Perhaps the culprit is our collective shattered attention span, but mystery-and-crime-fiction series aren’t hitting the best-seller lists the way they used to, which is a shame because we could all use a little comfort right now. There’s joy to be had in re-encountering familiar characters in new situations, and of seeing an increasingly fractured world put to rights—on the page, at least.
These three books are all the third in a series, so the writers are still playing with their formulas and keeping them fresh.