Cozy Mysteries discussion

Have you ever loved a series and then a book in the series just doesn't excite you or you found it almost so predictable you think it could have been written by someone other than the author of the others. Had a hard review today and just wondering if this has happened to others.

Lori, yes, several times. The most recent was last year with G.A. McKevett's Savannah Reid series. The story was still good, but the "voice" was off. As you say, it felt like it was written by someone else. The characters were just "off" somehow. Really bugged me. I hope the new one is back to the old form.

Oh yeah. Sometimes there will only be one book in the center of the series--but sometimes that one book means the series just starts wandering and goes nowhere. I don't know if it feels like the voice was off so much as the author was wandering around and didn't know where to go with the story or characters! Sometimes it feels like a "Filler" book.

I have a friend who is a ghostwriter, and she told me that she has written a book for a well-known author who was just too strapped with personal issues one year to finish one of her series books. My friend cannot divulge who the author is, according to her contract, and it probably wasn't even a mystery author. But, knowing about this one instance makes me believe that it might sometimes happen with mystery authors, too.

One thing I can tell you, though, is that I would NEVER consider using a ghostwriter to write one of my series books for me. Instead, I'd throw myself on the mercy of the acquisition editor and beg for a schedule extension if health/family issues prevented me from finishing one of my books on time.

Beth wrote: "I have a friend who is a ghostwriter, and she told me that she has written a book for a well-known author who was just too strapped with personal issues one year to finish one of her series books. ..."

Beth, I know this happens and I hope that is what happened here. I had copies of the first 2 books in this series and reread/skimmed them again to see if it was just me and after that I have to assume this book was written my someone else or the author had gone through some definite changes or had time constraints. I will be interested to see if there is another book in this series.

It happenes. I have found with long series especially (and this is across different genres) that there will always be one or two books I don't like as well as the others.

Do remember that the author is human and life happens. If they went through something dramatic like a losing a loved one, their home got burgled or caught fire, etc, you get the idea, those things can affect their writing. Perhaps by the next book, they'll get back into the familiar writing grove. I also think time constraints can really make a difference. I felt the last Sookie Stackhouse book was a filler in the series with nothing major happening but she needed to publish one book a year or something for her contract. So far, the first published paragraph of the next book looks good, so hopefully the rest of this next book is better.

ஐ Briansgirl "Book Sale Queen"ஐ wrote: "Do remember that the author is human and life happens. If they went through something dramatic like a losing a loved one, their home got burgled or caught fire, etc, you get the idea, those things ..."

I hear that Harris will only write two more Sookies and then end the series. I'm all for an author wrapping things up when she's ready! Sometimes *I'm* not ready for the author to do it, but I understand it!

I've been wondering how long she'd keep writing the series. You want the author to write as many books as needed for her to tell the whole story. What I don't want to see is the publisher forcing an author to write more that ends up lesser quality just because the series is popular.

ஐ Briansgirl "Book Sale Queen"ஐ wrote: "I've been wondering how long she'd keep writing the series. You want the author to write as many books as needed for her to tell the whole story. What I don't want to see is the publisher forcing a..."

Oh I can see a publisher pressuring the writer. I've seen too many series that go downhill and stay fairly mediocre. Then there's the authors who agree to farm out their name so that more books can be written...it's got to be hard as a writer trying to make a livelihood and wanting to move to another type of book, but being told to stick with a winning series. I do know a few authors who had tried to branch out to something else only to be told by the publisher that they would only buy the series...