Happy New Year

By Suzanne Trauth

The new year is always a good time to take stock of my reading and writing life. I like to think back through the past year and note what I wrote and what I read. Since my recent suspense novel, The First to Die, was released in November, it’s pretty clear what I’ve been doing during the past year: editing and proofreading and promoting. In addition to drafting my next mystery, new writing has been focused on creating marketing materials.

Though I began my crime fiction career with a series of cozy mysteries, I have since turned my focus to psychological suspense. My new book, The First to Die, is a departure for me. I am shifting sub-genres of crime fiction. Shifting genres can happen for any number of reasons: sometimes a story demands a particular category. I wanted to flesh out a narrative that had been on my mind for a while, and I could only satisfy my writing goal through suspense. 

That said, as I take stock of my reading habits during the past year, I’ve asked myself what books have influenced my thinking about, and writing, crime fiction, especially as I shift from cozies to suspense? The answer is: many; but here are a few authors who stood out:

Louise Penny (The Black Wolf) is my go-to writer when I want to create a tight-knit community of characters in a small-town setting. Though a crime writer of more traditional mysteries, with a touch of police procedural, Penny makes me feel at home in Three Pines, with Inspector Armand Gamache, and adds suspense, psychological insights, and intricate stories with twists and turns. She is my north star.

S. A. Cosby (King of Ashes) burns the cover off his latest thriller, literally. His work has steadily increased my admiration for his use of language, beautifully-shaped sentences, and piercing imagery. He thrusts his characters into deep, dark places and isn’t afraid to watch them fight for their lives. Cosby has his finger on the pulse of contemporary life…and death. He gives me courage.

Laura Lippman (Murder Takes a Vacation) is in this group because she also took a step away from her staple—suspense and thrillers—to pen this witty, intelligent, engaging mystery that captivated me with its humorous, but poignant, take on love, independence, and aging. I appreciate the flexibility of her writing and her shifting perspective in crime fiction. She is a great role model.

Megan Abbott (El Dorado Drive) thrills me with every one of her books. I never know where she will lead me, but I willingly follow the leader, and learn that sometimes the reader needs to be cajoled into joining this expedition. Bread crumbs are dropped, senses are stimulated, sentences well-crafted, the story drenched in atmosphere so thick I can almost touch it. And underlying her mesmerizing plot is a frightening darkness that I must acknowledge—humanity can be terrifying.

Ann Cleeves (The Killing Stones) is an inspiring master who schools me with every book: here is how a writer describes windswept, isolated, weather-beaten island life. Combining vivid settings with ingenious plots, Cleeves has such compassion for her characters that I feel for them all—even the guilty ones. And of course, there is her work ethic as she juggles several outstanding series…

Oyinkan Braithwaite (My Sister the Serial Killer) makes me ask: Is there a better title for a crime novel? She wastes no words in this slim mix of the wicked and the witty and teaches me that less is definitely more. Her story is captivating and compelling, giving me all I need to track the crimes and yet not too much—I am forced to read between the lines to follow her protagonist’s journey. She trusts me to keep up.

I will continue to read these writers into the future. But in case I need more, and different inspiration, here are a few authors I plan to tackle in 2026:

Lori Rader-Day (Wreck Your Heart)

Lou Berney (Crooks)

Michael Connolly (Nightshade)

Karin Slaughter (We are All Guilty Here)

Lisa Scottoline (The Unraveling of Julia)

Lisa Jewell (Don’t Let Him In)

Who inspires you? Who do you plan to read this coming year?

Suzanne Trauth is the author of the suspense novel The First to Die, the Dodie O’Dell mystery series—Show Time, Time Out, Running out of Time, Just in Time, No More Time, and Killing Time—and What Remains of Love, an historical romance (Firebird, American Book Fest, Chanticleer book awards), as well as plays and non-fiction books. In her previous career, she spent many years as a university professor of theatre and when she is not writing, she coaches actors. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Dramatists Guild, and the League of Professional Theatre Women and has appeared on many panels at Bouchercon Mystery Conferences. She lives in Woodland Park, New Jersey. www.suzannetrauth.com