High Wire by Candice Fox

On January 21, 2025 By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Thriller3 Comments

Publisher: Bantam (Trade Paperback – 24 September 2024)

Series: Standalone

Length: 480 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

One of Australia’s top authors of crime fiction finishes of 2024 with a massive bang as Candice Fox presents the powerful thriller, High Wire.

Few authors had the awesome year that Candice Fox did in 2024, as the author released three impressive crime fiction reads. The first of these was the fast-paced crime fiction read, The Murder Inn, which Fox cowrote with the legendary James Patterson. The sequel to their previous book, The Inn, The Murder Inn was a fantastic book that once again highlighted how well Fox and Patterson work together (see my review for their other book 2 Sisters Detective Agency). Fox also released the intense character-driven thriller, Devil’s Kitchen, that saw two highly damaged characters attempt to uncover the secrets of a seemingly heroic group of firefighters with a true dark side to them. Both The Murder Inn and Devil’s Kitchen were outstanding reads, and I was very happy I checked them out. However, Fox decided to provide us with even more fun before the year was over with the standalone novel High Wire. Taking the author back to her home country, High Wire was a compelling and deeply intense Australian thriller that takes you hostage and refuses to let go.

Out in the outback of Australia lies a notorious unmarked track known as the High Wire. Cutting across the country from Broome to Sydney, the High Wire is a lawless road full of small towns, unregulated trails and mobile phone blackspots. A favourite hangout of smugglers, hijackers and criminals, only the desperate, the dangerous and those looking for trouble use the High Wire.

Harvey Buck, former soldier and current recluse, knows all about the dangers of the High Wire, but desperation forces him to travel along it to reach his dying girlfriend. Despite knowing better, he stops to pick up a hapless traveller, Clare Holland, whose car has broken down on the road. However, Clare isn’t the person he should be worried about, as the two are soon ambushed by a masked assailants with their own sinister agenda.

Strapped into bomb vests, Harvey and Clare are forced into a twisted game by vengeful figures from Harvey’s past seeking to ruin his life and reputation. Forced to commit a series of increasingly murderous missions across several small towns, the two prisoners try to work together to escape and stop the insanity going on around them. Harvey and Clare’s only hope may be Senior Sergeant Edna Norris, one of the few police officers stationed on the Wire, and who soon begins to follow the trail of destruction being left in their wake. But Edna has her own problems, especially when Clare’s husband arrives on the scene with his own dark plans.

High Wire was another awesome book from Candice Fox that provides readers will some of the best Australian thrills and action that there were likely to get in 2024. Featuring a bold, compelling and powerful character-driven tale of revenge and escape, High Wire was an outstanding read from one of my favourite Australian authors and one that I cannot recommend enough.

Fox hits the ground running hard with High Wire’s excellent narrative, and I honestly was hooked early on thanks to the compelling and intense story. Quickly introducing the protagonist, Harvey Buck, as well as the High Wire, the lawless road that serves as an intriguing background setting for the plot. After a quick introduction to a secondary protagonist, the mysterious Clare Holland, the main plot of High Wire takes off as the two are ambushed by a group of armed attackers, who take them prisoner after a bloody shootout, and strap them into elaborate bomb vests. Fox keeps the tension running high here, as it becomes clear that the kidnappers know Harvey and are seeking revenge for some past misdeed. Around the same time, the readers are introduced to the other major point-of-view character, Senior Sergeant Edna Norris, who finds herself on the trail of Harvey, Clare and the kidnappers without knowing who is responsible and with an unlikely teenage sidekick helping and hindering her in equal measure.

The plot soon becomes even more intense on several levels, as Fox works several intriguing storylines and elements simultaneously to tell a complex and exciting narrative. The main plot around Harvey and Clare proves to be quite intense, as the two are forced to commit a series of brutal crimes while also trying to escape or take out their captors. Fox carefully doles out intriguing background on both Harvey and Clare to the readers, and you soon discover both have complicated pasts, as Clare is running from her suddenly murderous husband, while Harvey’s past connection to the kidnappers is revealed in a series of dark flashbacks. These flashbacks help to paint the main storyline in some different shades of grey, as you begin to realise that Harvey isn’t the moral hero you initially believed he would be, and while the antagonists are worse, you begin to doubt that Harvey deserves to survive.

At the same time, the focus on Edna and her intriguing supporting cast goes in some interesting directions, as she follows the carnage left behind by the kidnappers and their unwilling pawns. Not only is Edna forced to deal with her hard-headed charge Talon, but she finds herself in all manner of trouble when Clare’s husband, Gareth Holland the Northern Territory Police Commissioner, arrives on the scene looking for his wife. Instantly suspicious of Gareth, Edna is forced off the case due to police politics but continues to try and investigate, determining that she needs to get to Clare first. Edna’s storyline, which I personally enjoyed the most in High Wire, goes in some fantastic directions, and she soon finds herself forced to survive the murderous attentions of Gareth, while also trying to solve the clues being left behind by Harvey. Fox does an excellent job running these somewhat separated storylines simultaneously, and they tie into each other just enough to create an amazing overarching narrative. Fox wrapped these various storylines up in a very effective way, with a satisfying moment in the Edna storyline, while the main narrative goes out on a very dark note, which I felt was a powerful result to some of the character work that Fox had been building up. This honestly ended up being an epic and compelling standalone thriller, and I really appreciated how Fox held back no punches to create this powerful read.

Fox did another amazing job bringing this intense and complex narrative together, and I felt that High Wire was one of her more hard-hitting and enjoyable novels. I loved how the author imbued High Wire with a very dark edge, and between the intense action, despicable villains and deadly plot you really come away not wanting to visit central Australia. The setting of the “High Wire”, a semi-secret road running the length of Australia proved to be an awesome background, and Fox’s strong descriptions of the red-earthed, isolated road combined with its inherent lawlessness and dangerous inhabitants, gave me some major Mad Max vibes as I was reading the book. I felt that Fox utilised this setting perfectly throughout High Wire, and it helped to give this novel a very distinctive feel. The author also made great use of splitting the story across several intriguing central characters. The two main storylines, the one involving Harvey and Clare and the one following Edna and Talon, played off each other extremely well, and having Edna constantly behind the other protagonists and their captors allowed for a great chase narrative, as they tried to interpret all the events going on in front of them. Information from Harvey and Clare also cleverly increased the tension in the other storyline, especially as you learn in advance just how deadly secondary antagonist Gareth Holland is, which allows you to fully appreciate his manipulations and darker agenda. The balance between these two storylines was extremely effective, even with the additional flashback chapters, and this ensured that High Wire had a great pace to it that easily keeps the reader’s attention.

High Wire’s intense and compelling story was greatly enhanced by several fantastic and complex characters whose unique, and often dark narratives, provided some nuanced and complicated tales of personal growth and survival. The main protagonist, Harvey Buck (a great uber-masculine name btw), is a former soldier who spends the book trying to survive the plans of his attackers and save as many people as possible. While Harvey seems to be a good character, Fox makes excellent use of flashbacks to dive into his history with the antagonists, which provides some added complexity to the plot, as both sides have committed atrocities against the other. The same can be said for secondary protagonist, Clare Holland, a seemingly helpless figure inadvertently dragged into events. While Clare is portrayed as a victim for much of the plot, she eventually reveals an intriguing backstory to Harvey that ties into her complicated marriage, which implies she isn’t as innocent as she seems. The character I most got drawn to was local cop, Senior Sergeant Edna Norris, who comes away as one of the few legitimately decent people in the book. Thanks to her caring personality and clever insights, Edna is a protagonist you can get behind 100%, and even when elements of her past are brought up, it proves hard not to still see her as the best figure in the book.

Aside from these key characters, Fox features several intriguing supporting figures in High Wire, including some impressive antagonists. The main supporting character that is featured in the book is Talon, a teenager who is taken under Edna’s wing after she arrests him. An initially annoying and impulsive figure, Talon grows on you as the book continues, especially with his entertaining imagination and surprisingly accurate insights. However, it is the villains of the High Wire who I think stole the show here. The two kidnappers who take control of Harvey and Clare with bomb vests prove to be despicable, if highly damaged figures, and it was fascinating to see how much their current behaviour is due to previous rough treatment from Harvey. Clare’s husband, Gareth Holland, proves to be an excellent secondary antagonist, especially as he has his own murderous agenda and uses his position as Northern Territory Police Commissioner to get away with his goals. In some ways Gareth was a better villain than the kidnappers, especially as he is far more soulless figure who ends up being quite smug and controlling. I really enjoyed the entertaining way that Fox wrapped up Gareth’s storyline in this book, and it was quite satisfying to see him get what he deserved. These character deeply enhanced Hire Wire’s narrative, and it was awesome to see their various storylines unfold.

High Wire ended up being an incredible and thrilling piece of crime fiction from one of Australia’s best writers Candice Fox. Dark, brutal and filled with some complex and damaged characters, High Wire quickly gets you hooked, and you are in for an outstanding time with this brilliant read.

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Devil’s Kitchen by Candice Fox

On June 16, 2024 By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Thriller9 Comments

Devil's Kitchen Cover

Publisher: Bantam Australia (Trade Paperback – 26 March 2024)

Series: Standalone/Book One

Length: 480 pages

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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One of Australia’s very best thriller authors continues her hellacious 2024 with the outstanding and epic read, Devil’s Kitchen.

Candice Fox is a very impressive author who has been doing an amazing job representing Australian authors on the international stage with her epic thrillers. Starting off with some intriguing outback thrillers, including her Archer and Bennett series and Crimson Lake books (the latter of which have been adapted into the Australian television series Troppo), it didn’t take long for Fox to gain worldwide appeal, especially once she started collaborating with James Patterson. Fox with Patterson has written several amazing reads, including the Detective Harriet Blue series, The Inn, 2 Sisters Detective Agency, and Fox’s other 2024 read, The Murder Inn. Fox has also been writing some amazing standalone thrillers in recent years, including Gathering Dark, The Chase and Fire with Fire. I have had an amazing time with these outstanding books, and they usually end up being some of the top books by an Australian author each year. However, Fox’s latest novel, Devil’s Kitchen, might be her best thriller yet.

Everyone knows firefighters are heroes, and in the FDNY, no team is more daring or brave than the members of Engine 99. For years this tightknit band of firefighters has stood against the worst blazes New York has to offer, working together to save lives and keep the city safe. However, beneath this heroic façade, the four members of Engine 99 harbour a dark secret: they are ruthless and successful thieves.

Utilising their knowledge of fire to create opportunities and destroy evidence, the Engine 99 crew have pulled off several impressive heists and stolen millions of dollars. With their loyalty, skills and ability to work within the system, the team seems unbeatable. However, that changes when the family of one member of the team, Ben, goes missing. Convinced that someone else on the Engine 99 crew had something to do with their disappearance, Ben attempts to make a deal with the law to save them. However, Ben is unprepared for the carnage his actions will bring down.

Andrea ‘Andy’ Nearland is a professional undercover operative with a dangerous past. She has spent years learning to get close to people to learn their darkest secrets and will do anything to bring her targets to justice. Joining the team after obtaining intensive firefighting training, Andy begins the arduous task of gaining the rest of the team’s trust with Ben’s reluctant help. However, getting through the web of secrecy surrounding the rest of Engine 99 and finding out what happened to Ben’s family will be difficult, especially as the team plots their most ambitious heist yet. With tensions running higher than ever and her obsessive employer trying to drag her out, can Andy find out all of Engine 99’s dark secrets before it’s too late, or will her tangled web of lies and emotional connections bring her down?

This was a particularly epic book from Fox that I couldn’t put down. Featuring an ambitious and powerful narrative that pushes the boundaries of relationships, loyalty and doing the right thing, Devil’s Kitchen had me hooked the entire way through, and this was truly an outstanding read.

I really cannot emphasise enough what a great story Devil’s Kitchen had, and this ended up being a dark and compelling thriller. Featuring a gripping prelude that ensures you get drawn into the story, Devil’s Kitchen is quickly split between the perspectives of main characters Andy and Ben, as Andy begins her infiltration of the Engine 99 crew after Ben contacts the authorities about his crew’s criminal actions. Joining as a new member with a romantic connection to Ben, Andy attempts to gain their trust, while the crew begins planning a new heist with destructive potential. What follows is an intriguing game of cat and mouse as Andy uses her skills at infiltration to try and find out all their secrets, even the ones that Ben doesn’t want her to know, all while the rest of the crew battle their suspicions about her motivations.

The plot goes in some intriguing directions as Devil’s Kitchen continues, as all the team’s dark secrets and Andy’s troubled past come to light. Andy proves to be a very smooth operator as she gets closer to finding out the truth, while Ben is a complex and haunted figure, desperate to save those he cares about, while also hoping to keep his worst secrets to himself. I loved the many layers of deception, personal struggle and compelling personalities contained within the story, as the protagonists attempt to discover what happened to Ben’s missing family and how it ties into his heist work. At the same time, Andy and Ben get closer, and Andy is forced to deal with her overprotective employer and former lover, whose jealousy and concern about the situation causes more trouble for her. The last third of the story is particularly epic, as the truth in all its forms gets out, and everyone is thrown into some desperate directions. Fox pulls together some excellent twists and turns here, and all the big reveals were suitably shocking and intense. This was probably one of Fox’s best conclusions, and all the elaborate story threads come together perfectly, ensuring that the reader comes away satisfied with the various solutions to the book’s big mysteries. At the same time, there are some dark and shocking moments, and I honestly did not expect how tragic Fox would make her conclusion.

I have a lot of love for how Fox brought her story together, and this proved to be a very well-written book. The intense back and forth between the two perspective protagonists presents the reader with a dramatic and complex read, especially as both have hidden motivations and desires. In many ways this is almost a psychological thriller, especially as Fox does an outstanding job diving into why Andy desires connections in every identity she takes on, while Ben is caught between his intense loyalty to the crew and his desires to save his loved ones. This balance of thriller storyline and character arcs really works, and I ended up invested in both Andy and Ben’s unique storylines, even if that threatened to lead to tragedy. Fox keeps up a fantastic and fast pace for this novel, and I honestly couldn’t put Devil’s Kitchen down at times, I was so engrossed in seeing the next dark turn or compelling character moment.

I have mentioned Andy and Ben a few times, and they really were the tortured heart and soul of the team. Fox portrayed Ben as an outstandingly complex figure, and you really get invested in his motivations for both staying quiet and trying to end his crew’s heist careers. Ben is forced to experience some major moral dilemmas in Devil’s Kitchen, and despite his criminal focus, you can’t help but feel bad for him. While I enjoyed Ben’s chapters and story arc, I found Andy to be the more compelling character and I loved the idea of a master infiltrator who can go undercover and get close to people. Fox does an excellent job of expanding out her motivations and insights while ensuring that the reader will be interested in finding out more about her past. These gradually reveal some intriguing details into why she is so good at taking up new identities and her dangerous habit of getting too close to her targets becomes a recurring theme. I found Andy’s clever perspective to be some of the best parts of Devil’s Kitchen, and her various techniques for getting closer to her targets were extremely clever. I think there is a lot of potential in an extended series focused on Andy (or whatever her name will be in the future), especially as there are some open doors when it comes to her past.

Aside from Andy and Ben, I have to highlight the three antagonists of the story, the other members of Engine 99. Made up of a damaged veteran firefighter, an unhinged fixer, and a young trainee with a gambling problem, they, along with Ben, have become a tightknit group, loyal only to each other and dedicated to earning a sufficient retirement. Due to the story requiring Andy to get closer to them and learn their secrets, you get drawn into their tangled relationships and connections, especially as the secret to what happen to Ben’s family, as well as their latest plot, lies in uncovering that. I really enjoyed getting to know these three additional figures, especially as you get drawn into their dark motivations and outlooks on life. They prove to be suitably complex and intriguing antagonists for the story, and it was fascinating to see how Andy and Ben navigate their interactions with them.

Overall, I felt that Devil’s Kitchen was a pretty amazing novel from Candice Fox, and it was one of her most impressive thrillers so far. Featuring a particularly intense, character-driven storyline focused on lies, deception and misdirection, Devil’s Kitchen had me hooked from the very beginning and I could not rest until I uncovered every single clever twist and outrageous reveal. An exceptional read from one of Australia’s best authors, I cannot wait to see more from Fox, especially as she has yet another book coming out later this year.

Devil's Kitchen 2

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Argylle by Elly Conway

On January 13, 2024 By The Unseen LibraryIn Thriller2 Comments

Argylle Cover

Publisher: Bantam (Trade Paperback – 3 January 2024)

Series: Argylle – Book One

Length: 368 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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One of the year’s most intriguing thrillers, Argylle by Elly Conway, proves to be a fantastic and highly entertaining book that I had a wonderful time exploring at the start of 2024.

Vasily Federov, a powerful Russian billionaire, is making a bid to become the new president of Russia. If he succeeds, his ambition, drive, and absolute lack of humanity, could lead to chaos, especially as he seeks to bring together the dangerous right-wing factions of Europe to form a destructive new empire. Determined to secure victory and the absolute loyalty of the Russian people, Federov promises the impossible: finding and restoring a beloved national treasure infamously looted and lost during World War II, the Amber Room.

Recognising what a dangerous threat Federov poses to the world, CIA Chief Operating Officer Frances Coffey is determined to stop him winning the election. To that end, she pulls together an elite team of agents with the goal of locating the hidden Amber Room first and keeping it from Federov’s grasp. However, Coffey believes that her team needs a unique edge, a new member with a different set of skills and outlook on life then her current operatives. To that end, she recruits a complete unknown, Aubrey Argylle.

The son of two international drug dealers, Argylle has been lost since the death of his parents, hiding out in the jungles of Thailand. Argylle attracts Coffey’s attention when he risks his own life to help a team of American agents in need. Drafted to the CIA, Argylle works to prove himself to his new team as they work to stop Federov. As Argylle starts to adapt to the life as a secret agent, his team makes headway in discovering the location of the Amber Room, which leads them on a desperate chase across Europe. However, the closer they get to recovering their target, the more apparent it is that someone on their team is a traitor, and they now have Argylle in their sights.

Before I go into too much detail about what I thought about Argylle, I should probably address the interesting possibilities regarding the authorship of this book. The identity of Argylle’s author has the potential to be one of the biggest literary reveals of the year, and the internet is already buzzing with the possibilities surrounding it. That is because Elly Conway is a pseudonym of a new author, the identity of whom is being kept secret until the upcoming film of the same name is released. While authors writing under pseudonyms is nothing new, certain facts about this particular case, including the large amount of money spent obtaining the film rights from a first-time writer, the insane secrecy surrounding the author’s identity, and the massive cast of famous actors in the adaptation indicate that someone special might be behind the pen. There are several theories currently circulating, including it being written by AI, by the film’s creative team, or it being a massive marketing campaign to raise interest in the film. However, the theory that seems to be getting the most attention is that it was authored by one of the world’s most influential singers, and there are a lot of apparent hints and easter eggs surrounding that theory.

The Argylle novel only came to my attention a few weeks ago; mainly because I had seen the cool film trailer, which features some of my favourite actors, and I figured it might be worth grabbing this related book. It was only when I subsequently dug into the underlying material surrounding the book, including the theories about the author, that I became really curious. I am not going to lie, that very much caught my attention, and it was a major reason why I got a copy of Argylle. If it turns out to have been merely a marketing stunt, at least it was an effective one! I would actually love it if someone surprising wrote this book, and I look forward to seeing how this comes into play with the upcoming film, which really looks quite hilarious. However, I’m not going to let my curiosity about who might have written it impact my review for this book, and I have tried to make a balanced analysis of this intriguing debut thriller.

With that in mind, I am going to come right out that bat and say I quite liked Argylle, and it proved to be a fun and exciting read, with a fantastic plot and a compelling main character. Featuring a fast-paced story, enjoyable writing, and a ton of entertaining action, Argylle was an awesome book that I managed to knock it off in only a few days.

From what I understand, the upcoming film will be set around the planned fourth book in this series and will feature the fictional adventures of Elly Conway when she releases it. Argylle is the first book in this in-universe series, so it serves as an introductory novel, featuring the origins of the titular protagonist as well as some of his supporting cast members. Conway initiates a strong start to Argylle, as you are given compelling visions of the disturbing main villain, as well as a great introduction to protagonist Aubrey Argylle, who risks everything to save several lives in an intense and sudden sequence, before he is recruited into a secretive team of CIA agents. The initial training montages with the new team serve as a good introduction to the spy lifestyle for the protagonist, although it does reveal an early weakness of the book that never really went away, in that there are way too many characters. With fourteen members in this main team, many of whom get cycled around each mission, the reader has a hard time remembering each of them, and with the exception of a couple who are pushed to the front early on, you never really connect to them. The author’s initially rough writing style also takes a bit to get used to, with certain phrases, pieces of dialogue and more feeling a little unnatural. Despite that, I was still really enjoying the story, and these initial introductory scenes slide nicely into the main part of the book.

This central plot of Argylle involves the protagonist’s team zipping around Europe, following hidden historical clues to uncover the location of the Amber Room before their Russian opponents. The search for historical treasures is always an awesome thriller storyline, and I think that the author did a good job of diving into the history of the Amber Room, exploring why it is so significant, and then bringing together a fun and clever hunt for the prize that combines the official historical record with some intriguing conspiracies. This results in a fun story, as the team are required to pull off a series of intricate heists, with the Russians close on their tail. There are some glorious set pieces here, and I loved the fun locations and over-the-top scenarios the protagonists found themselves in. Conway also works in a great spy thriller plot about a double agent in the team, as information about their missions keeps getting leaked to the Russians, with disastrous results. The character arcs surrounding several of the characters develop quite nicely, and it was great to see Argylle get closer to some of the other cast, while also coming out of his shell.

Everything leads up to a pretty big and violent conclusion, as the protagonists battle it out against the Russians for the prize. Most of this was very cool, although the issue I raised before about the large team did come to fruition at the end. In particular, the deaths of some character really were not that impactful, because you had barely gotten to know them, while the potential identity of the traitor was a lot more obvious, as it had to be one of the characters who was prominently featured. Still, the ending was epic and memorable, and I particularly enjoyed how the traitor storyline came full circle in an excellent and moving way. Readers come away from Argylle very satisfied, and there are some fun hints about the planned sequels that I would be quite interested to explore.

While I have noted a few writing issues that I had with Argylle, for the most part I liked how this novel came together. The author maintains a great pace throughout the book while also keeping the readers attached to the story. The jump between several different characters, including the villain, gives the novel some excellent layers, and it is always great to see the antagonist’s schemes in action. I also enjoyed the unique locations the author set the story in, including the jungles of Thailand, an isolated Greek island, and deep in the European wilderness. All these settings, including a few intriguing historical sites, are described in exceptional detail, and you can really imagine the characters walking through these wildernesses and getting up to their shenanigans. Throw in some excellent and high-octane action sequences, as well as some fun humour based around the unconventional protagonist, and I had a great time getting through Argylle.

Another excellent element that I enjoyed about Argylle was the fantastic central character, Aubrey Argylle. I was actually a little surprised by how he was portrayed here as, in the movie trailer, he is played by Henry Cavill in a particularly suave James Bond-esque way. However, the author flips the script around in this book, showing Argylle to be a much more rugged individual with a complex past. The child of two murdered drug smugglers, Argylle had a unique childhood and spends much of the book trying to reconcile his past with his current actions with the CIA. While the author potentially over-endowed him with natural spy abilities, it was not too noticeable, and indeed I quite enjoyed seeing the character’s early uncertainties as he grows into the agent he needs to be.

The book also features several great supporting characters. While much of the protagonist’s support team is not effectively utilised, I quite enjoyed his main friends, Woody Wyatt and Keira Carter, who get a lot of attention throughout the book, and you quickly enjoy the fun trio that forms. I especially liked the character of Wyatt, the cocky muscle of the team who initially serves as Argylle’s main rival. The scene when the two characters meet and Argylle gets the drop on him is one of the funniest in the book, and I really enjoyed the entertaining dynamic that formed between them. On top of them, Frances Coffey, serves as a complicated spymaster character for most of the plot, torn between the needs of the mission and her growing attachment to her agents. The shadowy figure of Glenn Dabrowski has one of the most intriguing storylines in the entire book, and I loved seeing his alternate view of events. Finally, the villain, Vasily Federov, adds a great deal of deadly menace to the plot, and I really enjoyed the fun way he was portrayed. While I still had some issues regarding the extensive cast, I think for the most part his book had an excellent group of characters, which helped added to the emotional impact and enjoy ability of Argylle.

Overall, I really enjoyed Argylle and I thought that it was a great debut novel. While the author has some room for improvement when it comes to their writing, I felt that this was a really good first outing, especially when it came to the fantastic story, intense action and entertaining characters. No matter who actually wrote Argylle, I personally think it was a solid, fun and highly enjoyable thriller, and I would love to get a sequel at some point. As such, I am even more excited for the upcoming Argylle film, and I look forward to seeing what twists it contains regarding the potential author. If some of the suspicions regarding the author are correct, I might re-upload this review again under their real name, but until then, let us leave this one credited to Elly Conway, whose first book is pretty damn wonderful.

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Quick Review – The Chase by Candice Fox

On May 15, 2021February 2, 2023 By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Quick Review, Thriller11 Comments

The Chase Cover

Publisher: Bantam Press (Trade Paperback – 30 March 2021)

Series: Standalone

Length: 449 pages

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Australian thriller author Candice Fox returns with another fast-paced and intriguing thriller novel, this time utilising an extremely fun prison break premise to create The Chase, a compelling and addictive read.

Candice Fox is a bestselling Australian author who debuted in 2014 with Hades, the first novel in her Archer & Bennett trilogy, a fantastic Australian crime series that followed two very damaged detectives. She then followed that up with her Crimson Lake trilogy, as well as collaborating on the Detective Harriet Blue series with James Patterson. Since then Fox, has written a couple of standalone crime fiction novels set in America, including the 2020 release Gathering Dark, which is the only previous novel of Fox’s that I have read and which proved to be a fun and fantastic book. As a result, I was interested in reading more of Fox’s work, especially after I saw what kind of story her new novel would feature.

Synopsis:

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 the escapees down.

Death Row Supervisor turned fugitive-hunter Celine Osbourne is single-minded in her mission to catch Kradle. She has very personal reasons for hating him – and she knows exactly where he’s heading . . .

I am sure that I was not the only person drawn in by The Chase’s cool plot synopsis, I mean, 600 convicts escaping from prison at the same time, who can resist that? I really enjoyed this book’s awesome story and I ended up finishing the entirety of The Chase in just over a day. This was mainly because The Chase had such a strong and captivating start to it, with someone using deadly blackmail to instigate a mass breakout as cover to free one unknown prisoner. This was one of the more awesome starts to a novel that I have seen, and I really loved the initial moments of this story, with the prisoners all heading off in various directions, including protagonist John Kradle, while other protagonist Celine Osbourne is left in shambles with all her Death Row charges escaping.

Fox soon breaks this narrative up into several smaller stories; you follow Kradle as he makes his escape, you also see Osbourne dealing with the fallout of the escape, and there are short descriptions of some of the other escapees and the people that encounter them. The main two storylines surrounding Kradle and Osbourne continue in an awesome way towards the middle of the book. I had a great time seeing Kradle attempt to evade the police and overcome an insane killer who is tagging along with him, while also heading home to solve the murder of his wife and child. Osbourne’s story was also very compelling, as it details some of the initial hunts for the escaped fugitives, the investigation into who was responsible for the breakout, and the start of Osbourne’s obsessive hunt for Kradle. The various smaller stories of the other escapees prove to be fun interludes to the main narratives, and Fox also includes key flashbacks to enrich the backstory of her central protagonists and showcase the reasons for emotional and combative history with each other.

Unfortunately, I found the last half of The Chase to be somewhat of a letdown after its outstanding beginning. Kradle’s hunt for his family’s killer soon becomes one of the least interesting parts of the entire book, especially as it has no connection with the wider breakout. His investigation is also loaded with way too many coincidences, unusually helpful witnesses, and strange motivations. The eventual reveal of the killer was honestly pretty weak, and Kradle’s entire storyline only concludes satisfactorily due to a serendipitous appearance from a supporting character. I was also not amazingly impressed with the identity of the person behind the prison escape, and I think that Fox missed a few opportunities, such as maybe tying Kradle’s personal investigation into a larger conspiracy. Still, there were some fantastic highlights in this second half of the book, including Osbourne’s gradually changing relationship with Kradle, the action-packed conclusion to Osbourne’s hunt for the organisers of the prison break, as well as the extended and entertaining storyline of one escapee who managed to make the most of their situation. While I would have loved a couple more extended storylines about some other outrageous inmates, I think that this was an overall good narrative, and I did have a lot of fun getting to the end.

I did really enjoy several of the characters featured in this fantastic novel. The most prominent of these is John Kradle, the Death Row inmate accused of killing his wife and son. Kradle is a likeable character, and you are quickly drawn into his desperate hunt for the person who framed him. Fox makes great use of several flashback sequences to explore Kradle’s past, which paints an intriguing picture of a former recluse who eventually finds love and ends up raising a son by himself. The reader does a feel a lot of sympathy for this unusual character, and he proves to be a fun protagonist to follow. The other major character in The Chase is the supervising prison guard of Pronghom Correctional Facility’s Death Row, Celine Osbourne. Osbourne is a strong and independent character who becomes obsessed with hunting Kradle and dragging him back to Death Row. I really enjoyed Osbourne as a character, especially as Fox comes up with a very traumatic and clever backstory for her that perfectly explains her obsession. Both lead characters serve as perfect focuses for The Chase’s narrative, and I had a great time seeing how their arcs unfolded, even if one was a little weaker than the other.

Fox also made use of several great side characters throughout The Chase. My favourite is probably street hustler Walter Keeper, better known as Keeps, the one inmate at Pronghom who did not escape, as he was due to be released. Keeps is dragged into Osbourne’s hunt for Kradle somewhat against his will due to his knowledge and intelligence. Keeps serves as a good supporting act to Osbourne for much of the book, although his character arc goes in some very entertaining and ironic directions as the narrative progresses. I also quite enjoyed tough-as-nails, no-nonsense, US Marshal Trinity Parker, who leads the manhunt. Parker is a very entertaining character who serves as a perfect foil to Osbourne’s obsessions, mainly due to her absolute refusal to take any BS from her. While I do think that Parker was a little over-the-top at times, she was still a fun addition to the cast. The final character I want to talk about is one of the escapees, Old Axe. Axe is a geriatric inmate who escapes from Pronghom on a whim and slowly makes his way to freedom. I quite enjoyed the various sequences that highlighted Axe’s escape efforts, even if they were tinged with a sinister edge, but his arc was one of the more distinctive parts of the book. All these characters were great, and I was really impressed that Fox was able to introduce them, build up their backstory and also provide satisfying conclusions for all of them in just one novel.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Chase and I felt that Candice Fox wrote a very entertaining and compelling narrative. While this book did have its flaws, I had a fantastic time getting through it and readers will find it very hard to put this exciting novel down. This was an awesome and addictive thriller, and I cannot wait to see what this amazing Australian author comes up with next.