In response to my question about how many series kept their
quality longer than the arbitrarily chosen seven books, Kevin
listed:
"Joseph Hansen's Brandstetter books, Stephen Greenleaf's
Marsh Tanner, JDM's Travis McGee, Dewey's Mac series,
Pronzini's Nameless... and where are we with Lansdale's Hap
and Leonard now? They all went beyond six or seven."
Haven't read enough of the Mac books to say, but have to
agree with you on the rest. However (you knew there had to be
a however), I think Travis did peak and go downhill, just not
very far downhill after about 10, and Hansen chose to end the
Brandstetter series before his did. I haven't read the last
Tanner or two, but did he end his series, too? As a matter of
fact, wasn't Tanner supposed to die at the end of Past Tense
before Greenleaf decided not to?
Now there's a question, how many PIs were supposed to die but
given a reprieve by their authors? How may survived their own
Final Problem?
I think it was Gerald who speculated that Parker might have
been supposed to die. Pronzini has said Nameless was slated
to die of cancer after Blowback. Has Greenleaf ever said that
Tanner wasn't supposed to survive Past Tense or is it just
rumor? Any others?
Mark
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