Rob Kelley here, and I’m reflecting on who my readers are for my debut novel Raven and what they are telling me.

I was recently challenged by someone who knows book marketing to describe my ideal reader, and I realized that’s harder than it sounds. I have an acquaintance, a white collar professional to whom I mentioned that I’d just published my first novel, and when I described it, she said she couldn’t wait to read it. Awesome, of course, but I was surprised; I didn’t see her as someone who would like the book. So I clearly didn’t know exactly who my ideal reader was.

I also wasn’t sure what readers would like. I know what I like in novels, and definitely tried to emulate my favorite writers in the characterization, pacing, setting, and voice of the novel. I know my favorite scenes in the book, the ones I spent time crafting and polishing, especially the ending. I had two readers comment on the ending recently, one saying how much she enjoyed the ending, and another saying he was afraid it wasn’t going to turn out well for my protagonist, Mev Hayes. That was a useful thing to hear, because it meant that the level of tension I’d worked to create as my main character is in mortal danger, then in significant legal danger, was at the level I’d intended and the outcome wasn’t obvious.

A number of readers said they liked Mev (which was gratifying because one of the devastating critiques I got when I first tried to shop the book was that the main character was weak and underdeveloped. Yikes!). And, yes, readers came to despise my antagonist; also good. But it was reactions to my secondary characters that have surprised me. Mev’s co-conspirator, best friend (and maybe more), Jack, was one reader’s favorite, asking if the next book could be about him. (If I write a sequel, which isn’t currently planned, I’ll probably write it from his POV).

Even more surprising was one reader’s real appreciation for the secondary FBI character Carl. Carl was fun to write and his journey allowed me to explore issues of race, privilege, and power, parallel in many ways to the challenges Mev faces as a woman in the sciences in 1990. But what came back to me from that comment was that I’d made him a fully fleshed out character, someone who encouraged the reader to want more. (Carl does show up in a short story set after Raven, tentatively titled “Binary,” that I’ll put out as a Kindle Short sometime in the future.)

Writers, what do you hope your readers find compelling in your work, and readers, what are you looking for in crime novels and thrillers?

Currently reading The Doorman by Chris Pavone, 2025, and loving it.

Next in my TBR list: Super-Cannes, by J.G. Ballard, 2000. (I just learned about this novel. I’d have sworn I read everything Ballard had ever written!)