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As for suspense, I like to write books that draw you into the hero's plight from the opening pages, where people put their lives on the line for something - a belief, a family member, the truth.

You have to go out of your way as a suspense novelist to find situations where the protagonists are somewhat helpless and in real danger.

When the reader and one narrator know something the other narrator does not, the opportunities for suspense and plot development and the shifting of reader sympathies get really interesting.

The contemporary crime novel is, at its best, a novel of character. That's where the suspense comes from.

I love novels where not much 'happens' but where the interest is in the ideas and analyses of characters.

We all live in suspense from day to day; in other words, you are the hero of your own story.

I think the best fiction is a form of psychological suspense, even though I don't really write in that idiom.

Nothing bores me more than books where you read two pages and you know exactly how it's going to come out. I want twists and turns that surprise me, characters that have a difficult time and that I don't know if they're going to live or die.

So long as you tell a story that falls within the fairly generous boundaries of the suspense novel, you're free to make the novel as good as you can. You're allowed to challenge the reader. You can experiment with voice and style.

I think Jane Austen builds suspense well in a couple of places, but she squanders it, and she gets to the endgame too quickly. So I will be working on those things.