How Do You Create a Series Detective

Well, I have to say that I agree with both of you a bit, and disagree a bit.

I disagree with your wife about the issue of marriage. Many unmarried detectives and, in fact, MOST of the series characters remain unmarried. Sometimes there's a long-standing love interest that bounces from hot to cool from book to book (Lilian Jackson Braun's "The Cat Who" series, Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone, etc.), and other times the person just plays the field (Rex Stout's Archie Goodwin in the old Nero Wolf series, Christie's Hercule Poirot, etc., etc.) On very rare occasions, such as the Mrs. Pollifax series, does the character actually get married. This is probably because mysteries are very single-minded, and it's hard to balance (in the plot) a real-life, believable relationship.

So, no--I don't think the hero has to marry off to continue a character development arc. In fact, I think the opposite might well be true in this series. As the hero progresses more toward a law-abiding life, he's going to become increasingly "aware" of his lady's progression toward a life of crime. It's sort of like an ex-smoker who becomes ultra-sensitive to smoke. Whether or not he MENTIONS it, it will keep bugging him. At the very least, her lack of a moral center will start to eat at him. The internal struggle in the second and third books might really tie your readers to the character.

Now, I disagree with you that the character should be two-dimensional. It's always better to have BOTH a strong plot and strong character development. That doesn't mean you have to tell the reader everything. But, if the book is the crisis that interrupts the character's life--then the character has to HAVE a life to be interrupted.

As a matter of fact, at lunch today, I wandered around with my co-author
through furniture stores, trying to decide how my two leads in the paranormal I'm writing would decorate their respective apartments. This is a very critical element to character development, and is often overlooked. By picking furniture and SEEING it, you start to get backstory. This deepens your characters subtlely and draws the reader closer to the person, making the reader empathize and WANT the hero/heroine to succeed.

Your cast should likewise have backstories. Every one of them. Even if you change the cast from book to book, there should be enough info on each person who appears that they COULD have their own book later, if the mood strikes you. Most of the long standing series have done this, and it's served them well.

Hope that helps!

Changes

I think character development is important in any kind of novel, and extra so in detective novel series. You don't want to change the character into another person, but everyone changes as they have more experience, as they grow older. Your character needs to reflect this, and no character should ever, for any reason, be two dimensional.


I would agree that you should not change them too much from book to book. Changes usually take place over time. Over several years, unless some deep trauma causes the change.

I don't really agree with your wife at all. That's way too much, way too soon. . .unless the wife gets killed or he's accused of stealing from the business.

If you haven't already read them, I'd strongly suggest Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels. I don't think any writer out there has better reflected realistic changes in a protagonist's life over time than Block does in these novels.

Jamesaritchie said:

I think character development is important in any kind of novel, and extra so in detective novel series. You don't want to change the character into another person, but everyone changes as they have more experience, as they grow older. Your character needs to reflect this, and no character should ever, for any reason, be two dimensional.

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True, as long as the character development does not start to detract from plot. While it's a matter of personal taste, for example, I find that in the case of Kellerman's protag Alex Delaware, over time there's a bit too much of the marital travails with his wife, Robin. If I'm reading a thriller, I want to be thrilled.

Wesley Smith said:

I may have misrepresented what I meant in my earlier post. While I certainly want to have a well-rounded protagonist, I still want him to be basically recognizable as the same guy in the 10 novel (God willing).

For successful series characters, they don't change much over time.

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We must be reading different successful series, which is entirely possible. In the ones I read, the characters do, indeed, change over time. I can't think of a single successsful modern mystery series where the character remains unchanged over so many books That wouldn't be at all realistic.

Even Sam spade and Philip Marlowe went through some changes.

You still know who the character is after ten novels, but there had better be some serious changes in what the character does, how he thinks, how he feels. Life's experience needs to change him.

Kellerman

dantem42 said:

True, as long as the character development does not start to detract from plot. While it's a matter of personal taste, for example, I find that in the case of Kellerman's protag Alex Delaware, over time there's a bit too much of the marital travails with his wife, Robin. If I'm reading a thriller, I want to be thrilled.

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I can see that, but I don't read many thriller series. None, unless you count Clive Cussler as a thriller writer. I didn't even know the Kellerman novels were thrillers. I thought his novels were considered mysteries. But I think I've only read one Kellerman novel in my life. It isn't because I don't like him, he's just one of those writers who slipped through the cracks. So many writers, so little time.

I read mystery series, primarily, and mysteries and thrillers are miles apart.

But I want character development in any series. I'd also say character development is easier to handle in a series because it can be spread over several novels. It shouldn't take away from the thrills, no matter how much the character changes over many novels.

Oops. I came in with a premise and discovered I was confusing writers. I was going to argue that Lawrence Block did have a character that didn't necessarily change over time, but then I realized I was thinking Lawrence Sanders who has a character named Archy McNally, a semi-playboy still living at home and working for his dad (but not with his dad) at the father's law firm. McNally's character never seemed to change and I always thought that was part of his charm.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Oops. I came in with a premise and discovered I was confusing writers. I was going to argue that Lawrence Block did have a character that didn't necessarily change over time, but then I realized I was thinking Lawrence Sanders who has a character named Archy McNally, a semi-playboy still living at home and working for his dad (but not with his dad) at the father's law firm. McNally's character never seemed to change and I always thought that was part of his charm.

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One of the problems with a character who never changes is that the series tends run out of steam after about six or seven books. I can think of two authors--thriller writer Clive Cussler and mystery writer Sue Grafton--who both suddenly turned up with major character changes late in the series because the series was starting to run out of steam. It's hard sustaining a series if the characters don't change; each book invariably sounds like the last.

I think Lawrence Block is a great example of a writer whose characters do change but only gradually--like real people. Realtionships developed over 8-9 books, not two. The change within a book will be more nuanced.