If changing the rules suits me and as long as the story seems to be plausible, I can get away with that. Chances are a character in one Five Oaks story will pop up again in another story. They're still completely alive in your imagination. There's something about those two that keeps at me. Other Five Oaks characters circulate throughout his stories.
Bit parts abound.
The town's barber, for example, has appeared with most of the important characters in Baxter's work. There's a kind of ecology of character - you never throw the characters away. I just love the idea of infinite complications. They get more and more interesting as time goes by. Baxter's writing does have its ardent fans.