Stephen King, Gillian Flynn and Dan Brown all have one thing in common. They controlled their readers' emotions with ebbs and flows of suspense. The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty certainly kept the reader's mind on alert until the end. A sniper on top of a roof on a dark and dangerous night; waiting for the chance to defeat his enemy and fight for his faith. The story told a story about the war experiences and dangers the young soldier faced. The details and structure pushed and attracted the reader's interest. In the short story The Sniper, Liam O'Flaherty uses setting, imagery, and pacing to create a feeling of suspense for the reader. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The setting is the first device Liam O'Flaherty uses to create suspense in The Sniper. The Sniper's narrative lets us know that the young soldier was in a dangerous situation, due to the darkness and gloom of how “the long June twilight faded into night” (163). The author created a twilight setting to ensure that readers feel uncomfortable and anticipate it. The narrator makes it very clear that the sniper was in a war zone: "Here and there throughout the city machine guns and rifles broke the silence..." (163). The dangers were close to the sniper and he was in a dangerous scene. Once again, the detail of darkness falling on the scene is repeated: “Dublin lay shrouded in darkness” (163). Darkness and gloom are always warning signs of imminent danger. The second device used by the author to create suspense is images. The narrator points out that the soldier is special in his own way: "His face was the face of a student - thin and ascetic, but his eyes of a man accustomed to looking at death" (164). The statement helps young and teenage readers relate to the story. They could relate to the story and imagine how unnerving and dangerous the circumstance is. Wounds are part of war, no one can avoid them; the same goes for our sniper. O' Flaherty introduces the concept of pain and injury directly to readers: "There was no pain, only a dull sensation, as if one's arms had been cut off." (165). Empathy would be the main emotion as readers read the observation. It makes them feel the pain and anguish felt by the main character. This increases the feeling of suspense. After a hilarious description of the enemy's execution, the story took a sudden turn with the sniper's guilty plea: “The thirst for battle died in him. He was bitten by remorse." (166). The sudden change suggests an unknown connection between him and the fallen enemy; therefore, it attracts the reader's interest and attention. Pacing is the final device used to create suspense in The Sniper. Like many other great suspense stories, The Sniper started out very slowly due to the descriptiveness of the passages. As the story progressed slowly, suddenly, the sniper was shot. The coup happened very quickly, with almost no warning to readers. After the coup, history resumed its slow path. Breaking the pace helps create the constant curiosity and incessant desire to read more so that they, the readers, can find out what's next. The slow pace continued until the end. The ending of The Sniper was very short compared to the rest of the story. It described, quite bluntly, how the sniper discovers the identity of his enemy. This ending intrigues readers even more. Leave every,.