Why Thrillers Thrill

Deborah Cannon

Compelling, gripping, spell-binding, thrilling. These are the words you want to see in a
review of your upcoming bestseller. But what makes a thriller thrilling? What is the difference
between a thriller and an action adventure novel or a fast paced mystery?
When I sent my first novel to my current agent she said, pitting archaeologists against big
business is a good idea for a thriller. But she had certain reservations. The manuscript was
too long, mixed too many genres, and moved too slowly. What was it? An adventure,
romance, thriller, mystery, or supernatural tale? When I began drafting this story, it started out
as a romance and ended up as a mystery. Or so I had thought. I had penned it on the germ
of an idea and had fumbled my way by instinct. But the agent insisted that if it didnt fit into a
commercial genre, it wouldnt sell. Since she seemed to know what she was looking for, I set
about searching for examples by which I might hone my craft.
Many thrillers have been adapted to film. I spent one long afternoon going through the
movie listings of the TV Guide and came up with everything from Raiders of the Lost Ark and
Jaws, to Misery, The Hunt for Red October, Face-Off and Psycho. What did all of these
movies have in common? While watching The Rock, starring Nicholas Cage, it came to me.
Each and every one of these movies put you on the edge of your seat.
That was a beginning. I went to my computer. During an Internet search, up popped a
book doctor. Great, I thought, someone who has defined the genre for me. The web site
described a thriller as an especially intense form of action adventure novel... The modern
thriller sets the tempo for successful contemporary entertainment due to its very fast pace,
frequent unexpected plot turns, and ability to impart a thrill through daring deeds and narrow
escapes. All right, so I needed car chases, buildings exploding, characters hanging from
cliffs, or at the very least my hero to be held at gunpoint. But my book didnt have any of
these things. Why was the agent calling my novel a thriller?
I read on. The challenge in writing a thriller is to be as original as possible, create a big
stake for the reader in the heros survival, and develop fresh variations on timeless character
archetypes... In its most sophisticated form, the thriller embodies powerful, classic elements
taken directly from the Western cultures most profound myths, myths which recount the
heros journey from ignorance to enlightenment, enduring many mental and physical tests of
courage and strength along the way. But whoa, wait a minute. Didnt this apply to all stories?
After months of revising, the agent still had problems with my thriller. I decided it must be
because I still didnt know what one was. And I had to know if I was going to sell my book.
The thriller, the book doctor said, differed from the common adventure story in its faster
pace, greater suspense or tension and, usually the heros discovery of a betrayal from within
just at the crucial moment. If this was true, then all I needed was to pick up the pace and to
do this I had to increase the tension. My next step was to find out all I could on creating
suspense. The writing books I consulted basically told me the same thing. To create
suspense, the writer must arouse an expectation in the reader and then delay the fulfilment
of that expectation. In other words, leave them hanging until the critical moment then give
them the resolution.
Easier said than done. Yes, my heroes were on a roller-coaster ride, encountering
obstacle after obstacle along the way, but my book still didnt fit any definition that I could find
of the genre. The logical thing to do would be to analyse some bestsellers. Again, I was
stumped, my story was nothing like Tom Clancys techno-thrillers, Dean Koontz or John
Grishams legal thrillers, Patricia Cornwells or Kathy Reichs medical thrillers. In fact, it didnt
seem to fit any existing category.
So maybe it wasnt a thriller and maybe thats why the agent was having so many

problems with it. Either that, or I wasnt a good enough writer, and I just wasnt getting it. But
she stuck with me through yet one more draft. I finally signed with her after three years of
rewrites, my manuscript deemed perfect, and now making the rounds of the New York
publishers. I have since written two short stories, two more novels, and am working on a
third all thrillers. Why are they thrillers?
Well, I didnt start writing about medical, legal or technological issues, and I didnt add
superfluous action, gratuitous sex or violence. I stuck true to my characters and let them tell
their stories, and it turns out that, even though their stories dont fit the standard categories,
they are still thrillers. I realized after all of that soul searching and researching, thrillers thrill
because they share a common underlying theme. And this theme is what powers them. In all
books of this type, the hero is swept away by circumstances beyond his control. Whether it is
a psychotic fan as in Stephen Kings Misery, a giant shark as in Peter Benchleys Jaws, a
vindictive terrorist as in Tom Clancys Patriot Games or a serial killer as in Kathy Reichs
Dj Dead, the protagonists find themselves in a situation of helplessness, where the
forces bent on their destruction get closer and more threatening with every page turned. It is
this powerlessness, this idea of horrific things happening to you, things you cant control, that
every person fears. And that is why, at the end of a thriller, the hero must find the strength to
save himself.
So why didnt my agent feel that my novel was a mystery? The mystery element is strong
in my book. In a classic mystery, the protagonist is usually in control of the situation. Sherlock
Holmes, and contemporary sleuths like Ian Rankins and Eric Wrights detectives are seldom
in any physical danger. Although they may be baffled by the murder, their lives are not at
stake. But bestselling mysteries like Kathy Reichs Deja Dead are touted as thrillers, and
that is because her heroine becomes a victim in the course of the story.
At one time, thrillers were thought to appeal mainly to men. But women love them too. The
original writer for women was probably Mary Stewart. In her heyday, The Daily Express
called one of her books the ideal thriller blend of plot, suspense, character drawing and
good writing... It opens with the impact of a rifle report on a calm summers day and drives to
its climax of action with compelling urgency. You cant ask for a better review than that.