Suspense novels are meant to transport a man from his drab daily anxieties into a euphoric state of really high-class terror. Most authors in the suspense business used to accomplish this by piling up murder and mayhem, sin and skulduggery with all the subtlety of a meat-ax killer. That style is still widely practiced, but in recent years the suspense formula has become as elastic as a private eye's suspenders. It has often been stretched to include such weighty matters as character, group psychology, politics and sometimes even good writing. Thus a new category was created—well below the occasional Henry...
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