Jeff Macfee's 'The Contest' and Exploring the Narrative as Puzzle

It's like a darker Disneyland in there.

I was lucky enough to read Jeff Macfee’s new thriller, ‘The Contest,’ a few months before release. The book mostly takes place in a theme park named Miscellany, famous worldwide for its games and puzzles. A former child prodigy named Gillian Charles, down on her luck, is hired to figure out who’s leaking Miscellany’s secrets. Along the way, there’s a solid dose of death and deceit and mind-benders, but the narrative is more than that—as Gillian progresses, the story mutates into a fascinating exploration of loss, comebacks, and reckoning with one’s past obsessions and doubts.

The book plays a bit like ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ updated for our ultra-vicious capitalist times, or maybe a somewhat darker take on Disneyland. If you’re a writer, particularly one who focuses on thrillers, it’s well worth reading for how Macfee utilizes puzzles to express Gillian’s emotional arc at that moment; if you’re a reader, it’s a fun ride. I asked Macfee a few questions about the book’s origins and his approach to writing it.

Q: Thrillers based around puzzles seem big right now—you have ‘The Contest,’ obviously, as well as ‘Squid Game,’ the gazillionth ‘Saw’ movie, and so on. What do you think draws people so strongly to these kinds of puzzlers?

A: Is this where I admit I backed into Gillian being a puzzler, after in earlier drafts she was a much less grounded ‘solver of world problems’?

To actually answer your question, as the character became more grounded, I needed Gillian to be skilled at something concrete and competitive, but maybe most important relatable. And everyone gets bored. The day-to-day can be a grind, and many activities have sprung up designed to combat that feeling. Escape rooms, ax-throwing, adventure trips, etc. Solving puzzles is a step-out-of-the-ordinary challenge, and they can also be bite-sized compared to life’s challenge. How am I going to raise my kid—hell, that will take years. Can I solve this crossword puzzle—that’s a few minutes to hours and at the end, in theory, I’ve mastered it. Winning anywhere in life is a powerful draw, particularly if we feel we’re losing in other places.

Q: Your last book (‘Nine Tenths’) was much more in the speculative fiction vein, featuring human augmentation and other nifty things. What compelled you to shift over to ‘The Contest,’ which has some fantastical elements but seems much more grounded?

A: The period when I first started working on ‘The Contest’ feels like a million years ago—writing and publishing these things takes forever. But at the time I’d been writing spec for quite a while, even before ‘Nine Tenths.’ I wanted to challenge myself, change lanes, see if I could write something less fantastical and reach a different audience. Every book I’ve written (yes, there are a few that haven’t and may never see the light of day) has differed in some way than the book before. I like to switch gears, to keep things interesting. (Not that I’d never write a series or sequels.)

Q: What’s your approach to writing mysteries? Are you a plotter or a pantser, and did you have an idea when you started how ‘The Contest’ was going to wrap up?

A: Mysteries are a heavy lift. You know all the answers, but the protagonists don’t. You have to dribble out the details, make the dots connect, but still tell an interesting story with character depth. A lot of balls to juggle. Right now I’m working on yet another mystery, because I must hate myself, but after that, I’m looking to switch genres.

As for approach, in mystery writing and beyond, I’m a plotter. I spend too much time rewriting if I don’t use an outline. The fear with outlines is boredom, but for me, an outline is just a plan, and plans can change with good reason. There’s still plenty of room for creativity.

And I knew the ending of ‘The Contest’ before I wrote one word. It was the guide star for story, tone, character—all of it. I always knew what I was aiming for, and hopefully I hit it.

Q: ‘The Contest’ is filled with all kinds of puzzles. How did you create those, and how hard did you want to make them? I have to say, I was stumped by many, even if they were being solved in-narration… but then again, I’m someone who didn’t do so well at those logic games as a kid.

A: I let the cat out of the bag with the first question, but again, I backed into Gillian being a puzzler. And I didn’t feel any compulsion to make the puzzles difficult—matter of fact, experienced puzzlers probably blazed through them. My goal was puzzles just tricky enough most people would need a few beats to solve them. For me, the story is Gillian the character—the puzzles exist to spotlight Gillian’s mindset and emotions. To amplify or mitigate other problems in her life.