Serialized novels are a rarity these days, but The Guardian books blogger David Barnett argues that they are making a comeback.

The Daily Mail has often run seasonal crime stories penned by the likes of Colin Dexter or R.D. Wingfield, featuring their popular characters Morse and Frost, and The Guardian has its four-handed weekly serial 52 in the Saturday Review section, penned on alternate weeks by Jeanette Winterson, Ali Smith, A.M. Homes and Jackie Kay. Michael Chabon’s latest novel Gentlemen of the Road began life as “Jews With Swords,” published in serial format in the New York Times, while Alexander McCall Smith announced in September that he was beginning a serial novel for the Telegraph, Corduroy Mansions, following up his five-year experiment with the form with 44 Scotland Street, which the Scotsman ran every weekday for six months of the year.

We would be remiss if we didn’t add Edmonton author Todd Babiak to that list. His last two novels “ The Garneau Block and The Book of Stanley “ were originally serialized in The Edmonton Journal.