If Something Happens to Me

The thriller genre is characterized by suspense, plot twists and action-driven narratives. This novel’s title—If Something Happens to Me—immediately establishes that it will include elements of suspense and action, since it prompts readers to ask what might happen, to whom, and what the consequences will be.

The thriller genre borrows from a long tradition. It traces its roots back to Gothic novels that blended elements of horror, mystery, and the supernatural, such as Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) and Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White (1859). Detective fiction, which is characterized by a mystery at the heart of its plot, emerged as a subgenre within the thriller in the late 19th century. Edgar Allen Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) established the character of a detective who solves the mystery through logical reasoning, and this tradition was solidified by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series, beginning with A Study in Scarlet (1887). The thriller genre takes its action from swashbuckling sagas like Alexander Dumas’s Count of Monte Cristo (1844). Additionally, its use of cliffhangers at the end of chapters was popular in serialized novels of the 19th century; they were published in periodicals one chapter at a time and depended on suspense to keep readers coming back. For instance, Charles Dickens uses this technique—which is now standard for thrillers—in novels like Great Expectations (1861) and A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

Modern thrillers often focus on international intrigue, espionage, and high-stakes action. They emerged in the 20th century, which was a time of tumultuous international politics. John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) is one of the first novels of this type. Its protagonist is an ordinary man who is forced to reckon with extraordinarily powerful and corrupt international forces, and this is similar to Alex Finlay’s protagonists in If Something Happens to Me. Since then, detectives, soldiers, special agents, spies, and assassins have frequently been the protagonists of this genre. A popular example of the modern thriller is Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, which began with Killing Floor in 1997; the 29th book in the series, In Too Deep, was released in 2024. If Something Happens to Me is similarly action-driven and filled with cliffhanger moments. Finlay also shifts between past and present timelines, building tension while slowly revealing key details. These techniques are reminiscent of contemporary thrillers like Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

From the early days of film, the thriller genre has seen substantial cross-fertilization between books and movies. John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps has been made into multiple mini-series and movies, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock. Alex Finlay borrows tropes from thrillers and horror movies, as well, and he draws attention to them, in part to poke fun at them. For instance, at the opening of If Something Happens to Me, Finlay’s teen characters are alone in a make-out spot and compare it to the clichéd setting for assaults in “old horror movies” (1). Then, they actually get attacked there. Finlay’s acknowledgement of the tropes of thriller and horror movies adds subtle humor while still tapping into preconditioned reader expectations. The novel includes several of these tropes that are familiar to moviegoers, like a serial killer who is known only by his initials and a protagonist who is untrained in combat yet survives attacks from trained killers.

If Something Happens to Me closely aligns with the conventions of modern thrillers, including the use of suspense and cliffhangers. Finlay uses the established tropes of the genre to entertain his readers and keep them guessing.