New series

    Andrew Vachss is the author of the Burke series of novels, a bunch of very, very hard-boiled books. However, he brought the series to a close a few years ago. Whether he did so before it got to the Burke vs. the World Crime League level (forgive gratuitous Buckaroo Banzai reference, if one can ever be gratuitous) is debatable. Even before he wound up the series, though, he would bring out non-Burke books with the promise that they were the start of a new series. And now he has a new novel out that also is supposed to kick off a new series.
    This one, "Aftershock," may really turn out to be a series-starter. It's like Burke got married and moved into a Norman Rockwell painting. And then starts killing anybody who might threaten his idyll. (Note: this would be a great idea for a novel featuring a particularly high-strung and Navy SEAL-trained Norman Rockwell.)
    The thing is, I have no problem with it not being a series, nor did I have any problem with the earlier ones being or not being in a series. I'm just wondering what the deal is. Does he or do his publishers think that we out in the hard-boiled peanut gallery will only buy books that promise to be part of a series? I can't imagine why; I mean people can count. Vachss is 70 years old now. For all that Ludlum is still producing novels in spite of being dead for Wikipedia knows how many years, I don't think Vachss' popularity or credibility would transfer particularly well to another author writing posthumous novels for him.
    I do kind of enjoy picturing a writing factory in New Hampshire like Solzhenitsyn had for a while there, but I don't think that Vachss would go for this either. His work is too important to him. http://www.vachss.com/