Bestselling novelists Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, Julie Garwood and Lisa Gardner have something in common. They all write in the increasingly popular category of romantic suspense. As its name reveals, romantic suspense combines a love story with a suspenseful plot. Romantic suspense novels have the advantage of appealing to romance and mystery fans alike, thus increasing their marketing potential.
What Romance Fans Want
Readers of romances want a love story and a happy ending. The Romance Writers of America have used these expectations to define the romance genre. Romance fans also want to find intriguing characters within these novels.
What Mystery Fans Want
Whether their interests focus on suspense or on detection, mystery fans expect a strong plot. They also share the romance readers expectation of a happy ending. Instead of conclusions in which love conquers all, mystery fans want to see good triumph over evil.
Nora Roberts Defines Romantic Suspense
Nora Roberts, whose novels are among the best examples of contemporary romantic suspense, has offered her own explanation of how romance and mystery elements combine to create romantic suspense. In her essay, "Crafting Romantic Suspense," Roberts claims that romantic suspense blends the internal tension of the romance, which results from the emotional needs of the lovers, with the outside tension created by the danger in which they are placed. She views the successful romantic suspense novel as one story that unites both mystery and romance, not as one with separate romance and mystery plots.
Lisa Gardner Classifies Her Cohorts
In a lecture series entitled "Secrets of Romantic Suspense," Lisa Gardner, herself a major writer of romantic suspense, has classified her fellow writers on a romance and suspense continuum. On one end of the line are writers like Danielle Steel who focus almost exclusively on the romance element. At the other end she places writers of pure intrigue, such as Arthur Conan Doyle. Merline Lovelace and Janet Evanovich appear at the midpoint of the continuum, with works Gardner considers to be 50 percent romance and 50 percent intrigue.
Gardner's placement of works by Nora Roberts, Heather Graham, Jayne Anne Krentz and Linda Howard reveals that she views them as 70 percent romance and 30 percent intrigue. Opposite are the novels of Tami Hoag, Iris Johansen, Tess Gerritsen and Catherine Coulter, which Garland weighs as 70 percent intrigue and 30 percent romance.
More Genreflecting
Genreflecting, the process of identifying common characteristics of literary types in order to assist readers in their choice of material, provides another perspective on romantic suspense. This approach differs from Gardner’s analysis by studying which sub-genres of the romance and mystery genres can also include romantic suspense.
Paranormal Romances
Paranormal romances with a strong romantic suspense component include Kay Hooper’s Fear series, including Sleeping with Fear (2006). Written under her Amanda Quick pseudonym, Jayne Ann Krentz's Arcane Society novel, The Third Circle (2008) also fits to this category, as does Nora Roberts’ Sign of Seven, Three Sisters Island, and Key trilogies.
Romantic Comedies
Romantic comedies also include works of romantic suspense. Jennifer Crusie’s Faking It (2002) and Bet Me (2004) highlight this sub-genre. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series belongs here as well, along with Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Chicago Stars series.
Historical Romances
Historical romances contain their own share of romantic suspense. Before turning to contemporary romance with her Buchanan series, Julie Garwood wrote historical romantic suspense in Guardian Angel (1990) and Prince Charming (1994). She returned to this sub-genre in 2007 with Shadow Music.
Something for Everyone
However they are classified, romantic suspense novels succeed in meeting their readers expectations. Good characterization, suspenseful plots, and happy endings are welcomed by mystery and romance aficionados alike.
Carol Thomas - Carol Thomas began her writing career by teaching English Composition at two Kentucky universities. A 25-year detour into academic ...
