How Wall Street Taught Me to Write a Thriller

by Kristine Delano

“For all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed
will be brought to light and made known to all.” Luke 8:17

I didn’t learn to write thrillers by studying crime scenes or participating in ridealongs. I learned by paying attention in boardrooms. Something happened years ago but the memory snarls like it happened this morning. The email arrived at 7:12 a.m., buried between calendar reminders and overnight market alerts. It wasn’t dramatic—no red flags, no warnings in bold. Just a forwarded attachment and a single line: ‘Can you take a look at this before we let him go?’

The missive wasn’t meant for me. I knew that immediately. He was my boss’ boss and today was going to be his last day. I closed my laptop, heart pounding. That was the moment I understood: thrillers don’t begin with crimes. They begin with decisions.

When I sat down to write The Lies We Trade, I realized I didn’t need to invent tension. I had lived inside it for years. Wall Street had already given me everything a thriller needs.

1. Power Creates Plot

On Wall Street, hierarchy isn’t announced—it’s performed. Who speaks first. Who interrupts. Who repeats an idea and gets credit. Entire careers shift in rooms where nothing appears to happen.

As a writer, I learned to stop explaining power and start showing it. In The Lies We Trade, Meredith Hansel doesn’t always face obvious enemies. She faces invisible ones: shifting alliances, selective silence, and the quiet threat of being sidelined.

Writing lesson: Write power to shape scenes through behavior, not exposition: seating, tone, pauses, and let the obvious get ignored. Shifting power imbalances can move a plot forward as decisively as a gunshot.

2. Pressure Is More Suspenseful Than Violence

High finance operates under relentless pressure. Deadlines stack. Decisions echo. Mistakes don’t announce themselves. They hide and compound.

I learned that suspense doesn’t require action. It requires stakes. In my novel, Meredith’s danger doesn’t arrive wearing a mask. It arrives in an envelope, a familiar voice on the other end of the line, and a choice she can’t undo.

Writing lesson: Use compression: tight timelines, cascading consequences, and no safe pauses. The tension should hum long before it explodes.

3. Villains Rarely Think They Are Villains

Some of the most unsettling people I encountered in finance weren’t cruel. They were brilliant, frightened, and deeply invested in preserving their relevance.

That insight shaped my antagonists. In my novel, corruption grows through justification. People bend rules to stay indispensable. They convince themselves they’re protecting the firm, the client, the system.

Writing lesson: Build antagonists around rationalization. The more reasonable they sound, the more dangerous they become.

4. Real Stakes Follow You Home

Wall Street doesn’t stay at the office. It seeps into marriages, parenting, sleep, and identity. I learned quickly that professional pressure always carries a personal cost.

Meredith’s story works because the threat isn’t just to her career. It also comes after her family. The choices she makes at work reverberate through her home, forcing her to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice.

Writing lesson: Pair professional conflict with personal consequence. Let success in one arena threaten the other.

What Wall Street Ultimately Taught Me

Finance is built on risk, trust, and the stories people tell themselves to justify value. By focusing on Wall Street, I learned that the most compelling danger isn’t loud—it’s ambitious.

The Lies We Trade isn’t a thriller despite its corporate setting. It’s a thriller because of it.

“Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.” Proverbs 16:8

As someone who spent more than twenty years navigating high finance, I love writing stories that weave ambition, plot twists and ultimate redemption.

Kristine Delano is a former Wall Street executive turned award-winning author of domestic thrillers. She hosts the popular We Talk Careers podcast. Beyond writing and reading, she enjoys scuba diving, volunteering in ministry, and chasing her family down the ski slopes of Maine. Connect with her online at kristinedelano.com.