I often wonder how other writers feel towards their series protagonist. My character is the Private Investigator Frank Johnson from Pelham, Virginia. Frank and I have known each other for more than a decade.

That's when a short story featuring him first appeared in a literary print magazine called RE:AL. He's grown up, but so have I as an author. Lots of mayhem stoked his early adventures. After all, he's a hardboiled male PI.

Of late I've noticed a drift in his character to the mellower side of life. He's settled down. He's gotten a fiance. He's learning to take it easy. My concern was his taming might file off the edge, what made him appealing. I can't make the call if it has or not. That's for the readers to decide.

Early on, I read a few of the entire series by excellent private eye writers like Wade Miller, Dorothy Uhnak, Dennis Lynds (a.k.a. Michael Collins), and Stephen Greenberg. I also had the good fortune to interview each author, trying to peg just what made for an interesting private detective in commercial fiction.

So, do private investigator novels still entertain readers? What was the last PI novel that you read? (Mine was E by Sue Grafton.)

Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey