Perusing a mystery shelf in your local bookstore, you may have wondered—just how many thriller subgenres are out there? You have medical thrillers, psychological thrillers, domestic suspense thrillers, spy thrillers, procedural thrillers, amateur sleuth thrillers, action thrillers, political thrillers, legal thrillers, and techno-thrillers and more. But, have you ever heard of the screwball thriller?
If not, that’s probably because I just made it up. Why on earth did I do that? To talk about my own screwball thriller of course! But first, let me try to define the elusive subgenre.
The screwball thriller is more screwball than thriller. The exact recipe: one cup of zany, a pinch of parody, a dash of humor, and a quarter cup of thriller. Just a quarter cup, meaning, you still need your dead body, your plucky if not formidable protagonist, and your array of potential suspects. But after that, all rules go right out the proverbial window.
The Bachelorette Party (out September third) features Alex, a true crime devotee, who is researching the infamous 666 serial killer. Her friends set up a “true-crime” bachelorette slumber party at the very site of brutal murders. A fun time is had by all—that is until Alex wakes up in the middle of the night with blood on her hands and her friends missing. So what puts the book in the screwball thriller category? Let’s start with the main character. Alex has the perfect life, a dream internship on a popular cable TV journalism show and a smoking-hot, ultra-wealthy fiancé. So why does she keep messing it all up somehow? Imperfect but wry narrator—check. Then you have her best friends, Melody, a literal drama queen working in NYC theater and Lainey, a professional basketball player, described as a six-foot Grumpy. Colorful side-kicks—check. But what really puts the screwball in this thriller is the twist, dripping with macabre humor, which everyone sees coming except for Alex (and hopefully, the reader.)
Allow me to illustrate with a few more examples.
Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Plum series
With her Stephanie Plum series, Janet Evanovich is the queen of the screwball thriller. Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum quips her way through outrageous plots, with kooky (and hilarious) sidekicks, a spattering of romance, and of course some bad guys who need catching. When reviews call the series “banana-pants crazy,” you might be dealing with a screwball thriller. My one complaint with the books? They are disallowed in the bedroom, as the excessive laughter that they provoke bothers my “honey, please-I’m-trying-to-sleep-here” spouse.
Carl Hiaasen, Bad Monkey
If you can even say the title Bad Monkey without laughing your ever-loving entire ass off, well then good for you. If Janet Evanovich is the screwball thriller queen, I would crown Carl Hiassen the king. I could spout off the plot for you, but it would make no sense. Okay, fine. A disgraced police officer-turned-restaurant-inspector gets called to do real police work again when a fisherman accidentally catches someone’s severed arm. But the screwball element really sets in with Driggs the monkey, a washed-up actor from the Pirates of the Caribbean flicks. Driggs has no couth, unlike most monkeys, and his penchant for getting drunk, throwing poop, biting others and um, well, masturbating, leads to some hijinks along the way. Bring tissues (no, not for the monkey…sorry…sorry!) but because you will crying with laughter while reading this one.
Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders
The Magpie Murder series is less about ROTFL (Google that one, boomers) and more about masterful parody. Anthony Horowitz writes a mystery series about an author named Anthony Horowitz writing a mystery series. Have I lost you yet? With his tongue deeply embedded into his cheek, Anthony Horowitz never breaks character while playing the role of the bumbling, egotistical author, clearly a second fiddle to his less polished but much smarter police consultant partner. Despite real-life professional success (i.e. writing Foyle’s War and Midsommer Mysteries), the protagonist (who also wrote Foyle’s War and Midsommer Mysteries) cannot get his agent to call him back, turns out empty rooms at author conventions, and of course never, ever guesses the actual murderer.
Mick Herron, Slow Horses
How about a smart, savvy spy thriller, where no one is especially smart or savvy? Such are the MI5 cast-offs, the lovable losers who work in the London Slough House. The MI5 rejects are housed here, segregated from the real spies, to prevent them from cocking up (that’s English, by the way) delicate, dangerous, and potentially deadly affairs of international intrigue. Yet, despite their best efforts, somehow the band of misfits always manages to solve the case and save the day. By the way, the HBO show more than does justice to the series. If you haven’t streamed it yet, you best rectify that situation immediately.
Movie Bonus: Jordan Peele, Get Out
For my final choice, I’m going to take a little detour out of books and thrillers and into films and a slightly different genre. For lack of a better term, let’s call it screwball horror. Jordan Peele is the master of this form, where satire meets comedy meets horror in the perfect screwball mix. When Chris meets Rose’s white parents, he expects a garden-variety elitist racism. But he has close encounters of another kind—all the (white) guests at the fancy party seem uncomfortably interested in him, and all the (Black) workers act odd, unnervingly compliant, yet simmering with anger. Chris’s friend from the TSA had advised against the trip, warning him the white people will force him into sex slavery. The concern sounds fantastical, but the truth turns out to be much, much worse. They do want his body…just not like that. I won’t give away the ending but rest assured, our TSA hero rescues him from a horrific death.
And that, folks, is a quick run-down of my newly minted thriller genre, a quirky mix of satire and humor with a dead body or two thrown in. Try it with other genres! Screwball romance? Screwball fantasy? How about screwball his-fic? If you like a laugh with your thriller, I give it my full five-star, two-thumbs up recommendation.
The screwball thriller…coming soon to a bookstore near you.
***
