My Literary BFFs
I can only think of two long-term series where I’ve read every single book in the series, some of them twice.
I’m not talking about Harry Potter, here. Or Lord of the Rings, or the Hunger Games. Those ended after several volumes (or seven in the case of Harry Potter).
No, I’m talking about Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series beginning with One for the Money. I can’t wait for Twisted Twenty-six to come out in November!
Or Sue Grafton’s alphabet series that sadly ended on Y is for Yesterday with the author’s death in 2017. Or Robert Parker’s 40 Spenser novels.
What makes a series popular and enduring year after year? Even though we love our heroes and heroines, a great sidekick keeps readers coming back for more.
In my favorite mystery series, the main character’s best friends serve multiple purposes. Sometimes they show up in times of trouble like Nancy Drew’s pals Bess and George. Others are loyal to a fault like Samwise Gamgee is to Frodo.
A great best friend makes a good story better, whether as comic relief or to get our hero out of a tight spot. Boston Private Eye Spenser had his alter ego, Hawk. Spenser often got hung up on his white knight moral code, but when a bad guy needed to disappear, boom—there was Hawk with his own form of justice. When the shooting stopped, the two exchanged humorous banter.
Janet Evanovich writes about my favorite duo, Stephanie Plum and Lula. At first, Stephanie judges Lula for her clothing choices and whatever diet she’s following that ends in a trip to Cluck in a Bucket. Later stories show Lula teaching Stephanie how it feels to live in her part of town, or survive on her minimum wage job. Lula has skills that Stephanie finds valuable, and best of all Lula’s car never gets blown up.
Not every story has a best friend. Readers have to work harder to guess why the main character does what they do by looking for clues in their actions alone. Sue Grafton’s character Kinsey Millhone—although mostly a loner—had her landlord, Henry Pitts to bake her bread and pick up her mail when she went out of town. And would we ever fully recognize what an arrogant loner Sherlock Holmes was without Watson’s selfless nobility?
The sidekick shows the reader aspects of the main character we wouldn’t see except through the eyes of a friend. Harry Potter in the first book is not always a nice kid. Granted, he grew up shunned by his adopted family and slept in a cupboard, but some of his prickliness was just his personality. Ron was always tripping over his tongue and saying something he later regretted. The truly awesome Hermione is the reason we stick around for later books. She always solves the puzzle, studies harder than anyone else, and instinctively knows the right thing to do.
Most heroes/heroines wouldn’t survive more than a couple of books without buddies. If readers see the same formula time and again, we get bored. When we connect with the main character’s family and friends, we become more invested in what happens to the whole community. With each new book, I look forward to visiting Trenton, N.J. year after year, like a vacation.
When I began my Cassandra Sato mystery series, before I wrote one word on the page, I thought about all my favorite authors and series. Cassandra’s BFF Meg is sassy, and readers have told me their relationship reminds them of their real-life best friends.
A good best friend can finish your sentences for you, and tells you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it. Don’t we all wish for a friend like that?
Like visiting Harry Potter World at Universal Studios, as readers we want to be immersed in a fantasy land where we become part of the friend group.
It’s your turn:
What are your favorite series?
What’s the most books you have read by one author?
Why do you like it so much there?
This updated and revised post was originally published in June, 2019 here.