Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Have you ever wondered why an author stops writing a mystery series?

Since I started writing this blog, I have become more aware of the sudden end to a series I’ve been enjoying, and I’ve thought about why the series ended as it did.  I imagined a few scenarios:  the author simply has run out of creative ideas; the author can no longer find a publisher interested in continuing the novels; readers are not buying the books in the quantity they did before; the author dies.

But what happens to the readers who want the series to continue?  They may experience what AI calls “post-series depression,” a term that was unfamiliar to me but succinctly captures the let-down feeling that I imagine we’ve all experienced at one time or another.  According to the site Medium, it’s “the sadness felt after reading or watching a really long series or story. The bitter feeling when you know the journey is over, but you don’t want it to end.”

A similar term I found online is “book hangover,” a sense of loss when a series ends.  What happens to the characters that you’ve spent so much time with?  Is there a book heaven where they can meet and talk about their adventures?  Or do they simply disappear forever?

Two of my favorite authors wrote several mysteries in a series, then left me hanging when they stopped writing.  One is Julia Keller, author of the Bell Elkins books that feature a female prosecuting attorney in a small town in West Virginia.  Ms. Keller began in 2012 with A Killing in the Hills and ended with The Cold Way Home seven years later.  A lot happened to Bell during that time, but the last novel ended, in my opinion, without a satisfying conclusion.  After a major discovery about her past, how will she cope with this new information?  Her world has been rocked, and readers don’t know how she will handle it.

Another author who left me with a serious case of post-series depression is Harry Bingham.  His Fiona Griffiths novels feature a young detective in the Cardiff, Wales police department who suffers from Cotard’s Syndrome, a rare psychiatric disorder in which an individual holds a delusion that they are dead, do not exist.  I had the pleasure of corresponding with Mr. Bingham several times, and I was under the impression that a seventh book was “in the works.”  Sadly, that apparently is not the case, and it appears as if I, along with thousands of other readers, will never know Fiona’s future.

This is in contrast to the Nero Wolfe and Spencer books.  Years after Rex Stout’s death, Robert Goldsboro was given permission to continue the series; the same is true for the Robert B. Parker books, which have been continued by several authors.  Do I enjoy these novels as much as those written by Stout and Parker?  No, but other readers may feel differently, simply glad to be reading about their favorite detectives.

Do authors owe the readers of their books a satisfying conclusion to their novels?  I do realize that this is not the most pressing problem one can have, and there is no one right answer to this issue, but I’m sure I’m not alone with my “post-serial depression.”  I’d be interested to know your feelings about this.

Marilyn