Robert Cordell

I now have two books in my Benton series on Kindle, Robbers and The Record. Benton is a career criminal married to Colleen, who used to work with him until she became pregnant. She told Benton he could stay or go but she was going to settle in El Paso, Texas and have her baby. Benton stayed and continued his life with her support. Their son, Dory, is now five years old.

Benton works with Ernie Mora, and others, planning and pulling jobs in the West. Ernie and his wife are expecting their first child and both men are doing a balancing act between work and family.

I’ve been a fan of series fiction since I was a kid, beginning with the Hardy Boys and then getting into my mother’s collection. She read Perry Mason, Nero Wolfe, Agatha Christie, etc. I soon branched out to James Bond and then my all-time favorite, Ed McBain’s 87th precinct books. There were fifty-three of those over the years and I read them all. Each new one was like saying hello to old friends. Those of you who also enjoy series know what I mean.

Other series I’ve enjoyed include Travis McGee, Spencer, Alex Delaware, the Prey books by John Sandford and the Harry Bosch books among others. I’ll go to the library and browse series fiction and pick some to try and if I like the first one I tend to read all of them in chronological order. The most recent I’ve gone through are Robert Crais, Lee Child, David Rosenfelt and John Lescroart. There are a lot.

I got into some of the European authors as well. I really enjoyed the Stieg Larson books starting with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Other Euro series are by Peter May, Michael Robotham, Arnauld Indridasen, Robert Galbraith (really JK Rowling) and Ian Rankin.

Those are just a few of the series I’ve gone through. I appreciate any recommendations from anyone.

So I’m here in El Paso working on the third Benton book and I won’t bore you with politics or preferences, I just like to write and to read and presume that you do too.

Please feel free to e-mail me at JRobertCordell@gmail.com.