I’ve been reading thrillers and mysteries for as long as I can remember. I’ve made a list of books that have stayed with me, and they’re roughly in the order I read them. These novels not only entertained me, they taught me how to write. I didn’t know that at the time, at least not consciously, but now I can look back and say these are all books that influenced my style, plot, and the dark humor I love so much.
The Partner by John Grisham
I’ve read a number of Grisham books, but this is the one I’ve reread countless times. Patrick is a lawyer who has stolen a lot of money from a client and now lives in hiding in South America. At the beginning of the book, he’s found. The cat-and-mouse game that follows is fast-paced, packed with surprises, and it kept me up late more than once. And the ending…the ending. Obviously I won’t spoil it here, but one of the best endings I’ve ever read. Even today, I still think about this ending when I write my own.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
This was one of the first thrillers I read that was written by a woman and had a female protagonist. It was also one of the first books I read with an unnamed narrator, which I found fascinating. Rebecca is probably one of the earliest books that today would be categorized as a domestic thriller. The genre didn’t become popular for many years, but Daphne du Maurier certainly wrote one of the first. In part, this book is the reason what inspired me to have an unnamed narrator in My Lovely Wife.
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Ellis has a way of blending absolutely horrific acts of violence with laugh-out-loud humor. The book is satire, a brutal commentary on the materialistic 80’s world of New York investment bankers. While my books do include murder, it’s rare I have any graphic violence like this book does, but the humor, and the points he makes, always fascinated me. This is the kind of book I read and think “how does he do that?” I still don’t know. Patrick Bateman is an iconic character, and a serial killer…or is he? I love that we don’t know for sure, because it’s the kind of book that has started a lot of conversations. That’s the kind of twist—if it can be called that—that I aspire to.
The Story of My Life by Jay McInerney
While not technically a thriller, this book is still horrifying in its own way. It also has a backstory: Jay McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis are contemporaries and friends, and their characters often cross over into each other’s books. The narrator of this book is Allison Poole, who also appears in American Psycho—and almost gets killed by Patrick Bateman. This is her story. Allison is a party girl in Manhattan, a life that includes a lot of parties, shopping, cocaine, and the occasional deep introspection. Her running stream-of-consciousness story is hilarious, sad, and impossible to put down. I’ve studied this book a lot, trying to figure out how a character can be so unlikeable but so engaging at the same time.
Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer
The main character, Phineas Poe, is an ex-cop and a morphine addict who spends the night with a prostitute and wakes up in a bathtub full of ice. Oh, and his kidney is missing. This book, laced with humor and a hazy, drug-addled main character, was a game changer for me. It broke so many of the rules that we, as writers, hear about, which is what I find so intriguing. Forget about sympathetic main characters, there are none in this book, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling. It’s both a skill and an art to be able to pull this off, and it’s something I try to do in everything I write.
Hit Man by Lawrence Block
A main character who kills people for a living? Sign me up. Keller is the protagonist, a man who collects stamps, debates whether he should use ear plugs more than once before throwing them away, and he kills people for money. This book, and the ones that followed in this series, has so many things I love: It’s hilarious, it’s dark, and it has you questioning whether or not something is wrong with you for enjoying it so much. I hope to do the same thing…If I can make a reader think “I shouldn’t be enjoying this so much” then I’ve accomplished my goal!
Out by Natsuo Kirino
This book was published in Japan in 1997, seven years later it was translated and released in the US. The story is about four women who work in a factory making boxed lunches, and all four dreamt about a better life. When one of them snaps, it sets off a chain of events that changes all of their lives. Desperation runs deep in this book, for all the characters, and it inspired me to use that emotion to bring out both the best—and worst—in a person. Desperation is something I’ve used in every book, in multiple characters, because it drives people to things they otherwise wouldn’t.
Dope by Sara Gran
Sara Gran isn’t afraid of anything, or at least that’s the impression I had after reading this book. Her writing is sparse but full of daggers, and her characters have more flaws than virtues. The opening lines hooked me right into this book about a sober heroin addict who sets out to find someone who is also an addict, and who isn’t anything close to sober. Reading Dope makes me want to push my own writing, and stories, further out there—as far as I can—because she taught me it was not only possible, it can make the book better.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I have to include this book, not only because it’s brilliant but because the popularity of it created an explosion of domestic thrillers. I think of these books as thrillers that do not have any main characters who work in law enforcement, and the stories tend to focus more on relationships. The genre hasn’t died, either. It’s only become bigger over the years, and it’s my favorite genre of thrillers. Without Gone Girl, and so many others that followed, I probably never would’ve come up with My Lovely Wife—and it certainly wouldn’t have been published.
I Let You Go by Claire Macintosh
This 2014 book is the most recent thriller on my list, but I have to include it as an influence. The novel is brilliantly constructed and written, and without giving anything away…I dare anyone to figure out that twist! It’s something that has to be planned from the beginning—which is extremely difficult for me, since I don’t plot my books. But to pull off a twist like this is definitely a goal of mine!
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