Jane remains on the run in Gord Smith’s new book Jane’s Flight.
In 2022 Smith made his debut as a novelist penning and releasing the crime thriller Eight Days in July which followed a young legal secretary named Jane as she stumbles upon a sensitive file that drags her into a world of gunman and gangsters. Jane’s Flight picks up on day nine right after the end of the first book as Jane, still under threat, flees from Whistler into the woods.
“I wrote the first one and ended it where it was open ended, which is kind of the way I think. Some people were disappointed with the ending, they wanted a more final conclusion,” Smith said. “I thought about it for some time, which direction the characters would go in and after that I decided to write the second one. I’ve also had some feedback on it because it also ends on an open note.”
Smith said that in his first book he established that Jane was a woman who enjoyed hiking and being in the outdoors. That’s why he thought it’d be natural she’d choose to seek shelter in the forest.
Searching for her are the remains of the gang she crossed in the first book as well as members of the police seeking to protect her. Smith said he does his best to keep his readers guessing, noting that when he reads a book he enjoys trying to figure out what may happen.
“I like to think about possibilities, characters and what might happen in their life in my mind, then I’ll just write,” Smith said. “I like to work with my main characters and if she does this, how is this going to effect this character and how are they going to react. I ask ‘what’s their motivation and what do they want to gain?’ It sort of just dominoes from one character to the next.”
Smith said he’d like to turn the series into a trilogy and is currently thinking about ways to further explore his characters and end the story. The fact he has people invested in the series is encouraging and he’s hopeful they’ll keep reading.
“Once they started it they felt like they wanted to finish it, which is a good sign I think,” Smith remarked with a chuckle. “Hopefully I’ve been able to carry that momentum into this one and keep the pace up. There’s no great moral lesson in it but I think it’s entertaining to read.”
Jane’s Flight is currently available at Nuthatch Books or online via Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. Smith added he’s also working on an audiobook version of Eight Days In July and hopes to give Jane’s Flight a similar treatment.
