Carolyn, my favorite is Tara Road followed by The Glass Lake, though Circle of Friends seems to be the favorite of many a Binchy fan. Cindy, now that I re-read the ending so I'd be accurate in my confusion... I no longer am. I thought the "afterward" was an artifice and actually part of the novel. Upon more deliberate inspection, I see the ending of the novel is marked as such and Maupin's father calling him and asking him what Maupin's done to him in this book, etc, truly is an afterward. It's amazing to think that Maupin, along with other sophisticated-sounding folks, was caught up in a similar situation; at least according to web chatter, 20/20 ran a voiceprint on the real life "boy" and his "mom" with the results indicating the voices were the same person. As for the heartbreak, it seemed to pave the path for Noone to be so open to being duped. Same for Noone's musings about growing up being different and feeling isolated--he could identify with this boy and, I believe, really did see himself as a father figure/mentor.

I'm not sure the number of editions is meaningful beyond the use of publishers and sellers. As in, which batch run is this particular book from. If an "edition" is a run of 2,000 copies, that's different than if it's a run of 20,000 or more. I don't think there's much to tell from the number on a standalone basis. I'm an outsider but I suspect as Andi suggests, press runs are variable in size, meant only to fill the orders for a finite period of time. I'm sure the printing business is much more nimble than it used to be and that setting up and running a batch takes less effort and costs than in days gone by. I think authors with established and popular series, as with Sandford, Connolly, etc., have often sales in the high hundreds of thousands or low millions for each title. The superstars like Grisham and Brown go well into the millions for their books. I personally tired of Sandford at about book 10. His work started to seem like the same story over and over, with a change of location and new names for the twisted perps. Good character though.

Lawrence Sanders has a series of books featuring his gad-fly detective Archie McNally, they are dated now, Sanders died in 1998, but they are funny and easy reading, def fall into the "pre-cell phones" genre. Bonus: many are available at thrift shops and other cheap places to get good reads. J.A. Jance, her series is set in Arizona and pretty good as well (definitely not as funny as Sanders tho). Some are pre-cell, some newer. Ditto on the thrift shop option. Carl Hiaasen, his novels aren't a series per se, but contain some recurring characters, as a bonus, he skewers South Florida and its denizens, capturing it perfectly (I traveled there quite often in the day, and know it well). TBH his earlier book are the funniest, but I read everything he writes, I appreciate his wit and humor. Some pre-cell, some newer. Joseph Wambaugh, a retired cop, who has written some really good, and funny, crime books (yeah, humor is very important to me), all pre-cell, I think. David Simon and Ed Burns, the creative duo who brought us the Earth's best TV show, The Wire, are both authors of true crime books, tho not necessarily whodunits, more like sprawling, sad, true-to-life stories, just like their TV shows.

Paris...the Apartment...and I have reached its end. Lucy Foley is a very talented writer. I found the tale to be as you stated, Woodnymph but I thought the ending was a bit rushed. I would have appreciated a more involved telling of the fate of Concierge and the intended future whereabouts of Nick. As much as I appreciated the story...I could not read this book a second time. For me...it was too emotionally draining. I shall, however, look to read other books that she's written. I'm curious about The Guest List. But, at the moment, my next book is Woman On Fire by Lisa Barr.