#229 | When I Think of a ‘Thriller’ Novel This Is What I Think Of
Quick SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti discusses the thriller novel "Tell No One” by Harlan Coben, where a doctor's world is upended by an email hinting that his murdered wife of eight years ago may still be alive. Vigliotti unpacks the suspenseful narrative, praises Coben's accessible and conversational writing style, and challenges common misconceptions about the thriller genre and genre fiction in general. Tune in to learn more about this gripping novel!
Listen to the episode:
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Topics Covered in The Episode:
Introduction to "Tell No One" (00:09) - Overview of the thriller novel "Tell No One" by Harlan Coben and its significance.
Book Format Differences (01:20) - Discussion on how hardcover and paperback formats affect reader perception and book attractiveness.
Promotion of New Book (02:30) - Introduction of Douglas Vigliotti's new book "Aristotle for Novelists" and related assessment tool.
Harlan Coben's Background (03:38) - Insights into Harlan Coben's success and his adaptation of novels into TV shows.
Coben's Writing Philosophy (04:50) - Coben's humorous take on reading order in his series and authors' common insecurities.
Plot Overview of "Tell No One" (06:01) - Summary of the novel's premise involving a doctor and an email from his presumed dead wife.
Characteristics of a Thriller (07:17) - Exploration of what defines a thriller and its engaging elements in Coben's work.
Writing Style Analysis (08:23) - Discussion on Coben's minimalistic and conversational prose style that enhances readability.
Misconceptions About Genre Writing (09:31) - Addressing the belief that genre books are easier to write compared to literary works.
Jason Isbell's Insight on Songwriting (10:45) - Comparison of songwriting and storytelling, emphasizing the unique skills required for each.
Coben's Writing Process (11:52) - Coben's straightforward approach to writing, focusing on productivity and output.
Closing Remarks (12:51) - Encouragement to subscribe, connect, and learn more about the podcast and Vigliotti's work.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do so. This week I have a thriller to share with you. I would say it's a true novel of suspense. It is titled “Tell No One” by Harlan Coben. You've probably heard that name before, if not because of his novels, but maybe because of Netflix. He has a big development deal with them, and he has a lot of shows that have been out because of that. But anyway, this book came out in 2001 and it's around. Well, actually, this is pretty interesting because the hardcover is around 340 pages, whereas the paperback is around 400. And so instantly, this kind of draws attention to all books that are formatted for the page, and depending on the word count, they will make them appear longer or shorter with the trim size and the margin size. And of course, all of this can make a book more attractive or less attractive to its intended audience based on the genre that it slides into.
01:20 - And all of this stuff goes into account when you are creating a product to be read physically. Of course, this all changes when you have something like a Kindle or an e-reader, because that makes everything the same. It's one of the big bones that I have to pick with e-readers is they're built more for consumption. But anyway, this small little tangent here got called into my mind when I realized the page differential between the hardcover and the paperback. Ultimately, it probably doesn't matter too much at all. And on that note, before I share any more about the book or my big takeaways. Or the author and all that good stuff. Let me quickly remind you of two things. One, my new book that is out “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. If you're interested in finding out more about that, you can always visit AristotleforNovelists.com. The second thing is that on that website, there is a ten-question assessment that one can take to determine if they have a working story based on Aristotelian principles.
02:30 - So it is ten questions that are formatted in yes or no format to make it super simple and easy to answer, and it will help you determine if you have a working story. So again, you can find that on the website AristotleforNovelists.com, as well. The link for that will be in the show notes. Okay. So now let me turn back to the novel at hand, “Tell No One” by Harlan Coben. So the author he is a bestselling author of, I don't know, 30 or 40 novels, probably. I think he sold something in the neighborhood of 80 million copies worldwide. So very, very popular. He has a mix of series and standalones. Years back, he signed a huge development deal with Netflix, something that I mentioned just moments ago. And since he has turned many of those books into TV shows. One of the funny things to me that my mom pointed out when I told her about this was that she thought he was English, because I guess a lot of his TV shows, the characters are English.
03:38 - And I said, no, he's from new Jersey, and I'm not sure if a lot of his books are based in England, or they just did that to adapt to the television show. It's funny, I heard him actually speak both in an interview and more recently at a literary event, and he was really insistent about something that you've probably heard me say before on this podcast, and it kind of goes hand in hand with what I was just saying. And that is, his books are not his TV shows. Meaning the medium of literature, whether it be commercial or literary, is different than the medium that is television, and they require different things to tell the stories. So he, unlike many authors out there, is very willing to change the stories from his novels subtly or sometimes even drastically, to make it work better for the television. Not sure if the whole English thing is part of that, but it might be, who knows? Another thing that I heard him say about his Myron Bolitar series specifically, and was actually how I first came to him.
04:50 - I read the first Myron Bolitar book. But one of the things that he said about that series in writing, I guess in general, that was just really funny, was that when people come to him and say that they've never read any of those books and they say, oh, I think I'm going to start with the debut or the first in the series. He's like, yeah, maybe you should start with like the fourth or the fifth one. He was joking around because so many writers are embarrassed about their past work, and they think that certain things are better than other things, and they don't want people to perhaps read those things first. And I just thought that it was a very human thing to say. And I think that that is a very common experience for a lot of authors. And probably the most interesting thing about his writing journey is that he debuted in 1990 with a standalone, and then wrote a couple of Standalones then started writing this series and it took them 11 years and I think it was like nine books or something like that for his big break to happen, where all of a sudden the world knew who he was.
06:01 - And it came on the heels of the book that I am sharing with you today. Tell no one. So it's got a pretty simple setup, I would say. And that is it's about a doctor who gets an anonymous email eight years following what he believed to be a mugging and murder of his wife at a lake that they would go to annually. But in that anonymous email, it says something that only he and his wife would know. Most importantly, it says, for him to tell no one about this email. And of course, this makes the doctor believe again, this is eight years later that his wife is actually alive, so the rest of this novel is spent with him on this wild goose chase, trying to find out if his wife is alive and uncover what happened on that fateful night eight years ago. And of course, this leads to all kinds of different things. There's a quote that I pulled from the book that actually sums this up pretty well, and he writes.
07:13 - “Three days ago, I was a dedicated doctor sleepwalking through my own life. Since then, I had seen a ghost, gotten emails from the dead, had become a suspect in not one, but two murders, was on the run from the law, had assaulted a police officer and had enlisted the aid of a known drug dealer.” So, as you probably can see, the book gets quite fantastical and this protagonist goes through a gauntlet, I would say, to uncover the truth. This leads me to the three major takeaways or things that I wanted to share about this book. The first is that when someone says thriller, this is the exact type of book that I think of. So we call a lot of books thrillers, and there are probably thriller elements in a lot of books. Or maybe this is suspense, I don't know, it's sometimes tough to weed out what is and what isn't. But for me, when I think of a thriller, this is what I think of. As I just mentioned before, it's quite fantastical. It's on the nose, it's the edge of your seat.
08:23 - It's easy, it's voice, it's tension full. And because of that, it is extremely entertaining and effortless to read. Some people might not like that, and I totally get it. I don't read a lot of these books over and over and over again. I wouldn't say I'm a thriller enthusiast or there anything like that? I tend to prefer my crime more subdued and subtle, but there's definitely a place for these books. A big place, obviously, because people love them. And I think that this is a great representation of that genre, and also something that just pulls you along. Page after page after page after page. It's not a shocker to me that he's also done extremely well in a commercial sense with all of his shows on Netflix. This leads me to the second thing that I wanted to share with you, and that's just the prose is very conversational. It goes right along with the style of book. It's easy to read. I actually like the prose a lot because it's very minimalistic.
09:31 - Just because something is a thriller and voice and all the things that I had mentioned before, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's minimalistic. And for me, the reason why this works so well is that he doesn't mince words. And that is something that I always appreciate. No matter what genre of book it is in. The last thing that I wanted to share with you is something that I think is misconstrued a little bit about authors and books of this nature, and genre, books, and that is that they are easy to write or somehow less of a book than other types of book might be like in the literary sense, or what have you. And certainly, there are major differences. I'm not going to squabble with that idea. I agree with it. But the idea that they are easier or less of a book is just totally false to me. They are specific thing that require a specific skill set. Some have it, some don't. I heard this best represented by not an author, but by a songwriter, Jason Isbell, who said this exact thing about an AC/DC song.
10:45 - Basically, when someone asked him if he could write one or something silly like that and basically he said, I don't write an AC/DC song because I can't write an AC/DC song. I write the songs that I write, and they write AC/DC songs, and this always struck me as something that was very astute and very logical, because the idea that, and this is no knock on AC/DC, anyone can write a big dumb rock song is silly. You need to be able to write that song and pull it off. And the reason why I say that's no knock is because that and I'm using air quotes, a big dumb rock song, does a very specific thing for people, and it's important in a very specific way. And of course, Isbell is one of the preeminent storytellers, at least with a guitar on his lap. Many consider him to be one of the great songwriters of our time, which sort of sort of emphasizes this point even further. I will close this episode by peeling it back to something I heard Harlan Coben say about his writing process when asked how he writes.
11:52 - He gave a very simple answer, and I'm paraphrasing him because I don't have a committed to memory, and that is if it produces words on a page, I do it. That's my entire writing strategy. If it means sitting in the back of a taxi, then I do it. If it means writing at my desk, then I do it. The whole thing rides on. Does it produce words on a page or does it not produce words on a page? Whatever that is, I'll do it until it doesn't produce words on a page anymore. And I thought that that was super simple, but something that is worth remembering for anybody who is looking for a little nugget of advice. All right, so that wraps up today's episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, I want to quickly remind you to please click that subscribe button or rate the podcast on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on. Either one of those two things goes a very, very long way in helping more people find the show and in return, inspiring more men to read.
12:51 - Also, if you want more information about my new book, Aristotle for Novelists, you can always visit AristotleforNovelists.com. The link for that will be in the show notes. If you want to connect with me, then you could do so in two ways by visiting my website DouglasVigliotti.com, or finding me on Instagram @DouglasVigliotti. It's the only social media that I have. And last, but not least, thank you so much for listening. If you want more information on this podcast, which includes signing up for the monthly newsletter, then all you have to do is head over to the website BooksforMen.org.
