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January 28, 2009

Comments

L. Charnes

One huge advantage to serial titles: you can always tell where you are in the series.

I like to read series in order; it helps with the main character's growth, and I can better understand the references to previous adventures. I'm probably not the only one with this kink. So why do publishers make it so hard to figure the order in which the series installments came out?

If you want to have a subtitle instead of serial titles, then at least make it "The 3rd Ignatius Q. Mayflower Mystery," and make sure the first one is marked as such. I might actually buy it then and there...instead of leaving the store to go home and research the author to find the title of the series opener.

Mark Troy

I agree that overly-sequenced titles are boring. The exceptions are JDM who was the first, in my memory, to come up with the color titles, and Grafton with her alphabet titles. To me, Grafton's approach carried the concept to the extreme and, IMHO, should have been the end of it. I thought there should only be four Stephanie Plum novels because that was all that the rhyme allowed, so I haven't read past four.

Marian

There's days of the week as well - the Rabbi Small mysteries, which begin with "Friday the Rabbi slept late". After seven books, though, I think the author started using titles with "Some Day" or "One Day".

And for me, nursery rhymes in mystery novel titles began with Agatha Christie. :)

Jersey Jack

So what are you recommending? Unique ingredients or cheeseburgers? Maybe the idea is to somehow find both.

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