romance and suspense in a package?

Romantic suspense is huge. Is that what you are asking about?

welcome aboard Niratisaya. You are not alone with trouble understanding the difference between suspense, thriller, and mystery. This question is debated over and over within many of the active threads on the Mystery/Thriller/Suspense boards.

Here is one over simplified distiction:

Mystery is a story where information (most often, the identity of a killer or culprit of the crime) is withheld from the reader until the end, clues are given along the way. The more common form of this is a "whodunit".

Suspense is a story where the protagonists fights against time to stop the killer from striking again.

Thriller can be either, or both, and generally refers to the pace and excitement of the story.

Romantic Suspense is a very strong genre (at least in the U.S.) with more sub-genres which change with every new generation. For example, thirty some years ago a novel of Romantic Suspense was basically a "gothic".

Hope that helps somewhat. Several of our other illustrious board-members will be along shortly to add their two-cents worth!

Yes, I love romance suspense too!!

Amanda Quick does it a lot, & she's a bestselling author!

/True, most of her books are basically the same, but they are a lot of fun & very enjoyable!/

I read that some readers don't like romance in their mysteries, but there are others who LOVE this type of story!

I wrote a romance, the publisher labeled it a Romantic Suspense, and some of the online booksellers have it in their Mystery/Thriller section. So I just go with the flow! Whatever works!

It's easy to do. There are several formulas. Here's a simple one: the man and woman meet during a dangerous situation, and they save each other from peril (can be something like a storm, a war, or some bad guy) then they fall in love and get out of trouble together.

Chumplet's general advice is golden.

A more specific example is my present novel-in-progress. The hero is a deaf recluse dependent on an answering service. The owner is in a woman in wheelchair. As the mystery unfolds, the abilities of each overcome the challenges of the other, and mutual dependence grows to mutual admiration.

The plan is a series much like the romantic detective teams of Mr. and Mrs. North, Nick and Nora Charles, Hart to Hart, etc.

Captain Howdy said:

welcome aboard Niratisaya. You are not alone with trouble understanding the difference between suspense, thriller, and mystery. This question is debated over and over within many of the active threads on the Mystery/Thriller/Suspense boards.

Here is one over simplified distiction:

Mystery is a story where information (most often, the identity of a killer or culprit of the crime) is withheld from the reader until the end, clues are given along the way. The more common form of this is a "whodunit".

Suspense is a story where the protagonists fights against time to stop the killer from striking again.

Thriller can be either, or both, and generally refers to the pace and excitement of the story.

Romantic Suspense is a very strong genre (at least in the U.S.) with more sub-genres which change with every new generation. For example, thirty some years ago a novel of Romantic Suspense was basically a "gothic".

Hope that helps somewhat. Several of our other illustrious board-members will be along shortly to add their two-cents worth!

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Thanks! I myself have always wondered what the difference was but never asked! Thanks Niratisaya for starting the thread!

The paranormal thriller I am writing contains a romantic element, but it's not the focus of the story. I think that the romance involved helps to elevate the stakes. An emotional commitment such as love... or even hate, goes a long way toward pulling a reader into the action. When it's all said and done... I want people that read what I write to have some kind of an emotional investment in the story. It might be cheap to go the romance route, but the characters are believable and eventhough they're on opposite sides in the end, their situation is complicated, complex and involved. Long after the story is over, the reader will hopefully still be contemplating what went wrong and maybe what could have been.

Try reading some Mary Stewart. Her romantic suspense novels are classics. Most libraries will have copies.

Brenda Novak is another great romantic suspense author. As is Jordan Dane. Both are bestselling and winners of both romance and thriller/suspense awards. I'm very proud that I'll be touring with them around Michigan in a couple of weeks.

A lot of mysteries don't have romance, a lot of books don't and that's okay.

Stlight

niratisaya said:

I must admit something, I'm new in this genre, just recently attracted to it and trying to write a story with suspense genre. Just that I have some trouble in understanding the differences between suspense and thriller and mystery. Do they have differences?

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Unlike other genres, which deal with certain subjects, M/S/T really deals with certain aligned writing techniques. These techniques are used broadly in romance, crime, espionage, adventure, horror, fantasy, history and science fiction literature. Some of the fiction they're used in is considered to be part of the 'genre', and some isn't. For this reason, I tend to think 'crime genre, but thriller technique', or 'romance genre, but suspense technique'. Other writers think of it the other way: 'Thriller genre with sci-fi subject'. Horses for courses, I suppose.

Anyway, the differences between M/T/S are largely technical - since the subjects can overlap so much. Many stories feature multiple M/T/S techniques.

Mystery is all about creating tension by withholding information. This usually mystifies readers, challenging them to solve some sort of problem. Mysteries are often about crime or espionage, but can also extend to horror, fantasy and romance for example.

Suspense 'suspends' tension by anticipating the resolution of conflict, but then extending the conflict further and further. Suspense makes a lot of use of the plot twist - where the reader thinks that it's resolved, but hidden information comes to light. Suspense is a critical technique for all kinds of genres -- horror and romance perhaps being the biggest beneficiaries. But it also extends to crime, fantasy, SF and the soaps. Hitchcock often made movies about crime, horror and dark romance - and every one of them is soaked in suspense.

Thrillers heighten tension by elevating stakes, and then by setting a time limit - or sometimes it's an option limit - or both. Thrillers are often action-driven. The subject is often crime or espionage, but horror, fantasy and SF also have their share of thrillers too.

Stories can make use of more than one set of techniques, which confuses the genre question further. The Bourne Identity, for instance is an action espionage story built around a mystery (Bourne's amnesia), and presented as a thriller. Rear Window is a crime story built around a mystery and soaked in suspense.

Romance often makes use of suspense (e.g. does he love me) and mystery (e.g. who is trying to keep us apart), but seldom uses thriller techniques - because the action in thrillers competes with the reaction in the romance. On the other hand, thrillers often make use of romance sub-plots to force the main character to choose between saving the love-interest or saving the world - so go figure.

Hope that this helps!

OK, I'm going to ask a question about the mystery I'm working on that's relevant to this thread. Of course it will give a way a little bit of the mystery, but I'll try to keep that to a minimum.

The narrator is in the middle of a fling with a coworker that has the potential to become serious.

She witnesses her lover in the middle of what looks like a date with another, younger woman, which along with a couple other reasons makes her start doubting the status of her own relationship.

The younger woman turns up murdered.

The guy promptly disappears, and so does her vehicle, making it look likely that he stole it (or borrowed without asking permission).

At this point, about 50 pages in, the narrator and therefore the reader can't help suspecting lover boy of being the murderer, or at least of being involved somehow in the reason for the girl's death.

This is actually a red herring/subplot, and the true explanation for her death lies in another direction.

As soon as the guy returns and the narrator gets a chance to talk to him, either he will voluntarily explain the reasons for his behavior, or one more little bit of information will lead the narrator (and some readers) to making a connection to figure out a significant part of the explanation.

Once she figures that out and talks to him about it, there's no more mystery in the romantic part of the plot. Just normal relationship development issues which would take a back seat to figuring out who did kill the victim, why, and how.

So do I want to withhold the answer to the "Is my lover untrustworthy, and is he a murderer?" question as long as possible while the narrator also pursues other areas of investigation, even if it means putting in artificial obstacles to delay the conversation that would answer those questions, and even if that means that the reader might figure out that answer well before the narrator does (or at least before she confirms it, and I don't want to have her spell it out until she does)?

Or do I resolve that quickly to show that she's good at figuring things out from subtle clues and to avoid the reader getting there ahead of her, but then lose a major part of the sense of danger we get from her suspecting the man in her bed?

How about if she figures it out, but then starts having doubts? Just because he says he didn't do it doesn't mean he didn't do it...

Just a thought. Sounds interesting!