If you want to get technical about suspense, then almost any literary suspense book could be called "narrative" as long as the suspense builds and ends at the closing of the book. Narrative suspense means:
Pose a problem or question at the beginning of a book, then...
follow throughout the book's plot process with increasing suspense
and wrap it up at the end.
AND, if it's well written, then your readers will NOT be able to put the book down. With that said, your ending MUST be awesome!
Keep the suspense/clues coming throughout the book that gives the reader a sense of whatever resolution you are hinting at. There's a delicate balance in too much and not enough. Don't overwhelm, but definitely tease and increase the pressure of what might happen, what is going to happen. You don't want the reader to get angry or disappointed, so much so that their impatience with the plot turns to disappointment and a closing of the book.
Another idea to keep the suspense high is to have two suspense arcs.
In other words, you could have one that is:
- What is going to happen to Bill?
- The second one could be: What's going on with Nancy?
Example:
What is going to happen to Bill?
This suspense will carry throughout the book,
a continual build of pressure. Whereas,
What's going on with Nancy?
The suspense with this one is more like spurts of suspense throughout the book.
The reader knows there are interesting bits of information/suspense thrown into her scene.
Things that make the reader question why she's doing what she's doing,
why she shows up at odd times,
why she says the crazy things she says.
Two different suspense arcs are going on with the second one playing/building on the first one yet separate.
Happy writing!
