Female thriller authors on top!

I guess it is clear enough that female thriller authors take a huge part in the ordinary life of many women, and yes, some men. Don’t you love to crash on the couch, reading an exciting, sensual book that gives you an adrenaline rush? Well, I surely do. That is why I present to you the top five books of 2012 selected by the CPNB.

According to the previous posts an important difference between male and female thriller authors is the way both sexes write. Books written by females contain more details, while books written by men are soaked with heavy fights and torture. That does not mean female authors cannot write heavy, sadistic books. In fact, Karen Slaughter writes the most vicious books I have ever read. Let alone Nicci French and Karen Rose. Anyways, let’s move on to the top 5 and see how women dominate this list.

At the bottom of our list is actually not a thriller. It is ‘En dan nog iets’ written by Paulien Cornelisse. It is a collection of useless, though amusing flaws in the way Dutch people use their language. This book is the sequel of the bestseller called ‘Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding’ which is also written by Paulien Cornelisse.

Number four isn’t a thriller either but it is written by a male author. ‘Gijp’ is written by Michel van Egmond and has been published by Voetbal International. Basically it is a short biography of a couple of months out of the life of René van der Gijp.

Finally a thriller… well, a thriller with a lot of sex within it. You probably already know number three: ‘Vijftig tinten vrij’ written by, yes a female authors as well, Erika Leonard James. Many women, and some men, loved this final part of the very successful trilogy. Why? The stories contain sex, sex and even more sex! This final part will end the exciting story about Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. In the Netherlands the entire trilogy was published by Prometheus.

Number two is taken by the second part of this trilogy: ‘Vijftig tinten donkerder’ written by Erika Leonard James. The second part describes the relationship between Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, which started in the first part ‘Vijftig tinten grijs’. This part, if I say so myself, is a lot less about the sex, and more about the overall story. As opposed to part one, where everything was about sex.

And then… Drumroll please! Got any idea yet? No? Then let’s move on to number one: ‘Vijftig tinten grijs’ also written by Erika Leonard James! In this first part of the trilogy we meet ordinary girl Anastasia Steele and rich, handsome and dominant Christian Grey. A story which starts with an usual interview and develops into a complex relationship between a dominant man and a not so submissive women.

Wait a minute, what makes this trilogy so damn popular? According to Zoey it is all about the fact that reading and writing these stories need a certain amount of imagination, and don’t all women dream about a wealthy man with quite a lot of so called ‘‘bed-skills’’?

Another example of the success is an overall view of the women that dominated publishing in 2012. No surprise James is also part of this list, alongside Rowling – which we know from the Harry Potter stories – and Julia Donaldson. After all, I can honestly say that female thriller authors rule the world!

In the end I guess we can honestly say women made a mind blowing up rise in the literary world, once dominated by men. They fought for their right to write and publish with their own name and take a look at what they gave us! Well done ladies. 

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By: Lisa Broekhuis