A detective novel without suspense is just a simple puzzle to read and solve. The suspense and intrigue are what make a detective story so interesting and attractive. Author Ric Frances, who draws heavy inspiration from writers like Agatha Christie, brings readers his very first detective novel, Lightning Strikes Twice. A story that follows the best detective in all southeast Louisiana, as he solves the kidnapping of a boy and a woman from their home. Detective Richard Urbanax swore to never work on a case again when he was unable to solve the kidnapping and murder of a six-year-old girl, Cora Michaels. Two years later, Cora’s cousin and aunt are kidnapped from the same home. With the help of his daughter/protégé and techie twin sons, Detective Urbanax will put up a fight against time to find the hostages before it’s too late.
The similarities of the kidnapping give the detective a feeling that the two kidnappings are related to each other and might be carried out by the same person or group of people. With every twist and turn in the story, the suspense in Frances’ words builds tension so thick, you could cut through it with a knife. As per Now Novel, here is how you can add growing suspense in your story:
· Show ambiguous action
Showing ambiguous action – an action that could have multiple possible meanings or implications – is one way to build suspense in books.
· Add urgency
In a tense scenario, urgency helps to build suspense. Archeologists realize the site they’re excavating is close to collapse and they have minutes to evacuate it. A detective needs to find a killer before he strikes again. Time-based pressures add suspense in everything from murder mysteries to sports stories where athletes have to beat records in fractions of seconds for glory.
· Interrupt yourself
Suspense in books works at multiple levels. On the one hand, there is narrative suspense. In this type of suspense, we wonder what will happen next. Or we wait anxiously for result B to follow action A.
To build narrative suspense in books, subvert the reader’s expectations about what will happen next. Interrupting the flow of a tense scene, for example, just before a hero reaches their object, to show other, related processes underway (an antagonist closing in), delays resolution.
This is a classic device in series, in both books and TV, where primary story arcs are drawn in longer sequences while individual episodes have their own build-ups and climaxes.
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