I will have to look and see if Nora has ever made an official statement about why she writes the timeline for this series the way she does. I feel like any answer might unfortunately be unsatisfactory to people who want the series to move at a faster pace.

The simple answer is that it’s fiction, and Nora can write her fictional world the way she wants, but again, unsatisfactory, I know.

For me, the timeline seems fine. We get two books per year and each book advances the timeline by one or two months, so, after 50 books, that would be about 4 years of “In Death” Time.

I suspect a faster timeline might cause more fans to clamor for Eve to get pregnant, which Nora has said would be the end of the series. Considering that, I’m happy for the slower pace, even though I agree the timeline doesn’t always make sense. But that’s okay, too, because . . . fiction.

I suspect similar reasons to RitaLTCX. Many things would have to change as they do in anyone's life if it progressed faster. For example, the issue of Eve refusing promotion (she can't do that forever and that would dramatically change potential story lines), It probably feels slow because there are only the 2 books a year. I'm up to my 4th read through (skipping the books with the worst of the sexual violence as they don't get any easier to read for me) so I don't feel it so much. It's more like a TV series and to be honest I don't really pay much attention to the dates and timeline except for each time I get to the mid to high 30's (can't remember which book) where Trueheart is referred to mistakenly as 'Officer' well after being promoted to Detective. Probably, as with everything to do with writing it's one of those 'you can't please everyone, even the fans' issues.

I must have been confused because Trueheart doesn't become a Detective until Devoted in Death (In Death 42).

Yes, I didn't remember that continuity error, but there are so many, I thought I might have missed it. I love the series anyway, and am currently re-listening to it. Again.😉

I think spacing the stories so close in literary time is brilliant. In real time the story started a quarter-century ago. I don’t really want to see Eve and Roarke wrinkled and creaky and too tired to “do it” all of the time or getting too old to beat up the bad guys. And who could possibly replace the surely-retired Mira, Feeney, and Whitney? And Summerset might really HAVE become a cadaver. Time needs to continue to “advance” according to In Death time, not real time. The reader does, however, have to use some very creative mental gymnastics to reconcile the time warp of some events (books, movies, babies, etc). Lol.

I agree. Starting the series 60 years in the future was a stroke of genius, and one of the reasons it has remained popular and interesting for so many years and for so many books. I'm not sure, but I think I remember reading somewhere that originally it was supposed to be a trilogy only, ending with the wedding in Immortal.