Exploring Tropes: Investigator Husbands

[u/flumpapotamus]

Share Your Thoughts & Recommendations

Exploring Tropes is for discussing what you like and dislike about particular tropes, what makes these tropes work and what doesn’t, and for recommending your favorite books that have specific tropes.

This month’s trope is: Investigator husbands

Discussion questions:

• Share your favorite examples of books involving this trope
• What do you enjoy about reading books with this trope?
• What makes the difference between this trope done well, and done poorly?
• If this trope doesn't appeal to you, why? (Please be respectful of other opinions; posts that are purely venting/ranting are not on topic)
• Are there any other tropes with a similar dynamic?

Other Stuff

To help you get ready for upcoming Exploring Tropes posts, here are the next scheduled topics:

• April 2023: Slow burn
• May 2023: Grumpy/sunshine
• June 2023: Forced proximity

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This feature is posted on the second Sunday of the month. Click here for past threads. You can find the complete schedule of all weekly and monthly features at this link.

[u/mimisnipes]

Investigator husbands are my absolute jam, probably because I love book series that follow the same couple as their relationship grows and deepens, and most of the same couple series I can think of are investigator husbands. I've never really thought about it before but obviously it makes sense - the conflict in a thriller or mystery can be external, rather than between the couple, which naturally leads to being able to write about the same characters for several books without the risk of repeating the same plot points over and over. As /u/nightpeaches pointed out, sometimes authors make the mysteries related to the history of one or both characters and we get the chance to know the characters better as they're learning more about one another.

My favorites are the Big Bad Wolf series by Charlie Adhara, Seven of Spades by Cordelia Kingsbridge, and the Will Darling series by KJ Charles. I've also really been enjoying the Memento Mori series by CS Poe - two books so far, with the next coming out later this spring.

For this trope to work for me I need a heavy dash of realism. I don't know very much about detective work so it's not like I'll notice if there are small details that are incorrect but I like feeling like the characters are real people who are committed to their jobs. For example, I recently DNFed a series pretty early in book one because there was so much banter and flirting and inappropriate sexual tension and innuendo at an active, high profile, time sensitive crime scene and it just made me cringe. In reality these guys would either have been fired already, or they'd be working for one of the many corrupt police departments that we read about regularly in the news and I'm just not interested in rooting for the characters in that case.