The CEO of Sermon To Book and Speak It To Book, Caleb Breakey has authored several books—but makes his foray into fiction with the thriller The String (Revell). In the tradition of Ted Dekker and Steven James, Caleb Breakey’s explosive debut novel introduces readers to the conductor, a sociopath conducting a deadly social experiment on a university campus. In this interview, Caleb shares where he got the idea for the novel, why he chose the university setting, and the research he needed to get into the mind of a sociopath…
Caleb, The String plunges readers into a sociopath’s deadly game. How did you come up with the idea?
The first books I ever wrote were epic fantasies with big worlds and timelines. Then I asked myself, “What kind of story might take place within a small footprint and forty-eight-hour time frame?” The next thing I knew, I was feverishly writing notes while riding shotgun in a 4Runner belonging to a university police officer, and a man who called himself the conductor began speaking to me about The String.
Can you provide our readers with some details?
The main players in The String are strong-hearted police officer Markus Haas and a man who calls himself the conductor, who delivers disturbing threats and twisted moral dilemmas to unsuspecting students and staff with two terrifying ground rules:
Rule #1: Participation is mandatory.
Rule #2: If anyone refuses to play, all threats will come to pass.
What unravels is a sequence of impossible decisions and a race against time to stop the sociopath before others pay the ultimate price.
Why did you choose a university campus for your setting?
The story came to me while doing a ride along with an officer at a university campus. The details I jotted down that day made the fictional university town of Trenton come to life in my mind.
Your main character, Markus Haas, plays an important role in the game. Would you expand on this?
The conductor is fascinated with Haas because he is unlike others trapped in the string. Haas lives by a code that the conductor is drawn to for purposes that may require the reader to shift their investigative minds into overdrive.
What type of research was required to accurately write about a sociopath’s tendencies?
The book The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those without Conscience by Kent A. Kiehl was very helpful as I tried to navigate the mind of the conductor. You can imagine the looks I received while reading this book in coffee shops.
Although you have written other books, The String is your debut novel. Why did you decide to write a fiction book?
Fiction writing has been in my blood since the start. My wife and I spent our wedding money on fifty-two books about writing fiction. Then, for years, I spent my days off penning fiction for sixteen hours straight. I just love story, because great stories shed light on the truth of who we are as humans. They teach us without a lecture, inspire us without a speech, and entertain us without any props. Show me a writer who can resist such a noble undertaking!
Visit Caleb Breakey’s author page:
https://www.familyfiction.com/authors/caleb-breakey/
The String
Caleb Breakey
Revell