The best spin-off book series

If I asked you to name a film or a TV show that had been adapted from a book, I doubt you’d have any issue – books take on a new life when turned into cinema or a show. It can work the other way around, however – when a beloved TV show stops airing (or, indeed, whilst it is on the air), a lot of fans cry out for more, and what better way to satisfy their cravings than companion or spin-off books?

I love crime shows, and I am fortunate in that they really have the perfect set-up for spin-offs – there are always going to be more murders and crimes to solve, and it is easy to bring the detectives back, although with varying degrees of success. Lee Goldberg is an American author who is known for his work on lots of crime shows – as such, when it was decided to start book series for Diagnosis: Murder and Monk in conjunction with the shows, Goldberg seemed an obvious choice to bring them to the page.

His work on the shows means he is truly in tune with the characters and the style of the series – thus, he really brings the stories to life. One of his books is just like an episode of the show – the Mark Sloan he writes is exactly the same as the Mark Sloan that Dick van Dyke plays.

I adore the Monk books – they are written from the perspective of Monk’s long-suffering assistant Natalie, and offer a fantastic amount of growth for the characters, as well as all the humour from the show. On-screen, Tony Shalhoub plays Monk’s OCD with a gentleness and an absurdity that makes it sweetly funny, and this is recognised on-page perfectly. Halfway through the book series, the finale of Monk aired, and the new releases were the perfect way to keep up with the gang.

That sentence has more detail than the infuriating book did

(As a note on the quality of the books, several of them were adapted into episodes – the first, Mr Monk Goes to the Firehouse, formed the basis for a season five episode, Mr Monk Can’t See a Thing, in which Monk is rendered blind while investigating the death of a fireman. Further book-to-screen adaptations brought back Monk’s first assistant, Sharona, and gave him back his badge.)

William Rabkin, Goldberg’s regular collaborator, has also penned some books for comedy-murder mystery Psych. The show, in which a hyper-observant man pretends to be psychic to investigate crimes, is full of fast dialogue and tons of cultural references – again, the books capture this perfectly (even if some of the mysteries are a touch on the naff side).

Not all spin-offs are quite as successful. Donald Bain’s Murder, She Wrote novels (which he ostensibly co-writes with Jessica Fletcher) have been very variable in quality, with some of the worst being too slow, boring and having little in the way of detection. A particularly hated one is Murder in Moscow (spoiler alert, though you’ll thank me later if you read on), in which the solution to the mystery is that it was probably a KGB assassin. That sentence has more detail than the infuriating book did.

If you love a particular franchise, turning to the world of literature can help you embrace it

I’m not just crime shows, however, and that leads on to one of the more interesting literary spin-offs I’ve read. At home, I own a book called Ripped From A Dream, an omnibus of stories featuring everyone’s favourite dream murderer Freddy Kreuger. These I read more out of curiosity than any semblance of belief that they might be good – the authors clearly haven’t done their homework, with any shred of Freddy’s personality stampeded to death by poor writing. Arguably, the world of dreams is perfectly suited to a medium in which your imagination is the only limit, but these books are poorly done – somewhat ironically, they were sending me to sleep.

I’ve only scratched the surface here, and it is very likely that you’ll be able to find some literature to go with whatever you like to watch (especially if it’s American). I haven’t mentioned the many Doctor Who books that fill many a bookstore shelf, nor the companion tomes detailing the backstory of one-eyed Walking Dead antagonist the Governor, nor the numerous Star Wars books looking at all times and areas of the universe (and those are off the top of my head). Often, if you love a particular franchise, turning to the world of literature can help you embrace it and enjoy it in a new enjoyable way, and help it live on long after the credits start rolling.