THE CAREER NOVELIST
that demonstrate the threat's consequence for ordinary people are
often lacking. Personification of the evil conspiracy is oftentimes
weak.
Authors who wish to scare the bejeezus out of large numbers of
readers will have to master the techniques of making abstract ter-
rors concrete. After that comes the even more difficult business of
keeping suspense alive on every page of a novel.
One thing is for sure: despite the difficulties, the payoff for
finding a successful new formula will keep authors busy writing sus-
pense novels for many years to come. I look forward to finding out
what will terrorize us next.
SHARKS, SERIAL KILLERS, AND OTHER
ENDANGERED SPECIES
Every once in a while a trend seems to emerge out of nowhere. For
a brief time it captures the attention of the book business, gets writ-
ten up in Publishers Weekly and the New York Times, then fades away. Is
there any reliable way to predict trends?
Sad to say, trends cannot be forecast; they can only be identified
once underway, and by that time it is usually too late. Authors and
publishers who are foolish enough to try to capitalize on them at a
late stage are starting the race well behind the leaders.
Take serial-killer novels: the massive success of Thomas Harris's
The Silence of the Lambs set off a wave of novels on the same subject.
Sliver by Ira Levin, Mercy by David L. Lindsey, Shadow Prey by John
Sandford, and several thrillers by Jonathan Kellerman were a few of
those that sold well in the wake of Hannibal Lecter.
And then it was over... well, not quite over: serial killer-novels
are still being published by the dozens each year, but few of them
are selling as well as those published at the height of the boom in
1990-91. To attract attention, new serial killer novels are offering
increasingly shocking methods of murder. All for little benefit. The
bandwagon has rolled on by.
Here are some other recent trends that are candidates for the
history books:
Sequels to Classic Novels. This trend was kicked off by the retail suc-
cess of Alexandra Ripley's Scarlett, a sequel to Margaret Mitchell's