Examine how a pivotal event can influence the direction of our lives

Map of My Escape by Cheryl Reed

Are you looking for a gripping, character-driven thriller that will keep you hooked? Then Cheryl L. Reed‘S Map of my escape is exactly what you need. It is the story of a young woman on the run – from the law and her traumatic past.

Riley Keane lost her younger brother in a shooting in high school. Since then, she has been an outspoken – and often arrested – anti-gun activist. This is in stark contrast to the views of her lover, right-wing Chicago politician Finn O’Farrell. Despite their political differences, the two share a deep bond – but can it survive Riley’s sudden disappearance after her best friend, Chicago police officer Reece Taylor, is shot and killed?

Learn more about Map of my escape here in our full review, or read below to learn what went on behind the scenes to bring this story to life.

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

A: I’ve watched the news report one mass shooting after another. I’ve covered several myself as a crime reporter. But I’ve always wondered what happened when the satellite cars were gone and the reporters packed up to move on to the next shooting. How did the survivors fare? That’s why I set the book 13 years after a high school shooting. I was also curious about how you can evade the police as a wanted fugitive in the digital age. I covered fugitives in my early career as a journalist, but today, with so many cameras and tracking devices, it’s much harder. And the other aspect – since I never write a book about a single event – I’ve always been curious about islands that are cut off from the rest of the world for months at a time. I wondered what it would be like to winter on an island and what you might learn about yourself without the influence of the outside world.

Q: Why did you decide to set the story primarily on the eerie, remote islands of Lake Superior?

A: As I mentioned above, I always wondered what it would be like to hide on an island and I thought it would be the perfect place for a secluded world.

Q: Where did you find the inspiration for these characters?

A: As a journalist, I have interviewed literally hundreds of people. And I study people. What motivates them, what drives them to act or react in a certain way. As a writer, I want my characters to be interesting and mostly unpredictable. Otherwise, the reader would get bored. However, these characters are based on parts of people I know and have interviewed. I want my characters to seem real and believable. Riley is the brave, fearless woman who has always inspired me. Reece is the complicated, quiet guy that everyone always underestimates. And Finn is the seemingly happy guy with a dark past.

Q: How did you balance the action and suspense of the story with the development of the characters?

A: There are many theories about how to mix internal monologues with external actions. I think the method that works best is the one that mimics real life. When a character is involved in an action – either as a giver or a receiver – they are in the moment. But later they reflect on what happened. The best way to shape a character is to give them an existential problem that all of these characters have been affected by on multiple occasions.

Q: The story touches on themes of grief and the characters’ self-discovery. Can you tell us how you addressed these themes?

A: Early in the book, one of the Native American islanders warns Riley, “The island does funny things to people… You want to find out what you’re made of, who you really are? Spend a winter on Angelica.” The island forces people to confront their own personalities and their own resilience. At the same time, I believe that unresolved grief will always come up until a character confronts it. That’s certainly true for these three characters. They’ve chosen life paths specifically designed to deal with their grief as survivors of the shooting.

Q: How would you compare your book to other thrillers? Are there any books or authors that have influenced you?

A: I don’t see this book as simply a thriller. One of my readers told me she didn’t see it as a crime novel, but as a human interest story. Too often books are put into a genre because it’s easier to categorize and sell. But the reality is that there are many literary books that have crime in them. I’m thinking of Donna Tartt’s novel The secret historyabout a group of friends who share the story of a murder. I think of The colony of unfulfilled dreams by Wayne Johnston, which is a historical novel, but whose brave female protagonist is in love with Riley in Map of my escape.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from this story?

A: I hope they understand how one pivotal event can change the course of the rest of our lives. While this is not an anti-gun book, it looks at our mass murders from different angles and I hope they think about what the answer is. How can we stop these senseless acts of violence? I hope they also think about the trick our eyes play on us, that what people see is not necessarily what is really happening: a woman shooting a gun, a man filming from a second-story window. All of this turns out to be something other than what it seems.

Release date: 18.06.2024

Genre: Thriller

Author: Cheryl Reed

Number of pages: 412 pages

Publisher: Running Wild Press

ISBN: 9781960018175