Maybe I haven’t been paying attention and this isn’t new, but I’ve only recently become aware that there’s a category of fiction called “romantic suspense.” `Here are three examples (summaries courtesy of bookreporter.com, a great site for fiction bibliophiles):
Lost Souls, Lisa Jackson:
Kristi Bentz wants to write true crime. All she needs is that one case that will take her to the top. She finds it when she enrolls at All Saints College after learning that three troubled girls have disappeared in one term. When the bodies are found, all blood drained from their bodies, rumors abound that vampires are on the loose. Are they? Or is there a new serial killer in New Orleans --- one more cunning than any that Detectives Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya have gone up against before?
The Death Dealer, Heather Graham
Genevieve O'Brien knows all about nightmares. She survived for two months as the prisoner of a deranged killer. Now a new menace is stalking the streets of New York. The media is buzzing about the “Poe Killings,” a string of homicides mirroring the author's macabre stories --- and Genevieve’s own mother may be in danger... Spooked by the bizarre slayings, Genevieve turns toward the one who rescued her --- private investigator Joe Connolly.
Guilty, Karen Robards
Sixteen years after she and her friends committed an unspeakable crime, Kat --- now Kate --- has built a new life for herself. Now a single mom, she works as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia DA's office. But her dark past rears its head when she walks into court one day and discovers that she is to prosecute Mario Castellanos, one of her friends from that terrible night 16 years earlier. And that is only where the trouble begins…
If you’re interested in writing this kind of tale, the fact that this is now a established genre should help—publishers are reluctant to deal with books that don’t fit a category.
Even if you’re not interested in writing this kind of book, I always find it useful to read back-of-book descriptions like those above, just to see what grabs me and what doesn’t (e.g., vampires, serial killers)--unless the author seems to be offering a new twist.
(For help with writing fiction, non-fiction, scripts and for new media, let my book "Your Writing Coach" be..er...your writing coach. Available now online and in bookstores.)
