gerritsen Rizzoli and Isles series has gotten a bit tedious for me as well but I would not call them bad by any means. I think the problem with Gerritsen for me was just that I read the first 8 or so within a month of each other and I've always done best when I break up a series. I just enjoyed them so much at first that I couldn't stop. Pacing myself with Kathy Reichs, Joanne Fluke and the Left Behind series among a few others has made me thoroughly enjoy the experience. I find that if I don't want to go back to a series within a month of finishing a book in that series, It's not one worth finishing for me.
I used to like Tess Gerritsen, but her subject matter left me cold.
Reading one or two of her books again but they are the earlier stuff. The early stuff wasn't too bad
I used to like Stuart Woods mystery series with Stone Barrington but I got fed up with every female Stone ever encountered (apparently) feeling compelled to have sex with him. It was always unbelievable but after a while it got boring as well.
I enjoyed the detective inspector Anna Travis series by 'Lynda La Plante'. Anna is in an on off relationship with the chief inspector in each novel the relationship unfolds, La Plante is a superb thriller writer & some of her books have been turned into TV shows in the UK.
Eyehavenofilter wrote: "I gave up on P.Cornwell as well....it just got toooooo gruesome for me, and yet I'm really into the Scandinavian, Nordic, Russian, writers that have burst onto the scene lately.I started reading D..."
Sounds as if you could do with reading something that will make you laugh for a change. Try Irish author Ruth Dudley Edwards, featuring Baroness 'Jack' Troutbeck. So funny.
M.Welman wrote: "Jenni wrote: "Still won't touch it. I haven't even watched any of the Twilight
Saga movies; and I shan't."
You aren't missing anything, but maybe a few laughs."
I ran out of steam reading the Sue Grafton Alphabet Series, right around the letter M. Sometimes it's mindless fun to read formulaic books, sometimes its annoying.
Kathy wrote: "Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series has lost its heart and warmth. It started about three or four books ago, and it's just gotten so ho-hum. Her Lizzy and Diesel series also lacks warmth which ..."
Exactly. Early Plum was exciting and you started to care about the characters. I think somewhere after Diesel popped in, the series became too zany and the plots were recycled over and over. I still read them when I borrow them off someone else, but it has become a yawn-fest of late.
Exactly. Early Plum was exciting and you started to care about the characters. I think somewhere after Diesel popped in, the series became too zany and the plots were recycled over and over. I still read them when I borrow them off someone else, but it has become a yawn-fest of late.
I really use to like the Pendergast series (one of the more interesting & unique protagonists in contemporary mystery series) by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston but they have been going downhill for some time now & the latest one was really bad so I won't possibly return to the series.Another author I really loved was John Grisham, he was the first adult author I ever read but I gave up on him after The Confession now he simply rehashes all his older ideas.But I hear his recent books have been much better so I may return to them.
I used to love - Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, Jilly Cooper's Rupert Campbell Black, Patricia Cornwell, Jonathan Kellerman, Lee Child, Alex Kava but after a while they get old real quick. Is it the Author or is it us? I mean we all want more but do they have it to give? I'm sure that they end up hating their characters in the end too!! I'm currently doing a YA stint (just because I have a YA daughter reading and I want to see what is going on) in a couple months I'll go back to thriller or horror or classics - we as readers have to mix it up or we get bored. Oh and I love tacky Vampire rubbish as much as I love Dickens - why not? it's like having cereal for dinner instead of veg ;)
Reluctantly, Harry Bosch. I my continue with the Lincoln Lawyer series, if there are any more. I won't be reading a series about Bosch's daughter as a new cop, which I sense coming up. Kay Scarpetta. I did not care for Cornwell's abrupt switch from past to present tense. I prefer consistency in a series. Odd Thomas. I love Koontz, but gave up after two Odds. Rizzoli and Isles has gotten too weird for me. And, reluctantly, Robert Langdon. Inferno was my last.It's a shame, because many of the early books in all of these were really good.
Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers
Books mentioned in this topic
The Confession (other topics)The Passage (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Lincoln Child (other topics)Douglas Preston (other topics)
John Grisham (other topics)
Lilian Jackson Braun (other topics)
Laurell K. Hamilton (other topics)
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Sara Partesky's V. I. Washawski books became just too grim for me. Sorry!
I ended up bailing on Ellen Hart's series featuring Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless as well.