Queens of 90s Romantic Suspense

By Jenna Harte

I cut my romance reading teeth on romantic suspense, and few authors did it better than those below. These women wrote gritty, often scary, stories of love and danger.

While today morally grey men who need an attitude adjustment are common in romance (see article on Mafia Romance), back in the 1990s, romance heroes were different. Sure, there were rakes, rogues, and broody leads, but only in romantic suspense would you find men who skirted the line of what was morally acceptable.

Tami Hoag

What I’ve always enjoyed about Hoag’s writing is how she’s able to pull readers into the setting, making you feel the humid heat of a Louisiana Bayou or the bitter cold of Minnesota.

Cry Wolf is her standout book for me. Its tagline is, “The scream heard by no one is the deadliest.”

Originally published in 1993, it’s book three of the Doucet series. The other two books, A Thin Blue Line and Lucky’s Lady, are good too.

In Cry Wolf, Laurel Chandler has returned home to Bayou Breaux to escape her failed law career and marriage. But when her sister is one of many women who’ve gone missing at the hands of a serial killer, Laurel once again needs to stand for justice.

Jack Boudreaux, Laurel’s antagonist love interest, has demons of his own. He’s a widower hiding from his wife’s death and his disbarment. He’s now a successful novelist who spends his time playing in a zydeco band and womanizing. Admittedly, he can be difficult to like. For romance readers who like damaged men healed by the love of a good woman, you may like him.

Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb

I really want to recommend Naked in Death (1995) to you, but technically, it’s a police procedural, not a romantic suspense. But if you like romance and crime fiction, a kick-ass FMC, and a sexy, mysterious, Irish billionaire, then read Naked in Death. And if you’re into reading an ongoing romance between two people, keep on reading the series (there are over 50 books in the In Death series now).

But for classic romantic suspense, Nora has too many to list them all, so I’ll provide a few that I really enjoyed.

The first Nora romantic suspense I read was The Reef (1998), a book few ever mention, which surprises me, because it’s got treasure hunting. Who doesn’t like treasure and adventure?

Tate and her father are successful treasure hunters, but haven’t yet found the one item they covet—Angelica’s Curse. They team up with the Lassiters to find the treasure, but Matthew Lassiter, the man who broke Tate’s heart in the past, isn’t always forthcoming about his history or what he knows. With outside dangers looming, Tate and Matthew have to navigate their personal and professional relationship to find the treasure without getting killed.

Another romantic suspense I really enjoyed from Nora is Midnight Bayou (yes… back to Louisiana). Technically, this came out in 2001, but it still holds that old-school romantic suspense vibe.

Declan Fitzgerald has been obsessed with Manet Hall ever since he laid eyes on it. Eventually, he buys the dilapidated mansion and begins to restore it to its former glory. However, his obsession seems to be causing visions of an earlier time filled with terror and grief. His only relief from this is when he’s with Angelina Simone, who has her own connection to the house.

Along with suspense and romance, Midnight Bayou has paranormal elements and a delicious plot twist.

Linda Howard

Linda Howard isn’t as famous as some of the others on this list, but anyone who read romantic suspense in the 1990s read her stories, of which there are dozens. In fact, she’s an RWA Lifetime Achievement Award-Winning Suspense Author.

Long before we had the term “viral,” we had buzz, and few books had more buzz around them than Mr. Perfect (2000).

Jamie and a few of her friends regularly get together for a meal and conversation, and one night, they decide to make a list of what would make the perfect man. The list was only meant to be for kicks and giggles, but it gets out, making the ladies local sensations.

But when one of the women in the group is murdered, the fun and games are over. With the help of Jamie’s neighbor, a cop who she’d been so sure was actually a drug dealer, Jamie sets out to discover who killed her friend.

What really made Mr. Perfect stand out at the time was its humor. In some ways, it reads like a romcom. Jamie is quirky and spunky. Her take on her hunky but suspicious neighbor is hilarious. That’s not to say it doesn’t have dark suspense, because it does.

Sandra Brown

No list of romantic suspense from the 1990s is complete without Sandra Brown. In fact, she just might be the Queen Bee of romantic suspense back in the day.

Three things stand out in her books. The first is her MMCs, many of whom push the envelope of morality. Many were raw, unfiltered, and borderline mean. (Remember, this is before dark romance.) And yet, deep down, they were still romantic heroes.

The second is that in many of her books, there are moments that make you question the character of the main protagonists, in the same way that Shondra Rhimes’ characters on Scandal or How to Get Away with Murder are good in your eyes one minute, and in the next they’re bad, Brown sometimes has the reader questioning her characters.

The third is the twist. Brown has a way of throwing in a curveball you never saw coming.

Here are a few I enjoyed:

Envy is a story within a story. Maris is a literary editor married to a one-hit-wonder author who hasn’t been able to write another book. She receives an unfinished, unsolicited manuscript and is immediately intrigued by it. (Authors: Don’t send an unfinished MS to editors. Remember, this is fiction.)

Parker is the author who has secrets from his past he’s trying to conceal. As Maris gets to know him, she begins to suspect that Parker’s tragic novel is more of a memoir. And then someone close to Maris dies, and a dark figure looms, prepared to kill anyone who gets in his way… and it’s all related to Parker and his manuscript.

Fat Tuesday (1997) (yep, back to New Orleans) is about Burke, a cop who’s angry at an acquittal that frees a murderer. His response is to kidnap Remy, the wife of the attorney who keeps setting killers free. What he doesn’t anticipate is the attraction he feels for the woman who rose from nothing and is married (one could argue by force) to a man she doesn’t love. There’s danger, passion, bayous, and of course, Mardi Gras.

The Alibi (1999) is another good story, because our hero is faced with the ultimate moral dilemma. Set in Charleston, South Carolina, The Alibi is about Prosecutor Hammond Cross, who is working to solve a murder he believes will help him become the next district attorney. His prime suspect is psychologist, Dr. Alex Ladd, who had a one-night fling with Cross, and whose alibi hinges on Cross.

Have you read any of these authors or books? Is there a romantic suspense author or book you’d recommend that isn’t listed here? Tell us about it in the comments!