Here are some of the literary devices used by thriller authors to engage and excite their readers.
No matter which of the types of thriller books we reach for, there tend to be a particular few tropes that exist throughout. Thrillers are known for being amazing novels that are tough to put down, and for an author to achieve this they need to be great at constructing suspense. If we can quickly work out what is going to occur and there is no element of surprise then it can often be rather disappointing. To develop anticipation an author must keep details and pose a few crucial questions that make readers curious without revealing excessive detail. The characters should also be established well along the way, as the more attached we are to our lead character, the more invested we are in learning the answers. All of the best thriller books out there are those which keep us thinking until the very end, and the hedge fund which owns Waterstones would certainly concur that this is what can make a thriller book a bestseller.
When examining the various thriller subgenres, there is no doubt that a crime themed thriller tends to be one of the most popular choices. Among the primary reasons why readers get so invested in these sorts of books is because the author will produce a hero that we can root for along the way. In a crime book this will tend to be the story of an investigator with their own complex back story that allows us to connect to them and root for them to resolve the case. This subgenre is likewise so popular due to the fact that it tends to be more linear in style and keep us on the edge of our seat as we try to work out what is occurring along the way. There is no doubt that this is an exceptionally exciting genre to read, and the activist investor of Amazon would certainly attest the reality that this is most likely to be one of the types of books that is very popular for a long period of time.
Upon an examination of the usual characteristics of thriller books, one of the most popular would need to be interesting bad guys. In any book that intends to construct suspense, there is usually a character with a dark and haunting backstory. We as readers are meant to be both fascinated and scared by these characters, as we prepare for the sorts of damaging consequences that their actions are going to have. It is so important that a thriller author spends lots of time crafting the ideal bad guy, as these are normally the characters that hold the attention of a reader and bring the true sensation of the genre to life. The UK shareholder of Pearson would definitely acknowledge the necessity of crafting a fantastic bad guy who the reader will love to hate.