Romance is a big seller, as are thrillers full of tension. Romantic suspense authors like Nora Roberts have the best of both genres. Readers have two themes to intrigue them - the interaction between hero and heroine and the fear that a villain will get one of them. With a very skillful writer, there's the fear that the villain will be one of them.
The contract romances that used to be called 'bodice-rippers' have embraced adding an extra dimension of suspense to their plots. The naive young woman still meets a strong, mysterious man, but now the secret in his past is more likely to be espionage or law enforcement than personal bereavement or betrayal. The inevitable misunderstanding is still there, but a mystery complicates things, endangers the heroine, and moves the plot along.
However, novelists like Nora Roberts offer a lot more to their readers. Roberts has set a high standard with believable characters in real-life dilemmas. Her dialogue is intriguing and the struggles of her characters absorbing. There are no throw-away scenes that advance the plot or fulfill a formula.
Roberts wrote strictly romances for years, but now she has a best-selling series written under the pseudonym of J. D. Robb. Her heroine here is not a librarian or a schoolteacher but a New York policewoman. The romantic interest is the detective's husband, and this skilled writer has made their on-going relationship the central theme of the series.
Mystery writers have long included romantic themes in their books (opinions differ on whether mysteries are suspense novels or whether the two genres are different.) When Dorothy L. Sayers had her aristocratic hero, Lord Peter Whimsey, finally fall in love, the object of his desire was charged with murder and refusing to help her own defense. The theme of frustrated love was developed to the point that some critics suggested Sayers was in love with her own character - but her readers loved it.
Police are favorite characters, but this doesn't eliminate the romantic angle. Martha Grimes writes the saga of Richard Jury, a melancholy detective whose desire for love is frustrated over and over. Devoted readers enjoy Jury's cleverness and his relationships with co-workers, friends, acquaintances, lovers, and a mysterious Londoner who may or may not have committed the crime Jury suspects him of.
Not all the good authors are women, either. Dick Francis wrote action books based on the world of thoroughbred racing. They are all mysteries, with a central character investigating dark plots among the aristocracy as well as the lower classes. Both worlds are expertly depicted, and the heroes narrowly escape death but never the mayhem that goes before it. However, some of his best books involve romance: Matt Shore falling for his Nancy or Sid Halley losing his first wife to his ambition to be leading steeplechase rider.
Many authors are tops in the romance suspense field for the brilliance of their plots and the excellence of their writing. A great novelist creates characters that develop over time, in a series of books, and may become as much a part of reality for readers as do the 'real life' people they know.
The contract romances that used to be called 'bodice-rippers' have embraced adding an extra dimension of suspense to their plots. The naive young woman still meets a strong, mysterious man, but now the secret in his past is more likely to be espionage or law enforcement than personal bereavement or betrayal. The inevitable misunderstanding is still there, but a mystery complicates things, endangers the heroine, and moves the plot along.
However, novelists like Nora Roberts offer a lot more to their readers. Roberts has set a high standard with believable characters in real-life dilemmas. Her dialogue is intriguing and the struggles of her characters absorbing. There are no throw-away scenes that advance the plot or fulfill a formula.
Roberts wrote strictly romances for years, but now she has a best-selling series written under the pseudonym of J. D. Robb. Her heroine here is not a librarian or a schoolteacher but a New York policewoman. The romantic interest is the detective's husband, and this skilled writer has made their on-going relationship the central theme of the series.
Mystery writers have long included romantic themes in their books (opinions differ on whether mysteries are suspense novels or whether the two genres are different.) When Dorothy L. Sayers had her aristocratic hero, Lord Peter Whimsey, finally fall in love, the object of his desire was charged with murder and refusing to help her own defense. The theme of frustrated love was developed to the point that some critics suggested Sayers was in love with her own character - but her readers loved it.
Police are favorite characters, but this doesn't eliminate the romantic angle. Martha Grimes writes the saga of Richard Jury, a melancholy detective whose desire for love is frustrated over and over. Devoted readers enjoy Jury's cleverness and his relationships with co-workers, friends, acquaintances, lovers, and a mysterious Londoner who may or may not have committed the crime Jury suspects him of.
Not all the good authors are women, either. Dick Francis wrote action books based on the world of thoroughbred racing. They are all mysteries, with a central character investigating dark plots among the aristocracy as well as the lower classes. Both worlds are expertly depicted, and the heroes narrowly escape death but never the mayhem that goes before it. However, some of his best books involve romance: Matt Shore falling for his Nancy or Sid Halley losing his first wife to his ambition to be leading steeplechase rider.
Many authors are tops in the romance suspense field for the brilliance of their plots and the excellence of their writing. A great novelist creates characters that develop over time, in a series of books, and may become as much a part of reality for readers as do the 'real life' people they know.
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