Giving a Detective Series New Life ‹ CrimeReads

Let's say you have a successful series of detective novels, anchored by a core set of well-established characters - a private detective, his wife, and his sidekick - who, in book after book, are threatened by and finally defeat formidable criminal antagonists.

This detective is smart, smooth, logical, obsessed with his work, and sometimes troubled by that obsession. His equally smart wife respects his ability and devotion to his work, but keeps pushing for more balance in their life together, more closeness. His sidekick is skeptical of everything and everyone, constantly challenging the detective's ideas, but he's always there when the chips are down. The cases that draw the detective's involvement are invariably complex murders with cleverly concealed motivations.