In a thriller, should my famous cities be familiar, or fresh?
The bigger, and more famous, a city, the more it tends to show up in thrillers. The biggest ones - New York, London, Paris, Tokyo - have been set-pieces in any number of thrillers, and I can assume most of my readers have read other novels using them for setting.
When I write a thriller featuring a major city like this, I'm not sure what atmosphere I should be aiming for: Do I want my description of the city to play to the reader's expectations, to give them what they're expecting? Or should I prefer a fresh angle, an unusual take, something substantially different from the typical portrayal?
I feel like familiarity risks cliche and dullness; but a significant twist may leave readers feeling cheated, not getting what they love about the familiar settings to begin with. Narratively, I could go either way here; my choices in detail and atmosphere will obviously affect the segments within the major cities, but the novel as a whole will be fine either way.
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If you're going to set something in a familiar city, I want all the details to prove you know it. I want it to be like when we watch Elementary or Person of Interest and we're constantly pausing to see what street the show was filmed on because we recognize the bodega on the corner.
If you're just setting the book in A Major City, and the character and flavor and personality of the city are not any real part of the story, then pick something fresh. Don't send your character to W80th Street and not bother to mention Zabar's.
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