Sarameg! Thank you - marked.

Bittersweet is not part of the Anna Pigeon series. Track of the cat is the first book.

t /mystery geek

mysteries with strong female protagonists

Me, too! Also, I narrow the field to America women, usually. I'm really into the Agatha Raisin book so might head back into British protagonists for the first time in yonks.

www.stopyourekillingme.com is the best site I've found for the correct book order. It's invaluable when reading your way through all the Rex Stouts's or Karen Kijewski's.

I gave up on V.I. I got sick of her being beaten to a pulp every book. And what's with her not having any friends? besides her landlord or whomever. Not real.

I love Rex Stout because you don't have to read them in any order. I always read one (and sometimes steal it) when I'm at my parents'.

I like Kinsey Milhone...but the loner P.I. is totally a hard-boiled tradition, going back to Marlowe playing chess by himself.SO much difference a preposition makes!

I really like mysteries where they aren't stand-alones and there are progressive changes in the people's lives. Karen Kijewski and Dana Stabenow do that the best, IMO.

I tried and pretty much succeeded in reading the Rex Stout's in order, though it was long ago and far away and I mostly remember now my love for Archie and Nero's obession with shad roe. And orchids, of course.

I'd read my grandmother's Travis McGee's when we'd visit her in Fla. Exotic stuff. They kissed and had sex and stuff! Yup, I'm old.

www.stopyourekillingme.com

Thanks!

I really like mysteries where they aren't stand-alones and there are progressive changes in the people's lives.

Me too. I adore Elizabeth George for that reason, because her cast of characters all change over the series (though, like any series, there are ups and downs in the quality of the plots, IMO).

I've only read a few of hers and they are indistinct in my memory. Did she have one where a garden gnome was sending postcards from all over the world?

Java - she may, but I'm not familiar with it. Using that site, here is the list of her mystery series featuring Thomas Lynley (aristocrat turned detective) and Barbara Havers (working class sergeant). I love the fact that Havers isn't the typical mystery-series woman protagonist especially.

I think the series hits its stride around the third or fourth book, but I enjoyed all of them.

I think that the garden gnome thing is one of the Elizabeth MacPherson (if that's the way she spells it) mysteries, written by Susan McCrumb.