Yesterday as part of the A Month of Faves event hosted by Kim and Tanya of the blog Girlxoxo.com, I shared “My Top 5 Favorite Fiction Books Read In 2020” and tomorrow as part of the event, I will share “My Top 5 Favorite Nonfiction Books Read In 2020.” Today I’m writing on on my own topic not part of the events with series that didn’t stick for me this year, with series either I read the first one or abandoned in the middle of the first or sometimes second one.
In alphabetical order, by last name of author, are the 10 series that just didn’t “grab” me:
- The John Madden series by Rennie Airth
- The Albert Campion series by Margery Allingham
- The Wind River series by Margaret Coel
- The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey
- The Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter
- The Phryne Fisher (Miss Fisher) series by Kerry Greenwood
- The Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths
- The Dalziel and Pascoe series by Reginald Hill
- The Lew Archer series by Ross Macdonald
- The Inspector Wexford series by Ruth Rendell
As always, a few notes:
- Not that John Madden.
- I tried reading four of them, because they were made into TV shows that either I liked or had seen.
- I feel bad about three of them, because friends recommended and I wanted to like them for one reason or another (or several). Sorry, friends (you know who you are), they just didn’t work for me.
- Seven were British murder mysteries, which I thought I liked. Maybe not? Maybe I like them in TV series more than books.
- At least, it was split even with five men and five women. So I can’t be considered misogynistic…

There is one series, though, that I’m sticking with, despite it being completely outlandish and maybe because it is and I’m just going with it in this crazy year, is the Serge Storms series by Tim Dorsey.
So are there series that just don’t stick for you or work for you? Or what are the ones that do?
Author’s notes: 1. I opted not to go with book covers in this post because a. I didn’t necessarily want to promote series that don’t work for me and b. because to be honest, I just didn’t want to take all that time finding them. Mostly, it was b, though. 2. What got me thinking about this topic was watching or trying to watch the later series of CSI after William Petersen, who played Gil Grissom, left. Finally, this weekend I decided to pull the plug and give up on ever finishing the series. And I’m okay with that.
I read the first in the Expanse series but haven’t gone on. I would like to check out the show though.
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I read the first book in a series…and…stop. I know, I know, it’s odd, but it’s just how I am. I was shamed by my students into reading the entire Harry Potter series after I admitted to them I’d only read book one. (“And you call yourself a librarian!” they goaded me.) I can’t think of any other series I’ve read to completion.
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That’s really sad. 😉
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Interesting to see the Inspector Morse series on here. I haven’t read them, but just finished watching Endeavour, which is about Morse’s early years. Now I want to watch the series that covers his later year. But, I haven’t read the books.
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You’ve finished watching all of the Endeavour?!? No fair, we’re still working my way through them. 😛 Skip the books. Watch the shows.
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I used to really enjoy a good series but not anymore. I think my brain just flits around too much. I need to switch things up a lot lately.
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I’ve always been a series person, but lately…
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I’m not a huge fan of series books, I seem to give up midstream so I wouldn’t lose sleep over this LOL
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Don’t worry. Not losing (a lot of) sleep over this. 😉
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It happens. No big deal. We all have our own things. 🙂
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I really wanted to like it. I just didn’t like the relationship part of it. I guess I didn’t want a soap opera, which has happened to me with other books too.
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