If you've ever watched the TV series 24, you know what it's like to watch a thriller. I cannot think of another program that is as relentless with conflict as 24. From the first tick of the clock to the last, the action, the tension, the good and evil, rage on at a breakneck pace crammed into the 40 to 45 minute window of the allotted hour segment. I'm actually grateful for the commercials so I can take a breath.
If you've ever read one of Robert Liparulo's earliest thrillers, you know what it's like to read that incessant drum of conflict and ratcheted up tension. Life and death throughout the pages competing for attention and fulfillment.
Thrillers do allow for variety. In the Patrick Bowers Series by Steven James the pacing is less intense, but the tension can be palpable. You might call the books "thinking men's thrillers" which is no insult to the fast and furious thriller writers. What I mean by that term in this sense is there are more elements of complex mysteries in the Patrick Bowers Series. The action is dished out in spurts rather than permeating the entire story in each book while the psychological tension is immense.
I think there are several novels these days that are incorrectly labeled thrillers when in reality, they're mysteries or suspense novels. I'm no authority on genre labels, but you know a thriller when you read one. They stand out because of the extreme "thrills", not the genres of horror, mystery, or suspense, although all of those characteristics are probably present in thrillers. While there is a unique tension to each of these genres, that non-stop, relentless tension separates true thrillers from the other genres.
Father, thank you for all the types of writers you create. May each one of us find a way to bring glory to you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.