The Best Unreliable Narrators in Suspense Novels

The Best Unreliable Narrators in Suspense

Isn’t it fun to be fooled by a good book? Some of my favorite novels are deliciously unsettling at the beginning, then ask, in a slow, sly way, “What do think is really going on here?” That’s where first-person, unreliable narrators come in. They lie, they obfuscate, they show you only what they can, or want you to see. Sometimes they don’t even understand what they’re experiencing until the end of the book. These four books each have a narrator that is unreliable in a different, bold way.

 

From a writer’s point of view, these types of books are challenging to write. But as a reader, I find myself clamoring for more, more, more. I don’t mind at all being fooled if it’s done cleverly and with a sense of respect for the reader’s credulity. What about you? Do you dare to be fooled?


About Laura Benedict 

Laura Benedict is the Edgar- and ITW Thriller Award-nominated author of eight novels of mystery and suspense, including The Stranger Inside, and the Bliss House gothic trilogy.

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