The week of "Thrillers & Suspense"

Apr 30, 2020Jose Noulez de Miguel

Back in the days at Atheneum we had a Dutch teacher who forced us to read at least 50 books during the school year. These could be all kinds of books, except comics. He gave us a list of classics but we were also allowed to read novels and thrillers. It was the period when it was "not done" if you chose novels and/or thrillers. If you wanted to fit in, you read Harry Mulisch and the like.

Why are thrillers so much fun to read?

I like reading (good) thrillers because they grab you by the throat from the first page. You are immediately in the story and you read the book in one go. To give you an example: the last book I read was an interesting book about the Dossin barracks, but it took me 1 week because the book demanded so much of me. While a thriller with the same number of pages is simply finished the next day at the latest.

What I also have with thrillers is the empathy. Sometimes it seems as if I am in the skin of the character. I feel, as it were, the tension and the emotions that the main character feels. You are also often in a different world. It is as if you are wearing virtual glasses and you are, as it were, walking around in the story yourself.

Often, especially good thrillers are based on events that really happened. Or they have a detailed historical background. What about secret societies that are described in thrillers?

One of the better thrillers from Flanders I think are the books by Jef Geeraerts about the duo Vincke & Verstuyft. When I first read one of these books in which the writer describes where in Antwerp the story takes place, I saw myself walking around there. I knew every detail that the writer described. It's just madness how someone can evoke feelings in a reader in such detail.

That's why this week is the "week of thrillers & suspense " at www.thekingofbooks.com . Currently there are 160 books "Thrillers & Suspense" for sale starting at €1 per book.