Series Spotlight: I Love A Good Series

 As well as being a total book-a-holic I also confess to being a serial series reader. I am a huge fan of crime fiction and I largely put that down to a fascination with Jack The Ripper when I was about 11 or 12. I can vividly remember reading a magazine series at the about the same age that featured serial killers called Murder Casebook that was published in the 1980s. Reading these magazines exposed me to the likes of Ted Bundy, the Son of Sam & Dennis Nilsen at a young age and whilst they would have probably given most pre-teens nightmares I used to find myself totally absorbed. Goodness knows what I would of been like if the internet & social media had been around back then. 

So what was my fascination with serial killers? I was exposed to quite a violent crime when I was 5 years old when I was caught up in an armed robbery whilst staying at my grandparents house. It is not something I ever really talk about but it is something that has stayed with me 30 something years later. The men responsible were never prosecuted for the armed robbery but were imprisoned for other offences after one of their crimes was featured on Crimewatch. So I guess for me my fascination has always been good overcoming evil - if you think about it the majority of crime fiction books do feature death and destruction but ultimately the good guys win and the serial killers are caught. 

Jump forward a few years and I also find myself addicted to Crime dramas like C.S.I ,Criminal Minds and The Mentalist. The minds of the sick and twisted still really fascinate me. What makes people do such terrible things? So you can imagine my excitement when I was about 18 discovering Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series and James Patterson's Alex Cross series. These books opened up a whole new reading genre to me and quickly I discovered other authors like Kathy Reichs, Lee Child and Harlan Coben.

I read so many crime fiction series and once I start them I have to operate huge restraint not to devour the whole series in one go. My love of book series doesn't just stop with crime though, I also love fantasy series like J R Ward's the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series as well as romance series like Kate Angell's Richmond Rogue series. At the moment I estimate that I have started just over 100 series with another 100 plus on my to be read list to star. That's a lot of books!

There is just something about a book series. I love getting to know the characters and seeing them develop as the books progress. A book series feels just like come home to an old friend, you develop a connection with the places, you will relationships to go in a certain way- there is just something very comforting about a good series- like putting on your slippers at the end of the long day.

So given how much I love a good series I thought that I would blog a Series Spotlight each week to share some of my favourite series. Please feel free to recommend new ones. What can I say I'm an addict and have no willpower when it comes to series