The thriller writers I return to are those who give me more than a mystery. Jane Harper, Tana French, Delia Owens, and Keigo Higashino create stories in which suspense grows out of character, place, secrets, and the complicated reasons people do terrible things.
That is the territory I want to write in. I love the machinery of a thriller—the secrets, danger, reversals, and need to know what happens next—but I also want characters whose choices matter beyond solving a crime. For me, the best suspense comes when there is more at stake than discovering who did it: a community can be damaged, a place can be violated, and a good person can be forced to decide what he or she is willing to become to protect what they love.