Tension in Domestic Thrillers

But its reach goes beyond the page with screen adaptations such as Behind Her Eyes, The Housemaid, and Big Little Lies further cementing the appetite for this brand of taut, unsettling storytelling providing a very real threat on all our doorsteps.

The readership for domestic suspense is predominantly female, women from all walks of life and of all ages. These readers gravitate toward thrillers that feel close to home (both literally and emotionally) because they play with fears that could plausibly unfold in their own lives. They want the familiar rendered sinister: the perfect marriage with cracks beneath the surface, the idyllic street hiding a secret, the new friend whose motives may not be pure.

My domestic thrillers have been inspired by real events and my own experiences, from post-partum sleep deprivation psychosis (While My Baby Sleeps) and struggles with wayward teen daughters (My Daughter’s Revenge), to problematic ex-boyfriends (The Ex I Buried) and everyday misogyny (Good Girls Die Last). It’s the ‘this could happen to anyone, at any time’ element that keeps readers turning the pages.

As well as being highly relatable, domestic thrillers also have a huge psychological draw. They allow readers to experience fear, betrayal, and moral ambiguity in a safe way. They crave stories that elicit visceral reactions: a quickened pulse, a tightening in the stomach, a compulsive need to turn the page long after they meant to go to sleep. For authors hoping to reach the commercial market, the challenge is not simply to provide a clever twist, but to sustain high-stakes tension that hooks readers and keeps them invested until the final word.

So how do you achieve that?

Understanding commercial appeal

While literary suspense might dwell longer in atmosphere or ambiguity, commercial domestic thrillers are built for pace and accessibility. They are designed to be consumed quickly, often over a weekend or by the pool on holiday, with chapters that propel the reader forward through escalating stakes. This doesn’t mean sacrificing nuance or character depth; rather, it means structuring a narrative with a clear hook, a steadily tightening noose, and carefully placed reveals that reward the reader’s investment.

Commercial books may be faster and easier to read, but they are certainly not easier to write…

To achieve commercial appeal (and, let’s face it, that’s where the money is) it’s essential to balance two key priorities: delivering the emotional experience your audience craves and adhering to the commercial imperative of momentum. Every chapter should either deepen the mystery, escalate the conflict, or shift the reader’s perception of a character or event. Anything that does not serve tension, plot progression, or emotional impact belongs on the cutting room floor. To achieve palpable tension you must kill your darlings.

Pacing

In domestic thrillers, pacing is everything. The genre thrives on the push-and-pull between slow-burning unease and moments of explosive revelation, peppered with everyday domesticity. Too fast, and the story risks becoming implausible or emotionally flat; too slow, and the reader’s attention drifts. The most successful novels manage to maintain forward momentum even in quiet scenes, ensuring that every conversation, glance, or internal reflection carries the weight of what is unsaid.

Short, focused chapters can help maintain pace in the commercial space. Each should end with either a question unanswered, a decision made, or a threat, implicit or explicit, hanging in the air. The key is to avoid resolving tension too quickly; let it build, layer by layer, so that the reader feels both the dread of what’s coming and the compulsion to find out.

Characters

The most effective domestic thrillers are rooted in character, not just plot mechanics. Readers need to feel deeply invested in the people at the centre of the story, whether that means empathising with them, mistrusting them, or both. In commercial domestic suspense, characters often inhabit roles we think we know: the devoted mother, the charming husband, the loyal best friend. The tension comes from showing the cracks in these familiar facades.

Flawed protagonists work particularly well in this genre – they allow for ambiguity and the possibility of misjudgement. An unreliable narrator (think Girl On The Train and Gone Girl) can amplify unease, forcing the reader to constantly re-evaluate what is true. Just as importantly, antagonists in domestic thrillers should feel recognisable. A neighbour who is too curious, a partner who is too controlling, a friend who is too eager to help. These are the daily threats that we navigate in real life, and it’s only through luck or chance that our own lives don’t read like a suspenseful thriller.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is one of the most powerful tools for generating tension in a domestic thriller. It works because it primes the reader to anticipate danger while keeping them uncertain about its form. The best foreshadowing in commercial thrillers is subtle, embedded in ordinary details: a passing remark, an unexplained habit, a memory that surfaces at an odd time.

Rather than announcing what will happen, effective foreshadowing sows the seeds of doubt. It might be as small as a character noticing something in the room that wasn’t there before, or as ambiguous as a throwaway comment that reads differently in hindsight. This breadcrumb trail keeps the reader actively engaged, piecing together clues and anticipating how they will converge.

This is where plotting and planning comes in. It’s a lot easier to plant your seeds of doubt when you already know what awaits your protagonist. For those who prefer to write on the fly, it’s a matter of going back and adding them in afterwards. Either way, for a believable resolution the clues have to have been there all along…but subtle enough that the reader only realises in hindsight. Readers love to feel clever. Let them think they’ve cracked it, then surprise them!

Writing for a reaction

Above all, commercial domestic thrillers succeed when they provoke a physical and emotional response. Readers should feel the same tension in their bodies – clammy hands, holding their breath, a racing heart – as the characters in the novel they’re reading. If you do your job well as a writer, not only can you influence the minds of your readers but their bodies too.

To achieve this, pay close attention to sensory detail and rhythm. Vary sentence length to mirror emotional tempo (short sentences for drama, longer ones to lead your readers into a false sense of security), compressing language during high-stakes moments and expanding it when you want to draw out dread.

Use the domestic setting to your advantage. There is nothing more unnerving than danger creeping into the spaces we consider safe: the kitchen where a couple makes coffee every morning, the child’s bedroom, the shared bed, the local high street. By subverting these safe havens, you force the reader to imagine themselves in that space…and in that peril.

The payoff

Commercial audiences expect a satisfying conclusion – a reward for their dedication. The final act of a domestic thriller should tie together the threads you’ve been weaving, ideally in a way that both surprises and satisfies. Twists work best when they are both inevitable and unexpected; when, in hindsight, the clues were there all along. Resist the temptation to shock purely for effect. Readers will forgive being misled, but not being cheated.

The rise of domestic thrillers is no accident. These stories speak to universal fears about trust, safety, and the thin line between normal life and chaos. For the commercial market, the goal is to harness those fears into a tightly wound narrative that keeps readers up long into the night, unable to stop turning pages. Done well, domestic suspense doesn’t just entertain it lingers, reshaping the way the reader sees the world not just inside your stories, but outside their own front doors too.