One of the great things about a TV series (for instance, "Six Feet Under" or "The Shield") is that you get to explore various facets of the lives of your characters. In a film you have maybe two hours to do this, in a series you can have literally hundreds if it's a long runner like "The Sopranos." You can do the same thing in a series of novels with the same protagonist.
One of the genres that is most friendly to the series format is crime fiction. Of course some series never get much beneath the skin of the protagonist, they just have him or her solving different crimes. Many more, though, also use this format to explore what happens in the personal lives of their characters and how they change over time.
In an interview with bookreporter.com, William Kent Krueger talked about this in the context of his mystery series featuring former sheriff Cork O'Conner. In his most recent book in the series, "Vermilioin Drift," here's the situation:
"Cork is very much alone in this book. He’s lost his beloved Jo. His children are away, either in college or simply gone for the summer. Adrift in his life in many ways, Cork has to ask himself repeatedly the question, “Who am I now?” This sense of alienation from all that’s been familiar in his world is further intensified when he begins to uncover dark secrets about his parents and realizes they weren’t necessarily the people he believed them to be. So much of the foundation of Cork’s own identity is rattled in VERMILION DRIFT. I believe a part of the attraction and the suspense of this novel is Cork’s journey to rediscover or redefine himself in light of all the startling revelations delivered to him in the course of the story."
I'll be candid: I don't read all that many mystery series books because too many of them feature characters I don't care about solving mysteries I don't care about,and I really don't want to give over much of my brain space to serial killers. But just the description above makes me want to read this one. If you can hook readers who are into the dynamics of character as well as the procedure of solving crimes, you've doubled your audience--and a publisher will like that.
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