The Chase may appear to be one book, but it's actually three.
The first book is about a mysterious group who mastermind a mass-breakout from Pronghorn Correctional Facility in the middle of the Nevada desert. As 600 violent criminals stream towards Las Vegas, US Marshal Trinity Parker is summoned to kick some ass and take some names—and to make sure she gets all the credit.
The second book is about John Kradle—an inmate from Pronghorn's death row—who decides that this is his chance to prove his innocence. But a determined prison guard, Celine Osbourne, is hellbent on putting him back in his box.
The third book (my personal favourite) is a collection of short stories. A woman vanishes on the day of her son's birth, and reappears 14 fears later. A blackjack dealer, recovering from trauma, is confronted at work by her escaped convict ex-husband. A sleazy Elvis impersonator who does weddings comes face-to-face with an unsatisfied customer—also an escaped prisoner. And an old man roams the unfamiliar landscape, not trying especially hard to avoid capture, but nevertheless having an extraordinary run of good luck. (In contrast to the bloody violence that fills the rest of the book, the old man's crimes are all happen off-camera. I know from experience that some readers hate inferring things* but I thought this part was ingenious.)
There's a huge cast of characters, but author Candice Fox makes them all instantly memorable. (We first meet John Kradle using a toaster as a soldering iron in his cell, making a wooden sign that says "Please wipe your feet.") They range from reluctantly good to terrifyingly evil, and every part of the spectrum in between is well-represented. With a plot as outrageous as this one, it's important that the people trapped in it feel utterly real. While Kradle's mission couldn't be more clichéd ("I want to take revenge on the man who killed my family!") he brings such raw pathos to his role that it's impossible not to feel for the guy, and to admire his cunning as he outwits the US Marshals.
The strange, sad, harsh world of Vegas is captured with humour and style, with plenty of fun details to keep the reader from skimming. (At one point, in the background, a group of people carry their huge new TV out of a Walmart and push it across a four-lane highway in a shopping cart—at midnight.) There's also an admirable lack of self-consciousness in the way the book addresses race, gender and other thorny topics. In some novels, you can feel the author tiptoeing around the landmines. Fox strides confidently between them.
If there's a disadvantage to writing a book that begins with 600 people escaping from prison, it's that the action can't really build from there. Not that The Chase doesn't try—there's a plane heist, several shoot outs and other action scenes to come. But towards the end it clamps a lid on the pyrotechnics and becomes more character-driven. That's probably a sensible move, and it makes for an emotionally satisfying conclusion, with one minor drawback. A plot-driven ending might have included an epic clash between Parker, Kradle, Osbourne, the terrorist, the old man, the person who killed Kradle's family, and the various other drivers of the action. The three books could have merged into one. The more character-based ending, while more realistic, doesn't have much connective tissue. The stories remain largely separate.
I should acknowledge the two narrators of the audiobook, Lisa Negrón and David de Vries, who each do a variety of entertaining voices. Kradle and Osbourne in particular are a lot of fun to listen to, though for the scenes with not much dialogue, I preferred reading the print version. Fox's descriptions are expressive enough on their own.
In conclusion, if you loved the first season of Prison Break, but thought the second series was kind of a let-down (OK, so they're out—now what?) then The Chase is absolutely the book for you.
If you either didn't see or didn't care for Prison Break, then you're still in for a hell of a ride.
*Yes, reviewer who complained that Blake "doesn't eat anybody" in Hideout, this is directed at you.
~
Jack Heath is the author of Kill Your Brother.
The second book is about John Kradle—an inmate from Pronghorn's death row—who decides that this is his chance to prove his innocence. But a determined prison guard, Celine Osbourne, is hellbent on putting him back in his box.
The third book (my personal favourite) is a collection of short stories. A woman vanishes on the day of her son's birth, and reappears 14 fears later. A blackjack dealer, recovering from trauma, is confronted at work by her escaped convict ex-husband. A sleazy Elvis impersonator who does weddings comes face-to-face with an unsatisfied customer—also an escaped prisoner. And an old man roams the unfamiliar landscape, not trying especially hard to avoid capture, but nevertheless having an extraordinary run of good luck. (In contrast to the bloody violence that fills the rest of the book, the old man's crimes are all happen off-camera. I know from experience that some readers hate inferring things* but I thought this part was ingenious.)
There's a huge cast of characters, but author Candice Fox makes them all instantly memorable. (We first meet John Kradle using a toaster as a soldering iron in his cell, making a wooden sign that says "Please wipe your feet.") They range from reluctantly good to terrifyingly evil, and every part of the spectrum in between is well-represented. With a plot as outrageous as this one, it's important that the people trapped in it feel utterly real. While Kradle's mission couldn't be more clichéd ("I want to take revenge on the man who killed my family!") he brings such raw pathos to his role that it's impossible not to feel for the guy, and to admire his cunning as he outwits the US Marshals.
The strange, sad, harsh world of Vegas is captured with humour and style, with plenty of fun details to keep the reader from skimming. (At one point, in the background, a group of people carry their huge new TV out of a Walmart and push it across a four-lane highway in a shopping cart—at midnight.) There's also an admirable lack of self-consciousness in the way the book addresses race, gender and other thorny topics. In some novels, you can feel the author tiptoeing around the landmines. Fox strides confidently between them.
If there's a disadvantage to writing a book that begins with 600 people escaping from prison, it's that the action can't really build from there. Not that The Chase doesn't try—there's a plane heist, several shoot outs and other action scenes to come. But towards the end it clamps a lid on the pyrotechnics and becomes more character-driven. That's probably a sensible move, and it makes for an emotionally satisfying conclusion, with one minor drawback. A plot-driven ending might have included an epic clash between Parker, Kradle, Osbourne, the terrorist, the old man, the person who killed Kradle's family, and the various other drivers of the action. The three books could have merged into one. The more character-based ending, while more realistic, doesn't have much connective tissue. The stories remain largely separate.
I should acknowledge the two narrators of the audiobook, Lisa Negrón and David de Vries, who each do a variety of entertaining voices. Kradle and Osbourne in particular are a lot of fun to listen to, though for the scenes with not much dialogue, I preferred reading the print version. Fox's descriptions are expressive enough on their own.
In conclusion, if you loved the first season of Prison Break, but thought the second series was kind of a let-down (OK, so they're out—now what?) then The Chase is absolutely the book for you.
If you either didn't see or didn't care for Prison Break, then you're still in for a hell of a ride.
*Yes, reviewer who complained that Blake "doesn't eat anybody" in Hideout, this is directed at you.
~
Jack Heath is the author of Kill Your Brother.
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