Finishing a great book can be both a wonderful and frustrating experience. Although there’s an endless selection of other books out there for you to read next, there will always be certain characters and universes that make you extra hungry for more. Immediately. When that happens, nothing is better than discovering that the book you just finished is part of a long-running book series.
Here are a couple I’d recommend, especially for those of you who enjoy crime/mystery/thrillers:
Dennis Lehane’s Kenzie-Gennaro Series
This Boston-born writer, with books like ‘Mystic River’, ‘Shutter Island’ and ‘The Drop’ under his belt, is one of my favourite authors, and the Kenzie-Gennaro novels are devilishly dark and entertaining. Although ‘Gone, Baby, Gone’ might be the most famous book from the series, this was actually the fourth book about private investigators Angie Gennaro and Patrick Kenzie. Lehane has written six books about the Boston detectives, and both the stories and the characters are well-written, engaging and rarely too unbelievable. Bubba Rogowski might just be my favourite sidekick character in any book series. The series starts with ‘A Drink Before The War’, and is probably my favourite from the series together with the aforementioned ‘Gone, Baby, Gone’. Aaand ‘Darkness, Take My Hand’. Yeah, they’re all good.
Plenty of Lehane’s books have been made into movies as well, and I mentioned a couple of them here.
Michael Connelly’s Bosch Series
It’s been 25 years since Michael Connelly introduced the world to Detective Harry Bosch, and the Los Angeles based detective has now featured in 26 different books, 21 of them out-and-out Harry Bosch novels. One of the really great things about Michael Connelly’s books is that his writing is never made overly complicated. His explanations are meticulous and simple at the same time, but he always brings the reader along for the ride in a very smooth way. Connelly worked as a crime reporter for several newspapers before his career as an author, which in many ways shines through in his writing. This guys knows the police and how they run their investigations. There are also a lot of other interesting characters involved, including, Jack McEvoy, Eleanor Wish and the Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller, whom Michael Connelly have also written several books about. Some personal favourites in the Series include ‘The Black Echo’, ‘A Darkness More Than Night’, ‘City of Bones’ and ‘The Wrong Side of Goodbye’.
PS: Do check out the TV Series ‘Bosch’ based on the Book Series. Titus Welliver is brilliant in the lead role, and the 3rd season will be out this April on Amazon. Author Michael Connelly is involved in the TV Series as well.
Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar Series
Humour and plot twists. These would be two keywords I’d attribute to Harlan Coben’s Bolitar Series. There’s definitely a certain element of humour in the aforementioned Kenzie-Gennaro and Bosch Series as well, but for Coben this is a much more integral part of the story-telling and his dialogues. The main character, a former basketball player turned sports agent Myron Bolitar, is running his own agency, with sidekick Win helping out as muscle on Myron’s little side business as a (more or less involuntary) private investigator. The books are fast reads, funny, at times a bit too mushy (believe or not), but definitely entertaining. Coben is also a master of the classic plot twists, leaving you constantly guessing where the story will take you. This Book Series has 11 books out, with the latest one ‘Home’ released last year (2016). And no, you don’t have to be a fan of sports at all to like the books.
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