Kathryn Benton was a privileged young student with every advantage money could buy, but when she suddenly becomes the target of a massive nationwide manhunt, her comfortable world crumbles in an instant in “Dead by Monday,” the debut thriller from Morgan Hill author Chuck Foster.
Foster deliberately crafted what he calls a “modern David versus Goliath story,” but with a crucial twist: there’s no superhero coming to the rescue.
“In this story, there isn’t going to be [an action hero] to step in,” Foster explains. “The only tools she has are a guy she meets in a dumpster that claims to know her and his dead cell phone. And those tools may not be enough when the [situation] hits the fan.”
In Benton, Foster wanted to create the ultimate underdog, someone with minimal resources facing off against overwhelming institutional power. Kathryn’s character arc requires her to transform from someone accustomed to a silver spoon into a resourceful survivor.
Foster, who has lived in Morgan Hill since 1977, had always been an avid reader, particularly drawn to thrillers during his frequent business travels during his 40-year career in tech.
“I’d always grab two books, one for the outbound flight, one for the inbound,” Foster recalls. “I picked thrillers most of all because you could read them real quick. I’m reading my book in the hotel room, and I started wondering if I could write a book myself.”
That curiosity simmered for years until pandemic lockdowns provided an unexpected opportunity for creative exploration. “When we had the quarantine, I said, ‘I suppose I’ve got all this time on my hands that I hadn’t expected. What’s the most difficult thing a person could possibly do?’ And I said, ‘Write a novel.’ And I was right.”
Foster approached his writing with the methodical mindset of what he calls a “plotter,” someone who plans story structure in advance, carefully arranging every twist and turn, as opposed to “pantsers” who write by the seat of their pants. However, even with careful planning, he says the story took on a life of its own.
“I swear, I didn’t know until I was typing the last page how it would really end,” he admits. “The ending that was on my outline was not the ending that’s in the book.”
Although “Dead by Monday” is a unique story with its own unexpected twists, Foster said it follows many of the usual genre conventions readers expect from thrillers, including constant obstacles and constantly escalating tension.
“The rule in thrillers is nothing’s ever easy for your protagonist,” he said. “Nothing can happen without effort. That’s where the tension comes in. ‘What’s going to happen now?’”
“Dead by Monday” was written for what Foster calls “intelligent readers.” Rather than over-explaining every detail, he trusts his audience to understand references and fill in gaps.
“I specifically wrote it to appeal to a more intelligent reader, somebody where I didn’t explain every single thing in there, and I make the reader think through it as it goes,” he said.
This approach extends to the book’s themes, which emerged organically rather than being imposed from the outset. While Foster initially aimed simply to write an engaging thriller, he recognizes a deeper theme in the finished product about the nature of justice.
“Sometimes you don’t get the kind of justice that you get in the movies,” he explained. “It’s more like the justice you get in real life, where it was better than nothing, or it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”
Foster expects mixed reactions to the story’s unconventional ending. “I think 50% of the readers will say, ‘Oh, now that was good.’ And 50% will say, ‘I want four weeks of my life back. That was a waste of my time.’”
Foster enthusiastically encourages others to try fiction writing, no matter where they are in their career or how much experience they have, describing the writing process as endlessly more rewarding than the finished product.
“I would encourage anybody who has ever thought about writing a little bit of fiction to just sit down and write a love story. Everybody’s been in love or everybody’s imagined how love should be,” he said. “Even if you just get 600 words, you’d probably find that very satisfying.”
“Dead by Monday” is available at BookSmart and online, offering readers a chance to experience the suspenseful tale crafted by a local author who discovered that the best adventures happen when you surrender to the creative process and let the story write itself.
Calvin Nuttall is a Morgan Hill-based freelance writer.
