Guest Post

Guest Chick: Sue Hinkin and a Giveaway!

Becky here to welcome my fellow Colorado writer, Sue Hinkin, to the nest. She’s had a fascinating career as a TV news photographer which she ultimately parlayed into a successful book series. Because she’s an all-around good egg (see what I did there?), she’s offering the first three books in her Lucy Vega and Bea Middleton series to a lucky commenter! Her sixth and final book in the series—The Snake Handler’s Wife—will be out October 2025. If you’d like to read an ARC (advanced reading copy) of it, email Sue with SNAKE ARC in the subject line (sue_hinkin@msn.com).  

Endings: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

L. Frank Baum paved it and Elton John sang about that iconic road. You’ve just travelled your own long, wonderful and difficult highway as you finish writing a book, or even more challenging, a whole series. Now it’s time to wrap it up. When it comes to endings, whether of a relationship, an experience, an ability, or a great story, some people cry, some rejoice, others take selfies and move quickly on to the next.

Personally, I’m an endings avoider. I just finished the final book in a 6-novel thriller series. As a pantser, or rather an organic/stream of conscious-type plotter, I found crafting the ending as excruciating as writing the first page years ago. But we writers have a solemn obligation to deal with the grief of endings and properly bid the characters and the readers a satisfying final au revoir (note the avoidance), as well as plant the teaser for our next book.

Following are common types of endings in crime fiction, or any fiction for that matter.

Resolved/Tied in a Bow
No loose ends, all questions answered and the fate of the characters is known. I’ve recently been watching Death in Paradise on Brit Box/Prime Video, which is a terrific example of a mystery that neatly ties up everything in the end. Carolyn Keene’s beloved Nancy Drew novels do the same.

Happily Ever After
More often in cozies and romance novels. In Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott, Mrs. March’s finals words are: “Oh my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!”

Tragic
This ending offers the inevitability of sadness and despair, foreshadowed from the beginning of the book. Dennis Lehane’s brilliant thriller, Shutter Island, is a classic example of a tragic ending.

Open-Ended
The open-ended finish lets readers use their imagination to spin the tale further in any direction they find interesting. In Tess Gerritsen’s I Know a Secret, the protagonist muses: “She knows I am guilty and she’ll be watching me…I am who I am, and nobody can watch me forever.”

Twist

The Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk is a twisty story where the two central characters turn out to be the same person. The ending leaves readers to reevaluate everything they’ve read. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, with their unreliable narrators, accomplish a similar end.

Epilogue

The author gives us a peek summary of what happens to the characters after the close of the story. William Kent Krueger’s Epilogue in Spirit Crossing is a great example.

As writers conclude a project, we must honor our own sense of grief. We’ve worked for years with the story and characters. Although we may feel a sense of relief or even glee at letting them go, there is inevitable sadness and anxiety as well. What’s next? Opportunity or abyss? Something meaningful has ended but as writers we are fortunate to be able to shape how the next adventure unfolds.

Readers … have you experienced the heartbreak of a beloved series ending? Did you feel it was too soon?   

Sue Hinkin is the author of the award-winning thriller series, The Vega & Middleton Novels, featuring the investigative team of Los Angeles TV news journalist Bea Jackson and best friend, photographer Lucy Vega. BestThrillers.com called Lucy and Bea one of the top 10 female detectives of 2023. A former Cinematography Fellow at the American Film Institute, Hinkin has worked in higher education and was a TV news photographer like her character, Lucy. Hinkin, a ‘DEI hire,’ was one of the first women out in the field with a camera. Now living in Colorado, she was voted Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s Writer of the Year. She is active in that organization as well as Sisters in Crime and the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. She loves her friends and family, growing things, and long walks with her puffy white rescue dog, Harley.

Visit Sue at http://www.suehinkin.com.

Here are the three books she’s giving away!

35 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Sue Hinkin and a Giveaway!”

  1. Thanks for an excellent post, Sue. It’s timely for me as I’m close to finishing the 9th book in my Natalie McMasters Mysteries series. I’m usually a fan of cliffhanger endings, but I want this one wrapped up in a bow as I’m putting the series on hiatus for a while so I can pursue other projects.

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    1. I think we’re in a similar place winding up a series. I like a cliffhanger, too, but I ended up writing an epilogue. It gave a glimpse into the character’s futures and allowed me to squeak by without totally shutting the door. 

      Like I said, I’m bad at goodbyes.

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  2. As per author and writing teacher James Scott Bell, the ending of one novel sells the next. Sometimes that done in one stand-alone, and other times not until the author’s passing. It’s so personal yet fun. Thanks, Sue, for an intriguing guest post!

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          1. Thanks for subscribing, and my wife found several vintage circus images in the public domain. Those ageless posters still grab our attention, reminding me what it was like to visit as a child. Later, I recall taking my son and we got to ride on an elephant. Fun memories!

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  3. Sue,

    Love this post. I can’t imagine saying goodbye forever to a group of people you gave birth to. Yes, it’s sad for us readers, but for the mom or dad, it must be heartbreaking.

    good luck on your next adventure.

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    1. Reply to TOM

      I think we’re in a similar place winding up a series. I like a cliffhanger, too, but I ended up writing an epilogue. It gave a glimpse into the character’s futures and allowed me to squeak by without totally shutting the door. 😜Like I said, I’m bad at goodbyes.

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  4. Great post, Sue. To me, the more tragic thing is a series going on and on, and on… but all the life is gone. I think making the decision is empowering for the author. You end on your terms.

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  5. Sooooo true. It’s important to know when to pull the plug. You start losing your readers along the way if the author’s enthusiasm for the series begins to wane.

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  7. Thanks for being our guest today, Sue! Great post–and great giveaway! I’m usually along for the ride, however lengthy the author makes the series. My only frustration happens when a series ends with giant loose ends, usually due to a publisher’s whims or the closing of an imprint.

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  8. Sue Hinkin is one of my heroes ( ;

    After reading this post, I will look at series endings and the value of keeping the door open, even if just a crack. Thanks.

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  9. As Jen says, I’m mostly just frustrated when a publisher yanks a series before the author has the chance to tie up loose ends. But there are also some series that could stand to be yanked after the fifteenth book….

    Thanks so much for visiting the Chicks today, Sue, and thanks for the terrific post!

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  10. Thanks so much for guesting, Sue, and apologies for the late response. I’ve experienced the pain of a series ending too soon – my own! But now I tell readers the series are “on hiatus,” a gentler term than cancelled we use in the TV business.

    What’s heartbreaking is when a series ends due to the passing of its author. I’ll always miss those written by Victoria Thompson, “Elizabeth Peters,” and Sheila Connolly.

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  11. Hi, Sue! Congratulations in advance on your upcoming release. I had to end my Allie Cobb Mysteries series when the publisher told me after book 5, they wouldn’t want any more after book six. While it was a bummer to say goodbye to those characters, I had the chance to wrap up a lot of storylines. Most everyone got a happily ever after, but I was able to leave a thread out there which will allow me to bring Allie back someday.
    The series that breaks my heart being concluded is Sue Grafton’s Alphabet Murders. She was an absolute genius.

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    1. I miss Sue Grafton,too! So sorry to hear about your series. What a total bummer. I hope Allie will be back. If not, I hope you create something you can really love.

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  12. Sue, thanks so much for being our guest today on Chicks! Sorry I’m late to the party, but what an intriguing post. I loved your breakdown of the different endings–I’d never really thought about the categories. As a former in-house series editor, I never say never–or believe in endings. Ya never know!

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    1. Was by pleasure to contribute to the amazing Chicks newsletter/blog! So cool that you’re a series editor. What an interesting job!

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  13. Thank you for the opportunity to know Sue Hinkin and her thrillers. The books definitely are up my reading alley!

    I enjoy all these endings, especially the ones with a twist – always love jaw-dropping endings! I normally read standalone or series that can be read as standalone. Come to think about it, yes, I feel sad and nostalgic when the series ended. Like recently, one of my favorite authors had signed up with a new agent/publisher who doesn’t want her to continue with that series, and I was quite upset about it.

    I am following Sue on Amazon and added her books to my TBR! Thank you! – Emily cwkuen(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  16. Sorry to be so late–chaotic week over here–but wanted to say HI SUE!!! So happy that you’re here. ❤

    This is so interesting, thinking about endings in categories. Have to say that I adore a twisty ending…

    And everyone: if you haven’t read Sue’s books yet, grab yourself all of them. They are great reads.

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