JUST RELEASED: The Contest by Jeff Macfee
How lucky am I? I got a chance to read a new noir novel by up and coming writer Jeff Macfee. The Contest is a fun, faced paced thriller based around a former child prodigy Gillian Charles. A puzzle solver who suffered an epic defeat… well, I’ll let the official synopsis tell you.
Gillian Charles, once a child prodigy of puzzles and games, lost The Contest – a life-altering competition held at the Miscellany theme park, home of the enigmatic entrepreneur Sebastian Luna.
Years later, Gillian has left puzzles entirely behind and barely ekes out a living while trying to support her sick mother. Until her childhood nemesis appears with an offer she can’t refuse – fifty thousand dollars to return to Miscellany and investigate a cheating scandal in The Contest sequel, Season Two.
Gillian soon discovers things aren’t so straightforward. Former Contestants run Season Two and with investment and expansion in the cards, they’ll do anything to avoid a scandal. Meanwhile Sebastian still spins his webs of confusion and offers Gillian the financial and intellectual future she always wanted – but only if she plays by his rules.
With her mother’s circumstances growing more dire, and mounting pressure to sweep the accusations under the rug, Gillian finds childhood games can be all the more treacherous for adults.
I read this book last week and I loved it. The mystery is fantastic, the puzzles are challenging and the characters are rich and complex. I got to chat with Jeff about the book and thought you’d like to know more.
For your enjoyment, here’s a brief interview with Jeff, puns and all. You're darn right asked asked him a fancied up version of where he got this idea.
1. This newsletter is like therapy about writing to me. I write about the hard stuff in the writing process. So, what was your process like for The Contest? What were some challenges you faced?
After juggling a number of ideas and sort of baking and rebaking them, I settled into this idea of loss and perseverance. How do you handle losing when you’re certain you’ll win. When it really matters that you win? I wouldn’t call my life hard, but everyone has moments, and those moments can change you, for good, bad, or otherwise. Exploring those moments made the writing interesting, beyond just running Gillian through puzzles.
Finding the balance between adult Gillian’s feelings (anger and obsession and self-doubt) and the puzzle fun was also tricky. This book could have split into two different stories if I wasn’t careful. I spent a lot of time balancing emotion and plot – how did a given puzzle situation surface Gillian’s feelings? What happened next?
2. There are a ton of puzzles and riddles in this book. How many did you make up? How many came through research? Do you have a favorite?
I made up all the puzzles, although they’re all based on some given category or format. And I did a ton of research. I enjoy solving puzzles, but I don’t spend my free time creating them – between life, my fulltime job, and writing, there’s little room for another creative outlet like constructing puzzles.
My favorite puzzle is probably the library scene about 2/3 into the book. It’s the purest puzzle solving sequence in the book, and maybe the section where a reader can best follow along and solve as Gillian solves.
3. Gillian is an interesting character because right in the first chapter, she goes from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and then you break her down even more from there. What did you find most intriguing about her?
Once I had my various ideas of the book baked, the most interesting version of Gillian was one where she dealt with loss. Not death of a person, but death of an idea--the idea she was going to win. Nobody likes to lose, but imagine performing at the highest level, being convinced you’ve trained to win, you deserve to win, and then you lose anyway. What could that loss do to you? And who would you be the next time you tried, if you ever did?
It's only light spoilers to say Gillian does try again (years later) but immediate success certainly wasn’t in the cards.
4. What was the genesis of this novel?
Originally The Contest was much less grounded – Gillian was a “world problem solver”, a Doctor Who / Indiana Jones type. But that more ethereal idea quickly felt flat. I had a second, independent idea for a contest book – something Hunger Games / Squid Games / Willy Wonka where the character destined to win actually loses. That idea was missing a main character. I wound up mashing the two concepts together. I won’t say the book wrote itself from there, but the result was clearly the one with legs.
5. What is your favorite pun?
You’ve been waiting to put me in this situation, haven’t you? And, yes, I had to think about this question more than any other, as puns are not my usual jam. So I turned to my family, and went with the theme.
“I started a book about mazes--I got lost in it.”
6. What are you working on now?
I’m working on a “buddy action” book about two out of their depth almost accidental detectives called (for now) The House Detective. After that probably a break from straight crime to more thriller, as I’ve got an “alien heist” idea I want to explore.