Read a Q&A with Candice Fox! | The Chase

Candice Fox is a multi-award winning, New York Times best-selling crime fiction author who at times collaborates with some guy named James Patterson. Her latest novel is called The Chase, an electrifying cat-and-mouse thriller set in the Nevada desert.

Today, Candice Fox is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about The Chase. Read on!

Candice Fox

Tell us about your book, The Chase!

CF: The warden of Pronghorn Correctional Facility gets a call one morning telling her that a bus full of the families of key staff at the prison is being held at gunpoint. The driver is dead, and the warden has four minutes to empty the prison of inmates or else the gun will turn to the families. Celine Osbourne, death row supervisor, sees all her worst fears realised as every single one of her inmates goes running free, including John Kradle, her most loathed. Kradle is out to prove he didn’t kill his family, but he can only do that if Celine doesn’t catch him first.

You’ve tackled lots of brilliantly outrageous storylines before, but a prison breakout of 600 dangerous inmates is a whole new level of wild. Where did the inspiration for this book come from?

CF: I’ve been fascinated by prisons my entire life. My dad was a parole officer at a local prison, and my mother was at one time writing to 20 different inmates at once. As an adult I’ve visited San Quentin’s death row and toured Lithgow Maximum Security prison. I’ve written to inmates in numerous institutions to ask about life there and their dreams of release. A book like this was the natural culmination of all that – you could say The Chase was a lifetime in the making!

What was the most exciting thing about writing a cat-and-mouse chase like the one between John Kradle and Celine Osbourne?

CF: I think it’s always wonderful to force two characters that you like to reach for opposing goals, because you’re always on their side. I both want Kradle to get away and for Celine to catch him. Their dynamic, based on her very personal reasons for hating his guts, is rich territory for banter and angst and can only grow and develop over the space of a book.

What appeals to you as a writer about using the Nevada Desert as the setting for a book like The Chase?

CF: I like hard environments. Wild and unpredictable places. As a writer it’s your job to make things difficult for the protagonist, and dropping them in a hostile landscape is simply the easiest way to do that. There’s crime that plays out in neat, beautiful cottage towns and there’s an audience for that, but Fox fans like somebody to get bitten by a snake or a crocodile or fall off a cliff every now and then.

How do you create tension and suspense in your crime writing (and how do you maintain it)?

CF: A good friend of mine, Lee Child, likes to say that writing a good crime book is all about posing an interesting question on page one and not answering until the final page. I’d add to that idea, that the whole book has to be about a compelling question or problem, with the notion that the reader has to care immediately about the characters and their circumstances. What you have really is a few main characters struggling to get what they want, and the reader has to want to see them get it.

When beginning a new writing project, what typically comes first: plot, setting or character?

CF: It’s not so much plot, for be, but the problem. What is the problem? In Crimson Lake the problem for Ted Conkaffey was that his entire world had been destroyed by his accusation, and solving it would mean confronting his demons. In The Chase, Kradle’s problem is his desire to clear his name, and Celine’s problem is ostensibly to catch Kradle before he has a chance to do that – but really to come to terms with what happened to her family. The colour and texture of these characters is something I fill in as I go along. What did Kradle do for a living before he was arrested? Where does Celine live – in a house or an apartment? You can’t start a good book with that sort of stuff. You sketch the outline and then you begin to paint it.

What do you love so much about writing crime fiction?

CF: The stakes are high. It’s life and death. That’s not to say that I’m not compelled when I’m reading or writing by small problems in people’s lives. Celine’s cat doesn’t like her, and she’s kind of insulted by that. That’s a small issue that I do honestly care about in the novel. But it’s those big problems – who survives the shoot out in the diner? Will someone catch Old Axe before he gets away? – Those are the things that have me hammering the keys.

What’s the last book you read and loved? What are you planning to read next?

CF: I just finished The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton for the second time. A beautiful detailed, tense and contained thriller. Loved it. I don’t know what I’ll read next – it’s not something I ever have to really think about because every second day there’s an endorsement request coming in, so I’m kind of spoiled for choice.

What do you hope readers will discover in The Chase?

CF: I hope they’ll push their own capacity to be tugged across various perspectives. It’s a big book with multiple narration points, and lots of little vignettes. For those people who are accustomed to a single perspective and a single chronological plotline, I hope they enjoy the challenge.

And finally, what’s up next for you?

CF: I’m writing another book with James Patterson, and I’ve just finished a fictional podcast about a kidnapping with Audible. They’re due to start filming the television series of Crimson Lake in June starring Thomas Jane. So it never really stops here in Candiceland.

Thanks Candice!

—The Chase by Candice Fox (Penguin Books Australia) is out on the 30th of March.

The Chase

Limited Signed Copies Available!

by Candice Fox

When more than 600 of the world’s most violent human beings pour out from Pronghorn Correctional Facility into the Nevada Desert, the biggest manhunt in US history begins.

But for John Kradle, this is his one chance to prove his innocence, five years after the murder of his wife and child. He just needs to stay one step ahead of the teams of law enforcement officers he knows will be chasing down the escapees. Death row supervisor turned fugitive-hunter Celine Osbourne is single-minded in her mission to catch Kradle...

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