Got writer’s block? Maybe you just need some help getting a story started. Either ay, here’s a list of some prompts for crime thrillers!

Admittedly, some of these prompts got me excited and a lot of them ended up being a bit longer than usual as a result of that. I hope you enjoy them!

These prompts are free to use however you please, but I’d love to see you put your story up on InklingsFiction.com! 🙂

1. You work with the local sheriff and you live a few miles out from Chicago. One day, you’re making a routine traffic stop and things escalate quickly. After a brief firefight, you kill all the criminals and then open up the back of the box truck. Inside it, there’s a bomb. If your brief training on explosives is correct, it looks like the bomb is big enough to level Chicago.
2. You’re a detective and you’ve spent your whole life fighting crime–drug smuggling in particular. Problem is, you’ve developed a bit of a taste for the stuff yourself. One day, you hit the biggest drug dealer in your state’s house and he’s not home. Looking around, you realize you hit the jackpot. You steal all you can and leave. Hours later, you get a call. It’s the drug dealer. He has a proposal.
3. You’re a border patrol officer and you’re cruising along the border fence in a beat-up pickup. You’re starting with your partner and you are talking about what you’ll d when you get home. Then your truck comes under fire and your partner is killed. If you’re not mistaken, there is a small army storming across the border and coming straight for you.
4. You’re a police officer in Texas and you spend most of your time at the local ports making sure that the local port authority stays on the up and up. One day, your suspicions that someone is smuggling are proven correct, but that same person has connections that quickly turn everyone against you. You’ve been framed. Can you prove your innocence?
5. You’re a cop in the industrial sector of your city. It’s run down, but it’s home. You know most of the people, the employees, the owners, the shippers. Everyone. One day, a group of people you don’t recognize set up shop and you decide to poke around. Turns out, they’re drug smugglers and they seem to have a human trafficking ring going on too. You’re not sure if you have time to call in backup.
6. You’re a sheriff and you’re following a grumpy old farmer into his orchard. The man tells you that someone is killing his trees. You’re doubtful, but it’s slow and you’re bored. Then you fall through the ground and find yourself in a smugglers’ tunnel. Now what?
7. You’re a police officer and your partner just shot an unarmed man. Then they shot a few more. Then they shot another police officer. You lost your radio in the firefight, so you race to your cruiser to call for help and report things. When you get there, you find out that your partner set you up. Worse yet, the crimes you’ve been accused of have warranted the FBI’s intervention.
8. You’re on your usual patrol one night when you hear gunshots. You race toward where you heard them, but you can’t pinpoint exactly where they came from. You spend the whole night searching for the source of the gunfire. The next morning, you’re called in. There was a murder, the bodies were found in the river. Problem is, there’s little evidence of what happened and no one knows where the people were killed. Can you prove you know it?
9. You’re called out to look into a power outage that hit the whole city. Since you grew up here, you know that the power station is up on the hill north of the city. Driving up there, you see signs of quite the fight. Before long, you find the bodies of a few of the electric company workers. You try radioing back in, but then you feel cool steel against your neck. “Get out,” a man hisses behind you. It seems you found the shooter–or they found you.
10. The President has been shot. You’re unfortunate enough to be one of the officers on duty when it happened. You feel responsible, you’re sure that you could have done something to stop it. And then a man catches your eye and he’s running away. Following your instincts, you give chase. Before long, you find that there’s a lot more to this assassination than you initially thought.
11. You arrest the local Attorney General on counts of widespread fraud. To be honest, you readily volunteered for the opportunity to be the arresting officer because you hated the woman. You knew she was corrupt. As you bring her in, several larger trucks cut you off and another slams into your cruiser. They pull out the Attorney General and shoot you once for good measure. You see the Attorney General follow them willingly. You realize that she likely orchestrated this, which just fuels your rage. Your chief tells you to back down, but you’re not about to. You’re going out for blood now.
12. You’re the police chief of a small precinct in a small town. One day, you overhear a lead from one of your detectives that the man who killed your partner, years ago, is back in town. You’re not supposed to be leading raids, but no one can stop you today. When things go sideways, you realize there was a reason for the rule that would have kept you out of this,
13. You’re a police officer and you watch as a group of terrorists line up and shoot dozens of civilians. They look at you between each and every shot and laugh. You squirm and try to free yourself from the grip of several of their men. You can’t believe this is happening, but you’re thankful that they’re probably going to kill you too, once this is all done. Once they finish, one of them hits you on the back of the head and your world goes dark. Hours later, you wake up. They left you alive. Looking at the dead bodies, you’re filled with the desire to hunt every one of those terrorists down and leave them in the same condition that they left those civilians.
14. You work with the Witness Protection Program. You’ve housed and cared for dozens of people over the years and have gotten quite good at your job. You’re one of the few people you know who haven’t lost anyone. One day, you wake up to the sound of doors slamming and you see that a large group of heavily armed people are outside. You know what this means. Grabbing the person you’re to protect, you dash out the back door before the gang can circle the house. You’re on the run now. You have one week until the trial.
15. You’re a lifelong detective and have put hundreds of criminals behind bars. You’re good at your job and you’re even better at making sure that none of those people can find you when they get out. One day, you get home to find one of the most dangerous criminals you ever put away in your home. Before you can react, someone puts a bag over your head and ties your wrists together.