In the big wide world of suspense fiction, small town settings are having a moment. Whether it’s a backwater locale in the Deep South or a hideaway along the English coast, many suspense authors are exploring how to generate big thrills and disturbing twists in seemingly bucolic small town settings.
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Karin Slaughter, We Are All Guilty Here
Veteran thriller author Karin Slaughter made her name writing books set in tiny Southern towns. In We Are All Guilty Here, which kicks off her newest series, Slaughter deftly uses the backdrop of North Falls, Georgia, to ramp up the suspense in this highly addictive novel about two missing teen girls. The author populates North Falls with a varied cast of true-to-life characters connected by an intricate web of dysfunctional relationships that go back decades.
At the epicenter of the tale is Sheriff Deputy Emmy Clifton. Although Emmy’s family has lived in North Falls for generations, she nevertheless finds herself blindsided by the town’s shocking secrets. Perhaps Slaughter’s most masterful feat is crafting a rural Southern community so real and complex that that every character in the story, save the protagonist herself, is potentially a suspect.
Through accurate dialogue, vivid details, and well-placed clues, Slaughter paints a picture of a seemingly idyllic town where everyone has a motive and practically anyone could be a killer. As a bonus, Slaughter teases so many intriguing characters and underlying mysteries that even after the novel’s jaw-dropping final twist, her readers will be wanting more.
Lucy Foley, The Midnight Feast
British author Lucy Foley is known for using isolated settings (The Hunting Party and The Guest List) to create suspense. In her newest psychological thriller, she explores the fiery conflicts that erupt when wealthy urbanites descend on a sleepy village on the English coast for the grand opening of a posh resort.
The story’s focal point is a summer solstice party so over-the-top and elaborate that it’s guaranteed to end in disaster. Working-class staffers at the luxury resort clash with their spoiled guests, resulting in skirmishes that eventually lead to a full-on conflagration. When a dead body is found after the solstice celebration, police investigators get involved to help sort out motives.
Foley uses the local folklore surrounding a group of hooded pagans known as “The Birds” to heighten conflict between the town’s residents and the crass elites invading their hamlet. From the novel’s very beginning, the dark and ominous forces at work in the woods fuel the mystery and cast a sinister shadow over this otherwise picturesque setting.
Rachel Howzell Hall, Fog and Fury
Irony is alive and well in Rachel Howzell Hall’s thriller about a private investigator who moves to Haven, California, hoping to escape the violence of L.A. but ends up getting embroiled in a murder investigation. Hall sets her story in a town nicknamed “Mayberry by the Sea,” but savvy readers will clue into the surprise she is creating for her protagonist, Sonny Rush, who soon after arrival gets called upon to help solve the mysterious death of a teenage boy.
It doesn’t take long for Sonny to figure out that nothing is as it seems in Haven, and that charming little communities can hide dangerous secrets.
Tana French, The Searcher
The first in a bestselling trilogy, The Searcher by Tana French introduces us to retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper, who goes to the quaint Irish village of Ardnakelty hoping for a new start and an escape from the violence of his past. But his hopes are thwarted when a teen girl pulls him into her determined search for her missing brother.
Through her skillful use of description and dialect, the author immerses the reader in rural Ireland, just as Cal Hooper finds himself immersed in his new surroundings. As the story progresses, Hooper discovers that Ardnakelty sits atop a graveyard of buried secrets and that his dream of tranquil village life is rapidly eroding.
Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club
Book one in Richard Osman’s hugely popular Thursday Murder Club series features a gang of amateur sleuths who live together in the smallest of small-town settings—a British retirement village. An eccentric group of retirees meets together in the Jigsaw Room to puzzle over unsolved crimes in the area. When a local man is found dead under strange circumstances, the group brings their talents and idiosyncrasies to bear to help solve the mystery.
With its clever plotting and sharp humor, Osman’s five-book series inspired a Netflix production starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley.
Liz Moore, The God of the Woods
When a girl goes missing at a summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains, the tiny nearby town is thrown into a whirlwind of activity. As the search gets underway, links emerge between the girl’s disappearance and the death of her young brother years ago. As the lead detective investigates the disappearance, she starts to uncover the town’s numerous past scandals that some locals would prefer to keep hidden.
The story unfolds against a backdrop of sparking tensions between the wealthy camp owners, the Van Laars—who happen to be parents of the missing girl—and the working-class residents of a rural town facing economic decline. The townspeople’s financial dependence on the Van Laar family complicates the investigation and ratchets up the hostility between factions. Moore’s rich descriptions of the Adirondacks keep readers captivated as her tale unfurls.
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