Some romantic suspense novels reveal who the villain is right away. Some don’t reveal it until the end of the book. Some get into the villain’s point of view. Others stay strictly within the hero and heroine’s pov.
And honestly, I’m not sure which I like better. Would I prefer a book that opens with a dinner party where the guests are laughing and toasting and suddenly their table explodes? Or do I want to see the bomb ticking under the table first, then pull back to see the oblivious dinner guests laughing and toasting?
The same thing kind of applies to the identity of the villain. Do I want to know who he (she) is or do I want to be oblivious?
After much deliberation, I still can’t decide! What about you? What puts the suspense in romantic suspense for you? Is it knowing who (and how wicked) the villain is? Or does not knowing his identity make it more suspenseful?
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I like both knowing and not knowing who the villain is.
What I like about knowing who the villain is straight away is the process in which the villain is found out. I like to read the cat and mouse game going on between the villain and who ever is trying to find them and the intellectual process of that.
The way in which the villain tries to stay one step ahead and the detective tries to put the clues together can be a very interesting and suspensful game. Like Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, or Columbo.
I also like not knowing because then I get to use my own logic and deductive reasoning to try and figure out who it is.
So both ways are compelling to me.
It doesn’t matter to me as long as there are other unanswered questions (true in any genre) and it is done well. That’ll keep me reading.
The reader response I get most often with my release Invisible is ‘I knew who the bad guy was half way through the novel.’ I think that’s wonderful except it wasn’t that type of book. I thought I shared who the bad guy was in chapter 2 (obviously I didn’t do a good job at it or maybe readers thought I was being tricksy).
Ah, my pet peeve. Someone whom I shall curse endlessly decided that in the romance genre, all types of mystery would be called “romantic suspense.” That continuum in the mystery genre goes from cozy to thriller, and to attach that ’suspense’ label to all of them does a great disservice to the reading public.
I don’t particularly care for SUSPENSE at all. I’m a MYSTERY lover. Started with Sherlock Holmes (where one NEVER saw Moriarty alone on the page). That means, no, I don’t want to know what’s going on. I want to solve the puzzle with the hero/heroine. I’m constantly wishing I didn’t know who the villain was and what he/she was doing. And this goes beyond the ‘nameless’ villain. Stay out of his head, let me play detective the way real detectives do.
Since I like mystery so much more than suspense, I write romance with mystery plots. But they’re called “romantic suspense” and then readers don’t think they’re all that suspenseful. Well, they’re not supposed to be.
And then there was my first book, Finding Sarah, where the conflict for the hero was not so much figuring out who the bad guy was, but having to prove it within the limits of the way he saw his job, where there were definite lines he wouldn’t cross (until the love of a woman pushed him over, of course–since it IS a romance).
In a mystery series, I’ll accept the suspense approach IF I love the character. So, although I’d rather not know what the bad guys are doing in Sandford’s “Prey” series, I like Lucas Davenport enough to keep reading … and reading.
As long as something is pulling me into the story, it doesn’t matter whether I know the villain up front or not. It’s all about the writing.
I love not knowing and then getting hit from the sidelines. The best suspense is when you have the villian in front of you at all times but don’t know who he/she is. I like to get some creepy POVs from the villian to get an idea of how evil he or she is. What makes him tick and how much he/she doesn’t care. I like my villians evil but with little to no reason for thier evilness. Show me the bomb but also show me how we are trying to get to it before it explodes and fail to get thier in time. The chase is what makes the pages fly by and what better chase than the one where you dno’t know what you’re chasing after.
I sometimes get tapped by my Alisonto come up with plot points, but she usually has the concept of the villain reveal down before she asks me anything, so I’ll have to admit this question is new to me.
My answer: It depends. The author has to ask herself “What is the relationship between the villain and the heroine?” and “When I ‘raise the stakes’, does knowing who the villain is raise the suspense level more? (because the villain is ‘too close’ to our heroine?)”
So this comes up with four scenarios: Villain close to heroine, not known, Villain close to heroine, known, Villain not close to heroine, known, and Villain not close to heroine, not known. Are you with me so far?
Okay, the easy one first. Villain close to heroine, known. Scenario here is something like “Sleeping with the enemy” and evolves into essentially a stalking/haunted house mystery. (“Haunted House” = every time a door is opened HE could be there! which leads to being startled by the jumping cat too many times) The hero here is mostly a protector, and the mystery is how the villain is “put down”.
Second. Villain close to the heroine, not known. The author has to go to some lengths in providing red herrings to deflect attention away from the villain we would have suspected all along. There are some really great mysteries done with this theme, because everyone has to keep guessing. The author really has to work on this one, because in a way, she knows who the villain is all along. However, the threads of the mystery have to keep the romance separate, and since we don’t know who the villain is, our hero is obviously going to be suspected at some point. This makes for a disconcerting read for our readers unless the mystery is toned down by the author. Many options exist here, and I’ll just leave it mentioned.
Third. Villain known but not close to the heroine. This is a more generic mystery, and one possibility is along the lines of a big corporation with some agenda. The corporation, for example, may have henchmen that affect our heroine directly by such things as harming someone close to the heroine. Ever see the beginning eps of the TV show “Alias”? Where Sydney’s boyfriend is murdered because she confided in him? Alias wasn’t a romantic suspense just then, but that’s the scenario where the murderer wasn’t as important as who ordered the hit. In the case of a romantic suspense, the hero usually helps solve the mystery and can help the heroine get in there to make the final confrontation. There’s usually more mystery to solve than romance here.
Fourth. Villain known, but not close to the heroine. Several options again, but one off the top of my head would be: The Hunt. The mystery here is finding our bad guy, and this is where we need a strong heroine from page one. Our hero is introduced early on, and whether the hero is involved in the case or is just tacked on for romantic interest is up to the author to decide. The options for the hero abound here, because he may not initially be the hero, or considered romantically until halfway through the story. The adventure of the Hunt brings these two together, the shared excitement, ala the ending of the movie “Speed”. The second alternative is where the heroine (and the hero) are being chased themselves. The Hunt has been flipped, and this essentially turns into a road trip. Stolen moments of love/sex are great because it’s exciting to experience passion in the midst of danger. Unfortunately, this usually means that one or both of the hero/heroine mix keeps doing something that keeps leading our assassin closer to our heroic pair, (The TSTL quotient) but can make for a light and fun read.
Okay, that’s just off the top of my head. Hope it helps!
Walt
Well, Dear Dee, imagine finding you here! I am doing research for another author (www.lastchancerescuebook.com) but I am intrigued by your question.
I have to say I probably agree with MB (Leah) – because it is sometimes fun to all of a sudden get slapped in the face by a character that you had grown to admire or like – and realize that they are the root of the problem. It is interesting to me how an author can take a villain and make them sympathetic. Gregory Maguire did it in Wicked, and many others have as well. In romance it is even more personal, I think.
But it is also fun to know and get that thrill of being behind the scenes, and want to keep shouting ‘don’t do it!’ because you know something the other characters don’t.
So no help here, I’m afraid. I like both!
Linda
Ohmygosh, Linda. HI!!!!!
Wow, Walt. Great break down of all the options and how they all can work–and work really well.
I know what you mean about the “romantic suspense” label being too broad, Terry. It’s a dilemma, not only for the reader but for the writer!
I am on the fence as to which I prefer. My only real stipulation is that if you’re going to let the reader know who the villain is, do a good job with his motivation and psychology. I do not want to see a villain whom the author describes as just being evil. That’s lazy, wimpy writing. Every villain has as much GMC as the hero (or should), and that should be reflected when they are shown. I particularly love authors who can give me a horrible villain and make me understand his psychology, perhaps even sympathize.
I too like knowing and not knowing.
I recently read Steven Lundin’s historical fiction book, Shooting an Albatross, which is based on truth.
There’s a bit of suspense and a bit of romance, which makes the book even more entertaining.
For me, in this book I thought it was quite obvious who the villain was…or was it?? Guess you’ll have to take a peek and see for yourself!