‘I sat in a cage with a horrific murderer for five hours’
THE SYDNEY BASED CRIME AUTHOR EXPLAINS HOW SHE MET A SERIAL KILLER IN THE NAME OF RESEARCH
Candice Fox is one of Australia’s bestselling writers. Her first novel, Hades, won the Ned Kelly Award for best debut in 2014; she began collaborating with American author, James Patterson a year later and their first co-written thriller, Never Never, debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Gone By Midnight, the third novel in Candice’s Crimson Lake series, is out this month. What kind of research do you do for your books? When I was in LA I started writing to this serial killer who was on death row in San Quentin [Prison]. I thought, well I’ve got the opportunity to visit [him], I don’t know when I’m going to use that but maybe I should – and I did.
What was it like?
It was really crazy. No-one tells you what to do when you get there, so I’m in the middle of this prison and said, “I’m here to see this guy” and they said, “yeah, he’ll be in that cage over there in three minutes” and it was this big floor-to-ceiling cage. The guards padlocked the door and walked away; they weren’t standing there and watching us. I sat in a cage with this horrific murderer for five hours just chatting with him about everything! When he asked why I wanted to talk to him I said, “Well you’re the worst serial killer that I can think of who’s still alive.” It was really fascinating but a bit of a scary experience. Coincidentally, you met former President Bill Clinton later the same day. I had the serial killer in the morning and the president in the evening! They were both very out-of-body experiences. I was a bit nervous but I already knew [Bill] was a big fan of my work. He was really lovely. He asked what’s going to happen in the third one – because he likes my books with James – and I said, “I can’t tell you, that’d be a spoiler,” and he said, “Well can you tell me the major crime and what’s going to happen with the brother?” And I said, “Mr President, I can’t tell you, I don’t know how to make it more clear.” The secret service guys were standing right next to us, looking all Bruce Lee-like [as if they were thinking] “how dare you not tell the President what he wants to know?”.
What led you to write the new Crimson Lake novel? I had questions left unanswered from [the last book] Redemption Point – in particular how Ted was going to get on with his daughter. I wanted to explore the tension between him and a child in his care and all the problems that would throw up. Then I suppose I just wanted to really write a locked room mystery, because I haven’t done one of those in a while and I just thought I could set up a fun puzzle.
Will it be the last in the series? I’m not sure. I am taking a break to write something set in the US. I was just in the US for a year and it’s such a magical place I couldn’t possibly not write about it. But the Crimson Lake series has been picked up for television so I imagine once that gets rolling everybody will want more novels in the series. How far along is production? We’re pitching to networks; the pilot’s written. They have been bandying around some very big names for casting but I’m sure I’m not allowed to say who they are. It’s very exciting!
Will it be filmed in Cairns?
Oh yes, I think so. It’s not necessary to move it to Louisiana as was suggested because Cairns is a beautiful, wild and crazy place. We have such amazing actors here who could carry the roles. What will your next book be about? It’ll be set in LA and I’m thinking about four women who’ve been incarcerated together and they get out and try and solve a crime together, and then maybe a cop who’s on the outs with the LAPD who gets involved. I like the ideas of amateurs solving crimes because it’s relatable to the audience. Will you continue to collaborate with James Patterson? We’ve got the next two books contracted. Our relationship is great. He’s loads of fun and it’s so easy to do it now. We have a good system down and really respect each other’s work so there’s no end in sight for the relationship that I can see.