Suspense à la Snoopy

By Debby Giusti
It was a dark and stormy night.  Anyone familiar with Charles M. Schulz’s cartoon strip, Peanuts, will recall the opening line of Snoopy’s Great American Novel.  Although his writing career never blossomed, the lovable pooch understood the importance of establishing the setting at the beginning of his book.  Take a dark and stormy night, add rumbling thunder and bolts of lightning that expose an old Victorian house badly in need of repair and you’ve got a suspense story waiting to be written. 
Any author worth her weight in copy paper knows the importance of anchoring the reader at the onset of the story.  In a suspense novel, time of day, weather, location and a mix of details hand selected by the writer weave together into a chilling setting that keeps the reader turning the page. Take the unsuspecting hero and heroine from their ordinary world and drop them smack dab in the middle of an escalating problem–whether man made or an act of God—to build reader anticipation and drive home the point that something sinister is about to happen. 

 Blue skies and sunshine are saved until the end when everything works out. After all, the hero and heroine deserve a happily ever after. By the close of the book, they’ve survived a series of life-threatening dangers in an ominous setting that grows worse on every page. 



My April 2020 release, Dangerous Amish Inheritance, opens with a brutal attack on an Amish widow who tries to protect her two sons. Torrential rain adds to the drama as storms roll through the isolated mountain town where the story unfolds. A rising river and a killer on the loose up the suspense and, hopefully, keep the reader engaged in the story.
The setting for Amish Christmas Search (October 2020) stretches from a Florida beach community to an historic Georgia town as the Amish hero and heroine try to elude a wealthy killer’s security guards. They’re on the run, but a clock is ticking and a woman will die if they can’t get to her in time. 


My current work-in-progress, Hidden Amish Secrets, includes winding mountain roads, falling rocks, an abandoned Amish farmhouse and lots of secrets to keep the reader guessing about why Amish men are dying in Mountain Loft, Georgia.


Whether hurricanes, tornadoes or torrential rains, a mountain cabin or Amish farmhouse, high noon or midnight, a well-crafted combination of details sets the stage in which a story can unfold. In a suspense novel, that setting needs to be filled with intrigue and fraught with peril to draw the reader into the danger and keep her on the edge of her seat until The End. 

As a reader, what draws you into a story, whether suspense or straight romance? Writers, what tips can you share about setting the scene for your stories? Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for Dangerous Amish Inheritance.
Happy reading! Happy writing!
Wishing you abundant blessings,Debby Giustiwww.DebbyGiusti.com
Dangerous Amish InheritanceBy Debby Giusti“Move off the mountain. No one wants you here.”

Can this Amish widow survive her dangerous stalker?

Someone wants Ruthie Eicher off Amish Mountain…enough to terrorize the widow and her boys. Now Ruthie must rely on her former sweetheart, Noah Schlabach—the secret father of her eldest son—as they figure out why. But Noah has turned his back on love and the Amish way of life. Can he shield Ruthie…without breaking her heart again?
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