Whenever I read a series, I sometimes wonder how the characters from one series would mesh with another.
After all, authors who set their novels in the same city are showing us a different side of that setting through the characters who love where they live, flaws and all.
Would Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole like each other if they met on the street?
Well, actually, they have and the mutal respect the authors have for each other showed through their characters.
Both Connelly and Crais have featured unbilled cameos of the other’s character meeting their character. (Trivia experts…do you know which novels I am talking about??!!!)
As I was recently reading Charles Todd’s excellent new novel A Duty to the Dead, I immediately thought of Jacqueline Winspear’s novels, the latest of which is Among the Mad.
This is a compliment to both authors and their characters.
Todd’s A Duty to the Dead introduces a new series from the authors of the Ian Rutledge novels. (Charles Todd is actually a mother and son writing team, Charles and Caroline Todd.)
Todd’s new series character is Bess Crawford, a British nurse during World War I. Here’s a link to my review of A Duty to the Dead that shows the high regard I have for this novel.
Bess Crawford could easily be the younger sister of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs. Or the older Maisie could be the mentor to the younger Bess.
Like Bess, Maisie was a nurse during WWI who in the years since the war ended has become a skilled psychologist and private investigator.
The Bess and Maisie novels are set in different years – Maisie’s war days are over as the world enters the 1930s; Bess is smack in the middle of the war as A Duty to the Dead begins in 1916.
Doesn’t matter.
WWI is the shadow that covers both women’s lives.
While the characters could be sisters or cousins or colleagues, both Todd and Winspear have a different take on their characters, each author bringing a rich palette to their stories.
WWI was a defining time for the world and especially
Great Britain. It ushered in a beginning of women’s rights, the rise of technology and the decrease in emphasis on the class system.
Winspear has been exploring the aftermath of WWI in relation to women for six novels now; Todd is now looking at the women’s role during the war. (Todd also will continue the Ian Rutledge novels.)
The mystery genre is never too crowded for excellent stories.
I think both women would like each other if they ever met. I know I do.
PHOTOS: Charles and Caroline Todd, left, Jacqueline Winspear
