This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
That underlying sense of unease, the slightly unhinged characters and the drip-feed of information, Amy Bird shares how a ghostly book by Kate Mosse taught her all the hallmarks of brilliant psychological suspense. Parts one and two of Amy’s new thriller serial, Hide and Seek, are out now.
The book that changed my life – or at least, my writing life – is The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse. If you haven’t read it, it’s about a man who finds himself in a strange, anachronistic town. He is beguiled by a beautiful woman who draws him into defending the village from attack, and into her own sad history. Only gradually does he begin to understand why the town is so anachronistic and, more shockingly, its tragic past and that of the beautiful woman – and the reader learns with him, as the book shifts between time zones and recollections.
So why did this book change my life? Because it was the first commercial page-turner I read as an adult. Kate Mosse was presenting at an awards ceremony I was attending, and so I thought I ought to read one of her books. I did not expect to find myself reading it at 2am in the morning. But her sheer ability to make me turn the pages amazed me. The haunting mystery of the book, the suspense, the strangeness of the characters, the ‘oh gosh, is that really true?’ nature of impending revolutions, all kept me reading way past my bedtime. But more than that. It showed to me a whole new way of writing, and a new trajectory for my work.
Before I read The Winter Ghosts, I’d always been a bit snobby about mainstream commercial bestsellers. I thought they weren’t for me. But after reading The Winter Ghosts, I understood the skill it takes to write such a page-turner, and thirsted for more. Thus, when Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson came out, I soaked it up. My decision to read it was based on the fact that I was attending a reading by S. J. Watson, a fellow Faber Academy alumnus. And again, I found myself awake into the small hours. It confirmed to me how cleverly writers in the suspense genre must structure, thread, and build their material to keep writers hooked. 
It was shortly after I read Before I Go To Sleep that I got my three-book deal with Carina UK. They were excited about my first novel, Yours is Mine, and the psychological suspense within it. While we were in the editing stages, I succumbed to peer pressure and read Gone Girl. And yes, again, I couldn’t put it down in order to sleep. Structurally it was excellent, the plot was compelling, the twists mind-blowing, and the prose engaging. It electrified me and, I’m sure, my editing of Yours is Mine. I was completely committed to the psychological suspense genre.
Now, with my own third psychological suspense novel Hide and Seek released, I am devotee of that genre. I seek out any book that will hook me right from the wrongness of the start to the shock of the end. That has meant revisiting classics such as Rebecca and The Ministry of Fear, to reading more contemporary master-pieces such as The Secret History, The Dinner and The Secret Husband. I now feel I know the rules of the genre, how to manipulate them, and how to break them so that I can create something that is truly my own, and yet has all the hallmarks of suspense. That initial sense of unease; the drip-feed of information; the characters that are just unhinged enough to make you fear what they might do next; and, of course, the shocking twists.
The obsessive quest for the truth that my protagonist in Hide and Seek embarks upon, and the fear that the past will repeat itself, is the perfect vehicle for me to explore the genre further. And that journey, that interest in the page-turner as a concept, all came from The Winter Ghosts. So to Kate Mosse – my thanks.
You can see the trailer for Hide and Seek here.