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The Construction of Thrillers
Paperback
Publisher Price: $29.99
ISBN13: 9781962834957
Publisher: Calumet Editions
Published: Oct 20 2026
Pages: 720
Weight: 2.09
Height: 1.58 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A great thriller doesn't depend on nonstop action. It depends on choices that change what happens next. In The Construction of Thrillers, Gary Lindberg takes writers from the governing threat to a consequential ending. Through a running case study and eight engine-specific beat models, he shows how to give protagonists meaningful agency, turn opposition into escalating pressure, make discoveries force adaptation, and build a transformative midpoint. Learn to design clocks and converging timelines, control viewpoint and withheld information, shape suspenseful scenes and pacing, and deliver a climax earned by everything before it. Blueprints, worksheets, and revision audits help you diagnose weak structure and rebuild it with confidence. A hands-on companion to The Architecture of Thrillers for novelists at every level.
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