Carolyn McCray Books In Order

Publication Order of Apex Predator Books

Publication Order of Betrayed Books

Publication Order of Betrayed: 3rd Cycle Books

Publication Order of Betrayed: Bull's Eye Sniper Chronicles Books

Publication Order of Harbinger Mystery Books

Publication Order of Nuclear Threat Books

Publication Order of Our Future, Our Fault Books

Publication Order of Praxis: Blood Magic Books

Publication Order of Rapid Response Books

Publication Order of Robin Hood Hacker Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Darc Murders Books

Publication Order of Darc Murder Mysteries: 2nd Cycle Books

Publication Order of Empty Crib Books

Publication Order of Nursery Rhyme Murders Books

Carolyn McCray Biography:

If you’ve never heard of Carolyn McCray before, you’re probably not the only one. Searching for information wasn’t as simple as it is for famous celebrities like J.K Rowling or Stephanie Myers. But, for any writer, being the first name on the search engine is still a huge accomplishment to boast about. After much information-digging and many tabs on my computer screen, I was able to get a good idea of who Carolyn McCray is as a writer, and why you should definitely take the time to get to know her stories.

Paperback thriller stories on Amazon are a dime a dozen, but Carolyn McCray, born Cristyn West, actually enjoys her work, stating that she finds catching serial killers (in a novel, of course) exhilarating. There really isn’t much more to know about an author who spends their time writing stories such as Patterson-style thriller Plain Jane. And, yet, when it comes to McCray, there is.

McCray (West) prides herself in being accessible, not commercial. Commercialization is such an overused budget-waster. When you can be kind, cordial, and caring about your audience, it says more about your character. When Plain Jane was first published, McCray offered to give the book away for free to anyone on the simple condition that they would take five more copies to give to their friends, co-workers, or family members. All she asked was for an honest review and a little time out of the reader’s day to give some input and creative criticism. There is a lot to be said for an author who will take a risk like that to improve their skills.

What Kind of Writing Style Does She Use?

McCray enjoys challenging herself. She wants to shock, horrify, terrify, and surprise her audience members with the content of her books. Many times she will have an eccentric hero, or a hero who is out of the ordinary, so the reader is more interested in the story and a major paradigm shift can occur. In other words, she loves having what she likes to call a “shadow hero”. A shadow hero is a hero that the story doesn’t focus on, but who makes a huge difference in the plot of the story by making a selfless and unexpected decision, much like a character in her novel Plain Jane.

The author also believes strongly that a hero is only as strong as a villain. If you think about it, that fact can relate back to any story ever written. How good can a hero really be if they are competing with a villain that can’t even make a dent? The first example my mind grabs is of Loki going up against the Hulk in The Avengers. The famous lines are unforgettable.

“I have an army,” says the evil villain.

“We have a Hulk,” says Iron Man.

And there goes any hope the bad guy had of winning. Those four words destroy him, and it’s almost comical how quickly the movie ends from there. If McCray is addressing anything similar to that, she has made a very significant point. However, though McCray feels the villain must be a strong character, she also tries to keep him/her as much of a mystery as possible. In other words, she enjoys the idea that the reader will only see the villain through the hero’s eyes. This eliminates any possibility for sympathy-shifts in the audience to go toward the bad guy of the novel.

McCray was also encouraged to use her initials rather than her real name when it came to the author’s tagline put on her books, simply because the ‘thriller’ genre belongs mostly to the realm of men. Although she did not go through with this, she found an interesting point in the idea that customers might actually put an inviting book back on the shelf simply because a woman wrote it and not a man. A very intriguing question indeed.

What are McCray’s Least Favorite Parts of the Writing Process?

Sequels are not exactly a love of McCray’s life. She states that she has a love/hate relationship with them, and that she always tends to go back to her favorite characters without thinking about what she will be able to do with them in the future. Basically, it feels like a failed attempt to make her character follow an arc that they cannot fully accomplish again. After all, wasn’t it difficult enough to put them through it the first time around? Increasing revenue simply because the first book went well is not really McCray’s style.

Settings are also not a favorite of McCray. She enjoys every aspect of writing except for the small details when it comes to the scene that she is trying to convey to her audience. Like many other beginning writers, she finds it frustrating when readers can’t use their own imagination to come up with a setting. After all, isn’t imagination what writing is all about? Ironically, she also claims that, if readers did come up with their own ideas for the scene, she probably wouldn’t like it anyway.

What are Some of Her Earlier Works

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McCray began the basis of her career with Plain Jane, a series about a city that becomes traumatized by a serial killer in the time. The FBI profiler on the case has recently been released from a mental hospital, and is of very little help to the authorities when it comes to the basic idea of trust. McCray saw many good reviews from her efforts, though the book never took off onto any Best Seller lists.

What’s Next for Carolyn?

If you search for Carolyn McCray’s name now (or even Cristyn West), you won’t be able to find much more than a Twitter account that hasn’t been updated in a little over a year, mostly containing information about her dogs and personal life. However, if you take the time to look at her books (which are very readily available), you should be able to get a decent insight into her writing style, ideas, and the care with which she writes her novels. Not every author reaps insane amounts of money or rewards for their writing, but it is apparent that McCray isn’t focused on the money or the commercialism involved with being an author nowadays. No, for McCray, it is simply about the basis of all novel-writing. It’s all in the story.