Top Ten Reasons to Read a Thriller

By Pamela Hegarty

Here are my top ten reasons to read a thriller novel–before the world ends!

10.  The world is supposed to end in 2012.  You want to know how.

9.  And who is going to save us.

8.  Thrillers dominate the bestseller lists.  Yes, it is a conspiracy.

7.  Seven out of ten NY Times bestsellers on this week’s list are written by women.  No, that is not a conspiracy.

7.  You want an escape from depression, drunkenness and dysfunction, not to read about it.

6.  Thrillers make history, religion and politics exciting.

5.  Good battles evil, and wins, usually.

4.  You want to travel to another era, but the time machine hasn’t been invented yet, or has it?

3.  You love figuring out puzzles.

2.  And adventuring in new worlds.

1.  And learning not only about a different time and place, but about yourself.

What kind of hero will you be today?

Three Key Elements of a Successful Thriller Novel

By Pamela Hegarty

Thriller novels range across a spectrum of exciting subgenres, including international thrillers, spy stories, political skullduggery, crime novels, paranormal threats and more.  My personal favorites are quests for artifacts that delve into the meaning of life, the universe and everything.  The three key elements I focus on when writing or reading a thriller are:

1.  Our hero is after a goal that is not so much an object, but the essence of her destiny.  It could be a clue to a universal question, perhaps a terrifying question, such as life after death.  She must succeed to save the lives of others.

2.  The villain is hellbent on obtaining the object of the hero’s quest.  The villain is smart, powerful, ruthless, but he sees himself as the hero, not the villain.  He, too, knows that it is not the object, but what people believe about it, that builds its power.  Possessing the object will give him control of the ultimate power, the power of people’s belief. 

3.  Our hero and the villain battle across that threshold between reality and belief, and pull the reader along with them into a world we know can’t, but must, exist.