Me and my detective by Lee Child, Attica Locke, Sara Paretsky, Jo Nesbø and more | Books | The Guardian

"I've been doing it 24 years now and I couldn't do it any more," says Lee Child as he hands over the reins of his Jack Reacher series to his brother Andrew Grant. He's not the first to tire of his most famous creation. By 1938, Agatha Christie had grown entirely sick of Hercule Poirot, asking: "Why did I ever invent this detestable bombastic, tiresome little creature? Eternally straightening things, eternally boasting, eternally twirling his moustache and tilting his egg-shaped head." And nearly 50 years earlier, Arthur Conan Doyle was equally wearied by Sherlock Holmes: "I think of slaying Holmes ... winding him up for good," he told his mother.

Creating a long-running series featuring a much-loved character can be both a blessing and a curse. As time passes in the real world, the writer has to decide how to deal with a fictional timeline. Is it best to age a hero in real time - Ruth Rendell had Inspector Wexford still solving crimes in his retirement - or to let the world move on but keep your hero young, as Patricia Cornwell does with Kay Scarpetta, who remains around 40 years old for ever ? And how does the character develop as social mores change?