The Con Code
Shana Silver
(Swoon Reads)
Publication date: August 25th 2020
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, Young Adult
A teen forger and thief forms a criminal crew from her high school friends (and crush) to perform a series of heists leading to the location of her missing mother in this action-packed contemporary YA novel.
By day, seventeen-year-old Fiona Spangler runs small cons for her ritzy prep-school classmates: getting them out of tests and forging fake hall passes. But by night, Fiona joins her dad on riskier heists: stealing back the clue-filled forgeries her mom scattered across the country before she disappeared. Fiona desperately hopes that her mother will be waiting at the end of the scavenger hunt she left behind.
And they are SO close. Just three more heists remain, but then disaster strikes when Fiona’s dad is captured by the FBI. Desperate to finish the job and save what’s left of her family, Fiona assembles of crew of teen criminals: a master of disguise who can transform into anyone, a talented hacker who only communicates in glares, and a rival con artist with a vendetta against—and possible crush on—Fiona.
All they have to do is perform three nearly impossible heists, solve her mother’s incredibly complex clues, and evade the FBI. Easy, right?
Interview with Shana Silver
For those
interested in exploring the subject or theme of your book, where
should they start?
The Con Code is all
about cons and heists and my inspiration from the book stems from a
few different sources: White Collar, a TV show about an ex-con
artist helping out the FBI capture other con artists. Ocean’s 11
and the sequels, a classic movie franchise following a heist crew
pulling off a super complicated heist. Heist Society by Ally Carter,
a novel series involving a group of teen criminals.
How did you become
involved with the subject or theme of your book?
As I mentioned above,
I was a huge fan of White Collar and the idea stemmed from a
combination of that show and wanting to write about my experiences
on a teen tour camp when I was a teen. Although I never pulled off
any heists while in camp and although there’s no actual moments
from real life that made it into the final draft of the book, I do
consider the book to be a love letter to my time on a teen tour,
which is still one of my best memories to date!
What were your
goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you
achieved them?
When I set out to
write this novel, I wanted to explore a few different tropes:
enemies to lovers, found family, and strong friendships that never
waver. I do feel like I accomplished my goals. Fiona and Colin start
out hating each other but being forced to work together may make
them change their minds. Fiona’s crew is her found family, she
chose them, and she will always have their backs. And I truly love
Fiona and Natalie’s friendship and how strong it is. They are
always there for each other.
Anything you would like to say to
your readers and fans?
I hope you love Fiona, Colin, Natalie,
Tig, and Lakshmi as much as I do! I had so much fun writing them and
watching them get out of tricky situations!
What did you enjoy most about
writing this book?
As always, my favorite part of writing
this book is the kissing scenes! As well as the almost kiss scenes.
It’s also about the build up to those scenes, until those kisses
become inevitable and the reader is cheering for the characters to
finally smooch!
Can you tell us a little bit about
your next books or what you have planned for the future?
I am always writing and working on
something! I can’t say anything right now about what might be
coming in the future, but I promise readers will love it!
How long have you been writing?
I wrote my first novel at the age of
17 in high school. It had basically no plot and was mostly
existential ponderings since we were reading Camus at the time. I am
looooong past high school now and had a very long journey to
publication, but I’m so happy to finally have not one but two
books out!
Can you tell us a
little bit about the characters in THE CON CODE?
Fiona comes from a
family of con artists. By day she runs small jobs for her classmates
(forging parental signatures, etc) and by night, she and her dad
pull dangerous heists to find the clues her mother planted before
she went on the lam. Fiona hopes that if she can find the clues,
she’ll be able to find her mother before the FBI does. But her
plans go awry when Colin O’Keefe moves to her town and his Dad
becomes the head of the FBI search team investigating Fiona’s
mother. Fiona expects Colin to be a law abiding citizen like his
dad, but he surprises her by being a charismatic con artist and
swindling all her student clients out from under him. Fiona’s best
friend Natalie is a master of disguise and Natalie’s crush is a
girl named Tig, who can hack into the most complicated security
systems. Lastly, there’s Lakshmi, a nosy, bubbly, camper they meet
on the teen tour they join to hide out from the FBI, and she’s
always getting in their way.
If you could spend the day with one
of the characters from THE CON CODE who would it be? Please tell us
why you chose this particular character, where you would go and what
you would do.
I would spend the day with Natalie
because she can disguise herself as anyone and I think it would be
fun to have her dress me up as someone different and pretend to be
someone else for the day. We’d probably try to sneak in somewhere
we don’t belong just to see if we can, like backstage at a
concert. I know we’ll have so much fun!
Author Bio:
Shana Silver studied creative writing at Syracuse University. She’s been a computer animator, an e-book creator for a major publisher, and now works as a Project Manager in digital and TV advertising where she enjoys telling people what to do. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, young daughter, and the characters she dreams up. MIND GAMES is her debut novel. THE CON CODE comes out in Summer 2020.
1 comments:
Thanks for being on the tour! :)
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