Writing a crime series offers writers the chance to create something bigger than a single mystery: a world readers will want to return to again and again. While each book needs its own compelling crime, suspects and satisfying resolution, a successful series also develops its characters, relationships and setting over time. The challenge is finding the right balance between familiarity and freshness, giving readers the elements they have come to love while ensuring every new instalment feels like a story worth telling. I have compiled some useful articles and podcasts on writing a crime series.
How to Write a Crime Series
How to write a crime series: Tips from Tina Orr Munro – Curtis Brown Creative
Drawing on her experience as both a crime writer and former Crime Scene Investigator, Tina Orr Munro looks at the demands of creating a continuing crime series. She emphasises the importance of building a protagonist and fictional world that have enough depth to sustain multiple books, while keeping police procedure and investigative behaviour believable. A strong sense of place can also give a series its own identity, providing fresh possibilities for crimes and stories while offering readers a familiar world to return to.
How to Write a Crime Novel Series That Hooks Readers (2026)
This practical guide suggests thinking beyond the plot of the first novel and considering what will hold the whole series together. It recommends defining the central promise of the series, planning how the protagonist will develop over several books and deciding which story threads might carry forward. At the same time, every novel should offer a distinctive crime and a satisfying resolution of its own. The guide also recommends keeping timelines, clues, locations and character details organised to help prevent continuity problems as the series grows.
Writing a Crime Series | Writers & Artists
Crime writer Holly Watt offers a reassuring account of learning to write a series after her debut became the first of several novels. One of the challenges, she explains, is giving new readers enough background information without boring established fans or spoiling previous books. Keeping a cast list can help maintain consistency, while allowing recurring characters to evolve naturally prevents the series from becoming static. Most importantly, each novel still needs to work as a satisfying standalone story, even when it belongs to a larger fictional world.
Tips and Secrets
5 Tips for Writing a Detective Novel Series | The Novelry
Emylia Hall focuses on what makes readers want to spend several books in the same fictional world. A compelling detective is central: they need enough personality, flaws, relationships and emotional depth to interest us beyond the mystery itself. Hall also highlights the value of an atmospheric, sustainable setting and recommends keeping careful track of practical details such as time, geography and recurring characters. Perhaps most importantly, writers need to remain excited by their own series. If writing begins to feel repetitive, that flatness may find its way onto the page.
This wide-ranging article breaks successful series writing into a number of useful ingredients, beginning with a strong premise that distinguishes your books from other crime fiction. It encourages writers to create multidimensional characters, layer plots and subplots, and use twists to keep individual mysteries unpredictable. Continuity is particularly important: keeping records of characters, relationships, settings and earlier events allows details from previous novels to resurface naturally and rewards loyal readers who remember them.
The Trials and Tyranny of Writing a Crime Series by Linda Hagan – Writing.ie
Linda Hagan reflects on what she has learned from writing eight novels featuring the same detective, DCI Gawn Girvin. While each book requires a fresh and engaging crime, Hagan believes the recurring characters also need to change, revealing more of themselves as the series progresses. For Hagan, one of the pleasures of a series is returning to an already established world while continuing to discover new sides to the people who inhabit it.
Podcasts on Writing a Crime Series
D.K. Hood discusses her Detectives Kane and Alton series. She talks about plotting individual mysteries, keeping recurring characters consistent, sustaining their development, and what she has learned from writing such a long-running series. Very practical for anyone considering a recurring detective or investigative team.
Writing Your Series & Developing Dynamic Characters with Author Stephen Spotswood – Thriller 101
How much should your main characters change from book to book? Stephen Spotswood discusses his Pentecost and Parker mystery series and how he develops characters over multiple novels while still making each book satisfying in its own right. It also covers planning, revision and balancing character development against the mechanics of the mystery.
Episode 56: Writing Literary Mysteries – Interview with Tana French – DIY MFA
This podcast gives a slightly different approach to series writing. Tana French discusses the Dublin Murder Squad novels, including crafting a series, recurring characters, viewpoint, rewriting and genre conventions. Her approach is especially interesting because the protagonist can shift between books rather than one detective always remaining centre stage.
Conclusion
Writing a crime series requires a little more forward thinking than writing a standalone novel, but you don’t need to have every future book mapped out before you begin. What matters is creating characters and a story world with room to grow, while making each individual mystery engaging in its own right. The aim is simple: solve one crime while leaving readers eager to come back for the next. I hope you have found this week’s column useful. As always, please get in touch if there are any topics you would like me to cover.
(c) Lucy O’Callaghan
Instagram: lucy.ocallaghan.31.
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