You know that old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." When writing suspense, we sometimes get our characters into a mess of trouble. We let them get fooled by the bad guys or we have them suspcious but trusting all the same and then WHAM, a heroine gets kidnapped or she has to turn to the hero for help. And she won't be fooled again!
That's the fun part of building a romantic suspense story. We get to put elments in there that can also fool the reader. But this is a good thing. If the reader figures things out right away, then she might get bored. We don't want that. We throw in a few twists or red herrings or we add a bit more mystery. We want our readers to keep turning the pages.
That got me to thinking. What is the most suspenseful book you've ever read? I've read a lot of mysteries and suspenses but one book stands out in my mind. I think the title was "A Man To Die For" and it was by Eileen Dryer. That book was so good but it sure gave me the willies. And I knew who the bad guy was. But he was so smooth, he fooled everyone. He was a doctor but the heroine, a nurse, just couldn't quite believe he was all that good. She just knew something was wrong. And he knew that she knew something was wrong! Scary, suspenseful and hard to put down. Sigh--one day I will write such a book.
Anyone else have a favorite scary book? Did it keep you in suspense until the very end?
Lenora :)
Christian Romance Authors with Fictionalized Tales of Intriguing Edginess
6 comments:
Oooh, great topic. I would have to say The Pawn by Steven James kept me hooked from beginning to end as did his second book, The Rook.
Terri Blackstock's restoration series did it for me, too.
Hm...it's hard to pick just one!
Loved the post. Thanks for sharing.
Hey, go over and check out Lenora's book trailer. It's on the sidebar right under her April release!
Thanks for plugging my trailer, Pam. Those things are sure fun. Makes me think I'm watching a movie trailer. Wouldn't that be exciting!
I love hearing about favorite books. I wish I could read every book in the world. Maybe one day.
Lenora :)
The Shining by Stephen King was scary--so was the movie with Jack Nicholson.
I don't know if this book is exactly the type you are thinking about but "In Cold Blood" gave me the chills and it was very hard to finish reading. I had to read it for a college class.
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