It is frustrating to read a great book and have to wait for the author to write their next book, especially if it is a series. Certain authors put out a new book every year and some write even faster. Unfortunately, there are those authors who take years between novels. Over the next few months, several authors that you may have read years ago have finally completed another book.

Reading right now:

Award winning author, Lisa Sandlin wrote the first book in her Delpha Wade series “The Do-Right” in 2015. Four years later, the second book in her series is finally making an appearance. After getting out of prison for killing one of the men who tried to rape her, Delpha Wade’s job choices were few until she got a job with PI Tom Phelan. The second novel, “The Bird Boys,” continues their partnership.

On hold right now:

“Wall Street Heat” by Phillip Jennings once more launches CIA agents Gerard Finnegan Gearheardt and Jack Armstrong back out into the world of international spies. In 2005 and 2007, Jennings wrote two books in his Gearheardt and Armstrong series. Finally, after 12 years, Jennings has added a new book to this series called “Wall Street Heat.” These are not really mysteries, but are definitely thrillers with a twist. The books are insanely comic and the first book (“Nam-a-Rama”) which took place in Vietnam was called a “combination of Catch 22 and Apocalypse Now.” The second book had our heroes messing with Cuban/Mexican relations in “Goodbye Mexico.” If you’re a little crazy and want to try something unusual, these books are for you.

Rene Denfeld has taken only two years to write the second in her Naomi Cottle series, but two years seems a long time when you are waiting for a new favorite. Denfeld’s first book introduced a fascinating woman who finds missing children when the police have given up the search called “The Child Finder.” The second “The Butterfly Girl” continues her search for those who need her the most.

John Galligan’s fly fishing mystery series ended in 2011 and eight years later he has finally written another book called “Bad Axe County.” This could easily be a start to a new series about the first female sheriff in rural Bad Axe County, Wisconsin, taking over as sheriff to find the job takes her places she never anticipated going including closer to finding out about the death of her parents over twenty years ago. Hopefully it won’t take him another eight years to write the next book.

Kerry Greenwood may be best known for her 1920s series featuring Phryne Fisher. I wish I could say that she is adding to that series with a new book, but that’s not to be. What she has added to is her Corinna Chapman series with “The Spotted Dog” being the seventh in the series. The last in the series was “Cooking the Books” which came out eight years ago. After eight years, it may be hard to pick up the character again and remember what happened before. But knowing Greenwood’s books, it is probably worth it.

Other Mysterious Things:

Michael Crichton has been dead since 2008, but like many authors these days that isn’t stopping him from continuing to write. In 1969, Crichton made a tremendous splash with “The Andromeda Strain” and now, 50 years later, comes a sequel to that technothriller called “The Andromeda Evolution.” Crichton and Daniel H. Wilson have writer’s credit on this new book. Wilson’s Science Fiction books have included the Robo series which started with “Robopocalypse” in 2011 and continued with “Robogenesis” in 2014. In November, we’ll see if this sequel has as big a influence on our culture as did “The Andromeda Strain.”