My Favorite Series Novels In 2018


  • Nicci French, Freida Klein Series
  • Tana French, Dublin Murder Squad
  • M.C. Beaton, Agatha Raisin Series
  • Linda Castilla, Kate Burkholder Series
I can't remember how I stumbled upon this series, but once I started it, they were all I read until I finished every book.  And at the end of several of the books, my mouth dropped open and I scrambled to find the next in the series.  
True psychological thrillers, this series is about a psychologist who works with the truly disturbed - and in the process, becomes the target of a serial killer, who stalks here through all 8 books.  Definitely read them in order.

I had in my notes that In The Woods was a murder mystery that included geocaching. I can't remember there actually being any geocaching in the book, but it's possible I have forgotten. Because I'm still thinking about the ending - or lack of it.  After finishing this book, I again scrambled to find the next in the series..  only to find that the next book wasn't even about the same people.  The first story, or at least the background story, is never, ever, resolved.  After figuring that out, I read an interview where the author states that that is on purpose, and she has good reasons.  

And although I STILL WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, I didn't run away in disgust, because there is something about the writing that is just. gripping.  Each book in this series is about different detectives in the Dublin Murder Squad.  They build on each other only loosely, in that a background character in one novel may be the star of the next.  We were well into 2019 before I finished this series, but I did finish every book - and I enjoyed them all.  

For much lighter reading, I spent a lot of time with Agatha Raisin last year.  And I frequently laughed out loud as I followed this middle aged PI through her exploits.  When telling a friend about these books, I described her as an older, classier, British, Stephanie Plum.  I recommend reading them in order - not that it is critical, I've jumped all over in the series so far and it hasn't ruined them, but they definitely would be better in order.

Recommended to me by a  retired librarian, she told me they were a mystery series about an Amish woman who left the church and was now a police officer who solves a lot of crimes in the Amish community..  She raved over them, so I picked up the first in the series... and I was not at all prepared for how graphic it would be.  This is not your grandma's Amish mystery.  The details are brutal, but not gratuitous.  It's shocking, without being scarring.  Or perhaps the shock was because I was expecting a typical Amish mystery...  I have only read a couple of these, but I do look forward to reading more of the series in 2019.


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