Idgie Says:
I was slow to start reading these books, as somehow their absolute awesomeness passed me by. I met Craig Johnson about 3 years ago and became intrigued with the stories, but still was so busy with review work that I didn't branch out to try books not already on my desk glaring at me to hurry up, read and review.
My hubby started watching the show about 3 months ago in a delightful binge fashion and I quickly found myself drawn into the characters and plots. Lots of snarkiness and sarcastic humor, which I happen to love.
I decided I needed to try one of his books. I grabbed the first book in the series, The Cold Dish, and was instantly hooked! The characters, descriptives, flow of the wording... all glorious. I immediately bought the second one after finishing. I've since been to several book stores and am picking them up a bit out of order as I find them. The prices have not reduced, not even in the older books, as this is still a top selling series.
You can read them out of order, but I don't recommend it as there are a lot of background nuances going on that are better understood if you have followed the series as it evolves. I now find myself reading the books and watching the show at the same time. Of course the show lasted for 6 seasons and there are only 14 books, so while it's similar, it's no longer overlapping.
I can highly recommend this series and am somewhat glad that I found it late, as I can now binge read instead of impatiently waiting for the next in the series to come out.
