# Name your favorite book series you've read based on a single character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 13, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764 "2015-08-13T19:40:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/21 "2015-08-13T22:58:30Z")
Lars Kepler and Jo Nesbo each have series’ that I enjoy Jo has the Harry Hole detective series. His first book kinda sucks (The Bat) and his second sounds shitty (Cockroach), but once he got into his groove I think he is an awesome writer and the Hole character is great Kepler has been awesome from the beginning. The Hyptnotist and beyond all follow Joona Linna and this is my favorite current series BY FAR. Both are Swedish serial killer/detective type novels FWIW ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/22 "2015-08-13T22:59:11Z")
Oh, crikeys, how could I have forgotten Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe? ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/23 "2015-08-13T23:17:58Z")
The _Nero Wolfe_ mysteries by Rex Stout–I specify him because I don’t like that _poseur_ Goldsborough who continued the series against Stout’s will (“Let them roll their own,” as Stout said). But the character is Archie Goodwin. Although I love Wolfe, it’s Archie’s narration that draws me in and makes the books (and crabby Wolfe himself) so endearing. And the _Little House_ books, for Laura. Ooh and the _Betsy-Tacy_ books, for Tib. Again, original authors only, even though Roger Lea McBride is still pumping out books using the Ingalls/Wilder/Quiner family tree. Officially kids’ books, but I still love them both. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/24 "2015-08-13T23:23:44Z")
I’m currently about eight books in to the Richard Sharpe series, and enjoying it hugely! Comparable series are the Napoleonic-era Naval Adventures of… Thomas Kydd, by Julian Stockwin Alan Lewrie, by Dewey Lambdin Nichola Ramage, by Dudley Pope All of these are in the grand old tradition of the Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey series. (I’ve read the Hornblower books and loved them. However, I’ve had a number of people warn me against the Aubrey books, so I’m reluctant to try them.) (Any opinions on the Richard Bolitho novels by Alexander Kent?) Also…pushing the terms of the OP somewhat – the “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” stories by Fritz Leiber. TWO characters, but they’re necessary to each other, like two halves of a whole. (This is actually formalized late in the series.) Finally, the Dominic Flandry stories and novels by Poul Anderson. Spacegoing SF – space battles and evil empires – very thoughtful and deep – and, yeah, kinda depressing. “A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows,” the climax of the whole series, is just about the most goddamn depressing book I’ve ever read. And it’s good enough, I’ve read it five times. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/25 "2015-08-13T23:24:30Z")
“Repairman Jack” by F. Paul Wilson. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/26 "2015-08-13T23:31:14Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > And his … sequel series? … with Virgil Flowers is excellent too. Love that Fuckin’ Flowers! Forgot to mention Kate Atkinson’s four Jackson Brodie novels, starting with [Case Histories](http://www.amazon.com/Case-Histories-Novel-Jackson-Brodie-ebook/dp/B000SEI07S/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1439508591&sr=1-4&keywords=kate+atkinson). These were made into a TV series that was also pretty good. I wish she’d write more of them. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/27 "2015-08-14T00:13:53Z")
David Weber’s _Safehold_ series Hannu Rajaniemi’s _Jean Le Flambeur_ series (3 amazing books, btw) Jim Butcher’s _Dresden Files_ for about 12 books or so; now he could eat a bag of dicks for all I give a shit about this series Brandon Sanderson’s _The Reckoners_ I think those are most recent ones, anyway. Oh! I almost forgot! David Gerrold’s soon-to-be-completed _Chtorr_ series! WOOT! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/28 "2015-08-14T00:32:00Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > . . . Jim Butcher’s _Dresden Files_ for about 12 books or so; now he could eat a bag of dicks for all I give a shit about this series . . . I stopped at about book seven, as it was getting repetitious. I was still kinda liking 'em, but they were a bit weak and wearying. What went wrong after that? ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/29 "2015-08-14T01:02:12Z")
Recently, Atticus O’Sullivan in the Iron Druid series, and I just finished the last of Baldacci’s King and Maxwell series. Right now I’m reading his inexplicable rip-off of Jack Reacher (John Puller? Seriously?). All time? I’ve read all of the Woosters and Continental Op stories. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/30 "2015-08-14T01:19:06Z")
Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple both by Agatha Christie. I never got into her other detectives. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/31 "2015-08-14T01:53:06Z")
Another one for Dave Robicheaux, from James Lee Burke. (he’s a bit like Robert Parker, has turned out a zillion starring Dave, but he has a couple of other series as well.) I have enjoyed Elvis Cole and his sidekick, Joe Pike, by Robert Crais, for decades now. Elvis has really grown and developed. He and Pike are as fine a pair of literary characters as any of the classic teams. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/32 "2015-08-14T02:10:49Z")
I loooved the _Fletch_ novels when I was younger. I still have all the paperbacks, but I haven’t reread any of them in 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![MsKaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@MsKaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsKaren)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/33 "2015-08-14T02:28:44Z")
One of my favorite authors is the previously John Sandford, both the Davenport and Flowers books. My other favorites are Lincoln and Child who cowrite the Agent Pendergast thrillers. Anne Perry has the Monk series and the Pitt series both set in Victorian England. Mo Hayder has the excellent and creepy Jack Caffery series. Tana French has the Dublin Murder Squad. Karin Slaughter has the Will Trent series and the Grant County series. Laurie R. King has the Mary Russell series and the Kate Martinelli. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/34 "2015-08-14T02:58:47Z")
Walter Mosley, the Easy Rawlins series and Leonid McGill series; Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series; Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar series; for a dick so hard boiled :eek:that it is almost satire, Loren Estleman’s Amos Walker series. Bonus read for the anarchist Dopers: Mosley’s novella, “Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large: Walking the Line,” is kinda fun; Lawrence Block’s Keller series is about a hit an and a lot of fun, but not quite what the op called for. ---
**Author:** ![TexCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/texcat/32/9041_2.png) [@TexCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TexCat)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/35 "2015-08-14T02:59:20Z")
How about the Kurt Wallander books by Henning Mankell? And I’d second Nero Wolfe. I am reading one again now, after many years. I really like Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton, but they might be a little girlie for you. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/36 "2015-08-14T04:12:11Z")
Michael Talbot from Mark Tufo’s Zombie Fallout Series. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/37 "2015-08-14T04:41:34Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I stopped at about book seven, as it was getting repetitious. I was still kinda liking 'em, but they were a bit weak and wearying. What went wrong after that? In _Changes_ (#12), Dresden’s sort of GF is killed but he discovers he has a daughter. He commits himself to a course of action to save her, knowing that he is sacrificing his life in order for his daughter to have one at all. It was, IMO, the pinnacle of the series. Unfortunately, IMO (YMMV), Butcher also seems to have taken it as his cue to change everything about everybody everywhere. Rather than quote the whole post, [here’s what I wrote about it back when _Ghost Story_ was published](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14084087&postcount=51). ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/38 "2015-08-14T05:06:13Z")
Seconding Bertie Wooster. It’s actually pretty amazing that Wodehouse managed to have all those stories narrated in a highly stylized tone from the perspective of a complete idiot and they’re still a pleasure to read. (Toodle-pip!) ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/39 "2015-08-14T05:29:53Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > Seconding Bertie Wooster. It’s actually pretty amazing that Wodehouse managed to have all those stories narrated in a highly stylized tone from the perspective of a complete idiot and they’re still a pleasure to read. (Toodle-pip!) Jeeves kinda helps with that 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764/40 "2015-08-14T06:59:18Z")
Sherlock Holmes and James Bond are the granddaddies of this type of thing, but that’s too obvious. I’ll go with Keith Laumer’s “Retief” series, about the futuristic two-fisted diplomat who solves problems behind the scenes while his bumbling superiors hem and haw and still end up taking all the credit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-favorite-book-series-youve-read-based-on-a-single-character/727764.md?page=3)