The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Main Character A Novel By Jaclyn Goldis

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

The Main Character A Novel By Jaclyn Goldis A bestselling thriller author arranges a luxury train trip that is not what it appears to be in this electrifying modern homage to Agatha Christie from the author of the “tense and twisty” (Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author) The Chateau. Reclusive, mysterious author Ginevra Ex is famous for her unusual approach to crafting her big bestselling thrillers: she hires real people and conducts intensive interviews, then fictionalizes them. Her latest main character, Rory, is thrilled when Ginevra presents her with an extravagant bonus—a lavish trip along Italy’s Mediterranean coast on the famed, newly renovated Orient Express. But when Rory boards the train, she’s stunned to discover that her brother, her best friend, and even her ex-fiancé are passengers, as well. All invited by Ginevra, all hiding secrets. With each stop, from Cinque Terre to Rome to Positano, it becomes increasingly clear that Ginevra has masterminded the ultimate real life twisty plot with Rory as her main character. And as Ginevra’s deceptions mount, and the lies and machinations of Rory’s travel companions pile up, Rory begins to fear that her trip will culminate like one of Ginevra’s books: with a murder or two. In the opulent compartments of the iconic train, Rory must untangle the shocking reasons why Ginevra wanted them all aboard—and to what deadly end. Another stylish and compulsively readable mystery from Jaclyn Goldis, this is the perfect read for fans of Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, and Paula Hawkins.

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We had an amazing, prolific author on the show with us today. We're going to be talking to her about her newest novel called The Main Character. Jacqueline Goldis joins us on the show with us today, and she is going to be enlightening you on her amazing new book that's just hot off the presses, May 21st, 2021. Jacqueline is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and New York University School of Law. She practiced estate planning law at a large Chicago firm for seven years before leaving her job to travel the world and write novels. Boy, that sounds like a better deal. After culling her possessions into only what would fit into a backpack, she traveled for over a year until settling in Tel Aviv,

where she can often be found writing from cafes near the beach. She's the author of The Chateau and now the main character. Welcome to the show, Jacqueline. How are you? Thank you so much, Chris. I'm thrilled to be here and I'm doing great. Thank you. Welcome to the show. Give us your dot coms. Where do you want people to find you on the interwebs? I'm at JacquelineGoldis.com and on Instagram at also at JacquelineGoldis.com. There you go. Sounds like you've had quite the fun on your journey

becoming an author. Give us a 30,000 overview. What's inside your new book? So my new book is a thriller set on the Orient Express as it rolls down the western coast of italy it's about a reclusive mysterious author named ginevra x and she has this very unique way of writing her big best best-selling thrillers which is that she hires real people to be her main characters and she pays them a lot of money interviews them and then fictionalizes their lives. And her latest main character is a girl named Rory. And Ginevra has just gifted her an extravagant trip on the Orient Express. And Rory's thrilled, but very surprised when she steps onto the train and sees people she recognizes that she didn't know were going to be there. So she sees her brother, her best friend, and her ex-fiance. They've all been invited by Ginevra.

They're all hiding secrets. And the train traverses down through Cinque Terre, Rome, Positano. But as it does so, Rory increasingly feels like she's the real-life main character on this trip plotted by the author. And secrets and lies and deceptions mount and she begins to fear that the trip's going to end like one of the author's books with a murder or two murder you say yeah something secrets and and stuff there you go the suspense is is lovely there and then of course you wrote the the chateau last year and when we were young 2021 i was still old in 2021 so i'm not sure what that book's about how many books do you do you have under your belt well i i wrote my first novel at 17 and i

definitely never want that book to see the light of day. I wrote, I call them my practice novels, but I also wrote a couple in my 20s. So When We Were Young is my first published book, and now the main character will be my second thriller. Congratulations. So tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you grow up? When did you start writing?

When did you, you know, what influenced you to become a writer? Maybe when did you finally know you had a knack for it? Yeah, well, I grew up in Michigan. And since my earliest memory, I've always wanted to be a writer. I was, you know, always writing stories as a kid, always reading first novel at 17. So really, it was like always my dream to become a published author. But I think I knew that you don't really graduate college at 22 and have enough life experience or finances to make a full time career as an author. And so I kind of went down a different path, the law, the law path, which actually I think that law and writing have a lot of the same skill sets, at least the type of law I practiced. And in a weird way, I like to call my legal career sort of like my MFA because I learned so much about writing from my legal career. And that was my roundabout way into eventually writing.

There you go. And so was it scary when you quit your law work and decided to go backpacking around the world? What was the proponent behind that? It was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. I was living in Chicago at the time, and I'm very much a summer person. And I think that fact made it a little bit easier to leave this very secure, stable job that it was the year I'd go up for partnership. So, you know, it's what people work their whole lives, I guess, to attain. And I was there and then to leave, I think a lot of people thought I was crazy. And I think a lot of people also think it was half, half, like maybe half my, the people I worked with thought I was crazy and half were like secretly envious. But yeah. Crazy, but we're jealous of how crazy she is.

Yeah. But yeah, it was absolutely terrifying because I had no idea what my life was going to look like in a month or a year or if it was going to work, you know, pursuing my dreams. So what prompted that? What was the motivator behind that? Did you just say, I'm sick and tired of

everything and this isn't my life plan? It never felt like my life plan. And I think increasingly as it went along, I felt like I was living almost someone else's life. It didn't feel in my soul what I was supposed to be doing. And I think as the years went on, it was eating away at me that I was making really good money. So it was a safe thing that was so hard to leave. But I knew it wasn't. I don't know if this makes sense, but the bigger life. I wanted the bigger life, the life that I knew that I was going to have to risk for it. And so eventually, it felt like I had to take that leap.

There you go. Do you mind if I ask if you're Jewish? Because you moved to tel aviv after touring the world yeah i am jewish and i come here if you're jewish there i think yes but you know it's it's an interesting place and and i know that sometimes you know you have bombs coming in so it can be a little scary there does that does that i but i hear life is kind of interesting there people kind of i there. People kind of, I,

I don't know if they get used to it or if they, or if they just kind of, well, you know, whatever. I've, I've heard that the, the clubs are fun and people are fun there because they're like,

we could die tomorrow. So we'll just have fun. I don't know if that's true or not. It, it is very much a grab life kind of society because it's, yeah, a lot of, especially this past year, war and death.

Fortunate year, definite. But on your Instagram, do you still travel? I'm seeing your Instagram, seeing you dining at different places. Are you still traveling and doing all that? So I backpacked for, yeah, over a year, which was so fun. And then eventually I was like, I want a home again. It was like between like hostels and Airbnbs and I don't know. It was really fun, but I'm a tourist. I like to be grounded. So yeah, I traveled. I go back to the States mostly to see family and it's fun being based in Europe. So it's like a different kind of short-term trips that are available, but not traveling like I did before. There you go.

Well, do you feel like the traveling that you did kind of really gave you some, what would be the right word for this, but like it gave you some concepts for your books and the work you want to take and do you you kind of got the life experience there and and maybe viewing some of those different places gave you some of the topics for you know scenarios or characters or settings in the in your books wow 100 i mean my books always start with setting and maybe because i live abroad and i just i love traveling but i think it's so fascinating you know i write american characters abroad and i think it's really interesting to explore the cultural conflicts and just, you know, setting characters in a place different from where they grew up just automatically invites kind of fun situations to play with. And, yeah, I love armchair traveling as a reader.

So I think as a writer, it's just so fun to immerse myself in a world different from mine there you go and it and it gives you you know we have a lot of novelists that come on the show and they go yeah we i usually set my settings in some place where i need to travel to to do research just tell the book publisher i have to go to italy for this new scenario and probably stay there for a while and And you'll have to pay for it. So for research. It's a perk of being an author, that's for sure. There you go. So you hit success with your books.

And on this new book, what gave you some of the things that gave you the ideas to come up with the setting, the suspense, the murder maybe maybe you gotta read the book folks what gave you some of the settings of how you built out the layout of the book and what the characters are going to be up to well i won't give you any spoilers one of the things that came to me first about this book was the last scene i saw it really vividly in my mind and so that helped shape a lot of the the book that certainly doesn't always happen my last book the last scene came like months after I finished it it took a while to figure it out this book actually well it was inspired by some of my travels in Italy so I

Cinque Terre is one of my favorite places and I knew I wanted a book that like took place a little bit there so scenes there were super fun a little bit there. So scenes there were super fun. Also, I love Rome. So writing scenes there were just really fun. My dad is from the Soviet Union and I ended up incorporating a story, like a subplot kind of that was set a bit in Soviet, in the Soviet Union of the 1980s. And that was really fun to, it's not about him, but there's some loose inspiration there from his life. And that was really fun to incorporate in this book. There you go. What do you think readers are going to enjoy the most in the book? You know, I, as a reader, love happy murder mysteries. I don't know if that's a genre,

but I'm inventing it. Who hurt you? Geez. Happy murder. Yeah, it's like fun murder. To me, fun, glamorous, glamorous, escapism, international setting, suspense. That, to me, is just so fun, and that's what I like to read, and it's what I like to write. People who hang out with you should always keep an eye on you, I think. I think that's probably a good idea. They should. Chad GBT, if they're feeding an eye on you, I think. I think that's probably a good idea. They should. Chad GBT, if they're feeding anything to the FBI, I'm in trouble. Fun Murder.

There you go. Maybe that could be the name of an interesting book. Fun Murder. You're right. Ooh. There you go. I actually like that. Yeah.

The Fun Murder. I'll credit you. What's that? Fun Murder. Please. Yeah. There you go. yeah there you go so there you go now this these are standalone books there's no carryover from any other characters no there's they're standalone with my last book i do get asked a lot about like would there be a sequel and so i've pondered but no plans right now. There you go.

I'm going through some of the reviews. I have to be careful I don't give away anything because the reviews did. One reviewer said it's similar to Murder on the Orient Express. Is that a fair evaluation? So definitely Murder on the Orient Express is one of my favorite Christies, is one of most people's favorite Christie's. I mean, it's like an incredible classic. And I had actually seen that the starting point for this book was that I had read an article in one of the travel publications saying that the Orient Express trains had been refurbished to look like they did in the golden age of train travel, you know, in the early 20th century.

And that they were now running across Europe. And I was like, Oh my God, that'd be so fun to do, you know, a murder mystery set on the, the Orient express. And of course that,

you know, calls into a comparison to Christie's, but I think that mine's completely different, like besides the murder aspect and the train, you know, the Orient express, there's not much similar but i think it's really fun to do this kind of little homage what was the one what was that one

train movie that was funny throw mama from the train any throw mama from the train sort of i don't know that was more of a comedy than a suspense novel oh i don't think I've seen that one. Throw Him Off the Train was it had Danny DeVito, the little guy. Oh. And it had the other comedy dude, and it basically, it was a play on an old, I think it was an Alfred Hitchcock movie about trading murders.

Oh, is that Strangers on a Train? No. I believe it might be Strangers on a Train. That actually sounds really familiar. Let me pull it up. Oh, I didn't know Danny DeVito was in that. Well, this Strangers on a Train. That actually sounds really familiar. Let me pull it up. Oh, I didn't know Danny DeVito was in that. Well, Strangers on a Train, Strangers on a Train, I believe, was the original. Let me see here. And that's Alfred Hitchcock, and they trade a murder. Right.

Yeah. So Strangers on a Train was redone. That was originally done in 1951 with Alfred Hitchcock, but they redid it as it was called. What did I reference it earlier ago? Throw Mama from the Train. It's basically a redo. That sounds so good.

Yeah, only it's more of a comedy, but it still has that dark Throw Mama from the Train, but it had Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal in it. And it's just- Oh my God, that sounds excellent. I'm going to watch that. You've got to watch the movie. Yes.

It's hilarious. That's going on my screen this week. So it looks like a lot of people loved it, the reviews and everything else. What's the future hold for you? Do you have any new books you're cooking yet? Or are you still working on getting this one out and wrapping up the PR tours? Yeah, no, I sold two more books to my publisher. So I'm trying to do a book a year. So my book coming out next year is called The Safari and it's a murder mystery set on a luck safari in

South Africa on Kruger National Park. And it's about a glamorous family that goes, they're on vacation and one of them is murdered and they all are kind of locked inside this like luxury lodge investigating each other. Ah, the whodunit maybe sort of thing. Yep, exactly. There you go. Well, you killed it on your first book and your second book, The Chateau, really love the the the bonkers out of it so 11,002 ratings on goodreads 53,000 people want to read it on goodreads that's pretty amazing and 100 1,055 ratings i think these are u.s ratings on amazon so they they loved it and so i'm sure they're going to love your new book. Any, give us your final thoughts,

pitch out to people to pick up your new book as it comes out. I think that, I mean, you know, I, I've been thinking about this a lot lately is like reading gives me so much joy. And I like to read kind of usually more lighthearted,

meaningful escapist books. And I mean, kind of usually more lighthearted, meaningful, escapist books. And I mean, I just hope that this book would give that to a reader looking for the same kind of fun, joyful experience. There you go. And there might be murder. You'll have to read the book. There might be murder. There might be murder.

Maybe even more than one. Murder. Oh, whoa, there was a tip off of shadowing but maybe so there could be no murder you don't know you gotta read the book people buy it there you go so Jacqueline thank you very much for coming on the show give us your dot com so people can find you on the interwebs thank you so much for having me I am Jacqueline Goldis dotcom and mostly on Instagram at Jacqueline Goldis. There you go. Follow her travails throughout life in Israel, Tel Aviv.

And yeah, it's interesting that you found a better place in your life. I think a lot of people like these sort of stories where people are doing something they just hate or they don't like. And they go, I want to do something different. And they take that risk. And their life changes better. And now you're changing other people's lives. Aw, thank you. Especially when you have murder in your books. Yeah.

See what I said up there? So thank you very much, Jacqueline, for coming on the show. Thanks, Rodney, for coming on the board with us for the day. I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about at this point. I'm just lost at the end here. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortunes of Chris Foss, and all those crazy places on the internet. Thanks for tuning day. I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about at this point. I'm just lost at the end here. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortunes of Chris Foss,

and all those crazy places on the internet. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next time. Oh, I just forgot.