As a reader I like both great characterization and fast moving plots. The challenge is to balance the both and not compromise one for the other.
Death strips all men of dignity.
Memory is a great deceiver: it embroiders until naught is left but the glory and the pleasure.
Danger is an aphrodisiac.
Be bad, and if you can't be bad be worse.
Starting a new novel is a little like starting a new relationship - you have to be prepared to commit for at least three years and put up with the domestic tedium as well as the emotional highs!