Thanks for your comments on yesterday's post, and on Thyme of Death. It's nice to know that you appreciate China (you're all totally great--yes, you are!)
But I really did mean to open a conversation about fictional formulas. I've been reading novels for more decades than I care to count, and I know how difficult it is to do something really new and different, especially in genre fiction, and even more especially in series.
Let's just take the occupation of the female series protagonist, as one example. In Death on Demand (1987), Carolyn Hart set up her protagonist in a small town bookstore. To my knowledge (I may be missing something--you're sure to tell me), this was the first appearance of what we might call the "female small business owner" formula. Diane Mott Davidson gave it a twist in 1990 with Catering to Nobody, and Mary Daheim gave it another with her bed-and-breakfast heroine in Just Desserts (1991). Thyme of Death (1992) made the shop owner an ex-lawyer and put her in a green business, in partnership with a flaky friend. After that, it was granny-bar-the-door. More female protagonists, some with "new" and "different" occupations.
See what I mean? As writers, we inherit fictional formulas the way animals (including humans) inherit genetic codes and cultures inherit memes. The trick is finding ways to work with, within, around, and outside the formulas in a way that appeals to readers' current (and always evolving) interests, expectations, and experience.
So tell us this. Just considering the female protagonist's occupation, what's your favorite? (China Bayles, I hope, but let's set China aside.) When was the first book in the series published? What does it owe (if anything) to previous expressions of the formula? How is it different from previous expressions? (And don't say you can't find all this stuff out. If you don't have the book in front of you, the information is on the Internet.)
Go for it!