Psychological Thriller
The Enduring Appeal of the Christiesque ‘Closed Circle’ Crime
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The first crime novels I ever read were by Agatha Christie. I was probably about thirteen at the time and I remember being blown away by how clever she was. The way she could hide her killers in plain sight, or contrive a plot as deviously intricate as Murder on the Orient Express, or manipulate…
Crime Novels Featuring Interpreters, Transcribers, and Other Invisible Law Enforcement Professionals
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It’s the detectives, the private investigators and the lawyers who are usually front-and-center in crime fiction, but there are scores of professionals working in the criminal justice system to whom most of us give little thought. There are archivists who manage police records, people who clean police stations, who service their cars, and IT specialists…
When is a Character’s Dishonesty Justified?
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Deception is elemental to a good mystery. The author misleads the reader constantly, from every angle. The characters mislead each other. Or they mislead the reader, or both. Lying is a theme in my new novel, This Is How We End Things, which is set in a psychology department at a small university where ethically…
Celebrating the Iconic Suspense of Lois Duncan
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I still own three of Lois Duncan’s books. Growing up, I read so many, but these are the three I have left: Daughters of Eve, Stranger with My Face, and Summer of Fear. The covers are creased and falling apart, and the pages are so fragile that they tear when I try to turn them,…
My First Thriller: Jeneva Rose Is in Her Own World
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Jeneva Rose is a whirlwind. When the publishing world didn’t work for her, she created her own. Like most aspiring authors, she first took the conventional route to hoped-for literary success. For her efforts, agents and publishers turned her down a combined 500 times. After she finally connected, she fired her agent before she found…
Island Vacations Can Be Murder
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Sure, island vacations can be fun, relaxing, and restorative. But that’s if you’re reading a book in a different genre. In the world of crime, island vacations can be murder. Ever since Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley headed to Italy to bring Dickie Greenleaf back home, the allure of something sinister taking place on an island…
The Mother-In-Law From Hell
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I’ve always been fascinated by families and what drives their unique dynamics. I think perhaps it’s because mine is so small; both my parents are only children and I have only one sibling. But what fascinates me even more than the family we’re born into, is the family we marry. After all, we choose our…
In These Thrillers, “Best Friends” Are the Biggest Threat
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There’s a reason domestic thrillers are perennially popular: fearing the person sleeping next to you every night, realizing too late that the call is coming from inside the house, is enough to send chills up anyone’s spine. But to me, the idea that your closest friends might be the real threat is easily as terrifying…
The Secret History‘s tragic flaw? Those Kids Are No Fun
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I recently reread Donna Tartt’s Dark Academia classic The Secret History—published 30 years ago this month—for the first time since I was a young identity-less Classics student myself. On the whole, I found the book as enjoyable as I remember (and was also struck by the degree of the homage in Tana French’s The Likeness). One…