Click here to browse our fantastic gallery of FREE or hugely discounted novels

Interview with Catherine Lea, author of The Candidate’s Daughter

image

image image

The plan is simple: kidnap the daughter of Senate candidate Richard McClaine, take the money and run. Nobody gets hurt, the kid goes home alive.

Twenty-two-year-old car thief Kelsey Money thinks it’s the worst idea Matt and his drug-fueled brother have ever come up with. But Matt’s the planner. He’s the one Kelsey has always depended on.

Then she discovers she only knew half the plan. By the time she finds out the rest, she’s been framed for murder, and six-year-old Holly McClaine won’t be going home alive.

Across town, Elizabeth McClaine has no idea what her daughter was wearing when she disappeared. When Holly was born with Down syndrome and a cleft palate, Elizabeth placed her only child in the care of a nanny while she fought post-natal depression.

But when Holly is kidnapped and Elizabeth discovers the detective leading the hunt has already failed one kidnapped child, Elizabeth knows she cannot fail hers.

Now both women have twenty-four hours to find Holly. Because in twenty-five, she’ll be dead.

Sounds really, really exciting.
The Candidate’s Daughter is a thriller with heart. I guess it crosses boundaries because it’s a fast-paced story set around a crime. But the story isn’t about solving the crime. It’s about people that crime affects, and how the two strong female protagonists must discover their own strength before they can save a child.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
Although it seems to have had fairly wide appeal, this book seems to hit the mark with women – specifically mothers and daughters. After all, that’s the theme of the book – mothers and daughters and the bonds that hold them.

Talk to us about these characters.
There are two main characters, and the chapters alternate to follow them. The book opens on the kidnapper and after a couple of chapters, then moves to Elizabeth:

Kelsey Money is twenty-two, has scant education, few prospects, and lives on the wrong side of town.

Elizabeth McClaine is forty-nine, has a Harvard degree, a husband who’s running for the U.S. Senate, and a luxury home by the lake.

Kelsey and Elizabeth have nothing in common – except for one thing: Elizabeth’s six-year-old daughter, Holly.

Have you written any other books that we should read next?
I have a thriller about to come out. It’s a totally different book which has the working title THE DEVIL’S NEXT MOVE and will possibly be published under the pseudonym, C. J. Best. It’s a thriller about a very unlikable character who is a psychopath, so whereas The Candidate’s Daughter is a thriller with heart, this one definitely has no heart.

Sounds intriguing. Come back and talk to us about it when you publish it. Is there anything we can read now?
I have a humorous YA mystery titled THE MYSTERIES OF MOSEY BLAINE, which may yet become a series, and I also have a suspense set in New Zealand which will be published under my name, Catherine Lea, and that’ll be closer in style to The Candidate’s Daughter. The working title is FILE 408.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m currently the mother of a disabled adult daughter who is currently battling terminal liver disease. I live in New Zealand with a dog who thinks he owns the house, and when I’m not taking care of my girl, I live in fictional worlds behind my keyboard.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
www.catherine-lea.com

To keep up with what’s coming out next, the best idea is to join my author newsletter.

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
@CatherineLeaNZ

https://www.facebook.com/TheCandidatesDaughter

What’s next?
More thrillers, more mysteries. If only I could write faster. But quality is hugely important to me. I have no intention of putting out anything less than my very best.

Leave a Facebook, Google+ or Wordpress Comment

Loading Facebook Comments ...

Leave a Reply