HADES
On a dark night in a junkyard on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, Hades Archer disposes of things other people either don't want, or cannot face. Old machinery and dead bodies are dismembered with equally cool precision, until two children are delivered for disposal, still alive. Hades nurses them back to health and raises them as his own. They are twins, a boy and a girl, whom he names Eric and Eden. ??Flash forward: the twins, now adults, are detectives in the Sydney Metro Police homicide squad, when a series of bodies turn up with vital organs missing. A serial killer is stealing organs from healthy people and selling them to the desperately ill.
On a dark night in a junkyard on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, Hades Archer disposes of things other people either don't want, or cannot face. Old machinery and dead bodies are dismembered with equally cool precision, until two children are delivered for disposal, still alive. Hades nurses them back to health and raises them as his own. They are twins, a boy and a girl, whom he names Eric and Eden. ??Flash forward: the twins, now adults, are detectives in the Sydney Metro Police homicide squad, when a series of bodies turn up with vital organs missing. A serial killer is stealing organs from healthy people and selling them to the desperately ill. Eric and Eden team up with Frank Bennett, a tarnished detective fighting his own demons, as they track down a madman who lives for the kill…
- Kensington Books
- Paperback
- February 2015
- 320 Pages
- 9781617734410
Buy the Book
$15.00
About Candice Fox
Candice Fox served as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy. She currently teaches writing at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Australia where she lives. She is completing her Ph.D. in literary censorship and terrorism.
Praise
“Powerful. This is an incredible read! A great murder mystery, Dexter would be proud! This is how a crime thriller should make you feel.”—The Reading Room
“A frighteningly self-assured debut with a cracker plot, strong characters, and feisty, no-nonsense writing.”—Qantas Magazine
Discussion Questions
A central question in Hades is whether Eric and Eden were made killers because of their childhood trauma, or if they naturally were born with a dark instinct within them. Do you think Eric and Eden were always meant to be killers?
The organ thief in Hades gives those he contacts a difficult choice: in order to save their sick relatives, they have to be willing to sacrifice another human life. Are the people who agree to the plan victims in their own right, or are they just as culpable as the killer?
Jason says, “People care for as long as it’s socially appropriate . . . they love and they hate and they share and they feel guilt as long as they need to, and not a second longer. You can switch that off whenever you want to. You can make it so that you don’t feel anything at all.” Do you agree this quote? Why or why not?
Hades is told from the shifting perspectives of Frank and Hades. How do their perceptions of Eden and Eric differ? How are they the same?
Are there any heroes in Hades?
Hades ultimately makes the decision to raise Eric and Eden as his own children. Can his choice redeem him from his role as Lord of the Underworld?
Martina Ducote was able to escape the killer’s first attack. How did her fight for survival add to the novel? Was her relationship with Frank a wise decision to make?
How do Frank’s feelings toward Eden shift during the course of the novel?
“I hadn’t known then I was dealing with a monster.” Frank voices this opinion about Eden. Do you agree with Frank’s assessment? How could other characters in the novel relate to the quote: Jason? Eric? Frank himself?
Hades' author, Candice Fox, is the daughter of a prison parole officer father and a mother who fostered over one hundred children. Her background serves as a foundation to her writing. Are there any elements of your lives that have captured your fascination in novels?