What do you like in a good crime thriller?
What makes you roll your eyes when authors do this, or throw a book across the room in frustration?
Does it drive you crazy when a story jumps from character to character, leaving you on a cliffhanger time and again? Or does that sort of suspense succeed in captivating you?
I ask because I’m revising my own crime thriller, and though I can and will research what makes crime thrillers work, I’m interested to know what readers think too.
Personally I hate it when authors use that soap opera tactic of ending a chapter halfway through a scene and not coming back to that character for five more chapters. So I’m trying to avoid that in my writing, and increase suspense in other ways.
My basic plot is written — a high-profile kidnapping, an investigation, a slew of possible suspects, with danger and heartache around every corner.
It’s a mystery, so the reader won’t know who the main villain is until the end, which makes my job more difficult since I narrate from the point of view of many characters.
I know what I like in a book, but I’m curious to know what you like. What type of story line keeps you coming back for more? And what makes you say uncle?
The Unwritten Chapter 