Behind The Book
Why I wrote The Choice
I’ve always been fascinated by hit-and-runs. Not from a crime perspective, but from a human one. What makes somebody flee the scene? Is it panic? Self-preservation? Or does that split-second decision reveal who they really are?
That question stayed with me for years, first tackled near the start of my second book The Past’s Prisoner. Along the way it became intertwined with a handful of creative influences: the ending of Succession Season 1, John Berryman’s poem Dream Song 29, and the song “MTT 420 RR” by Idles.
Together they pushed me towards a story where we start with a protagonist succumbing to his worst temptation, but then immediately offered a second chance. Playing with the idea took four years, challenging myself structurally by writing two parallel narratives that continually overlapped and influenced one another.
The question behind the novel
Every book I write begins with a question.
For The Choice, it was what kind of person are you on the worst day of your life?
Most of us believe we’re good people. But if you found yourself in a situation where you could do the right thing, or convince yourself you could get away with doing the wrong thing, which would you really choose? The moral grey fascinated me far more than the mechanics of the story itself.
Why Henry?
Henry isn’t a detective or a criminal. He’s an ordinary man whose profession unexpectedly gives him the opportunity to hide what he’s has done. Sometimes life-changing decisions aren’t made because someone is inherently good or evil. They’re made because means, motive and opportunity collide at exactly the wrong moment. Henry happened to be the wrong person in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.
What I deliberately avoided
Although The Choice contains an impossible premise, I never wanted it to become a novel about explaining impossible things. Across my books I’m much more interested in character than mechanics. The split realities exist to explore Henry’s decisions, not to become a scientific puzzle for the reader to solve.
I also wanted to avoid easy answers. There was never going to be an “it was all a dream” ending, a hidden third reality or a twist that explained everything away. The emotional truth of Henry’s choices always mattered more to me than providing every answer.
Themes
At its heart, The Choice explores guilt, self-deception and identity. The lies we tell other people are often easier to spot than the lies we tell ourselves. Henry spends much of the novel trying to convince himself he’s still a good person. Whether he succeeds is for the reader to decide.
Who might enjoy this book?
If you enjoy morally complex thrillers that ask “what if?” rather than simply “whodunnit?”, The Choice may be for you. Readers who enjoy Sliding Doors, Marvel’s What If…? or the high-concept fiction of Blake Crouch will hopefully find something familiar here.
After you’ve finished…
More than anything, I hope The Choice leaves you asking one uncomfortable question:
If you knew you could get away with it, what’s the worst thing you would do?