It’s October, and I’ve decided to give Undercover Star an airing while we’re (hopefully) moving house. Not because there’s a house move in Undercover Star – for that I’d have to turn to Hiding Place – but because Josh & Matisse’s story gives me all the feelgood vibes I need in the middle of this stress fest.
It’s the bickering, you see. It’s something I’m not comfortable writing most of the time, but when the idea for the story came to me, the bickering came right along with the things I love to write.
Like found family. Or heroes who’ve been quietly falling apart for years without telling anyone.
Undercover Star gave me both, wrapped in a fairly ridiculous premise: what happens when a grieving, grumpy detective and a pop star with a security detail get told to go catch an art thief together?
Josh Ingram has spent four years chasing the man who killed his best friend, and somewhere along the way he stopped letting himself want anything else. Matisse Vervein has spent his whole career limiting how much of himself an audience gets to see — and how much stays locked away, including the part of him that isn’t interested in women. Neither of them plans on falling for the other. Neither of them is remotely equipped for it.
What I loved most about writing these two was the mismatch. Josh doesn’t know a single Matisse Vervein song when they meet. Matisse has never come across a detective who wasn’t at least a little starstruck by his ticket sales. They insult each other constantly, and it fools exactly no one, least of all them.
Underneath all the sniping, though, this is a book about two people learning to stop performing — Josh at being fine, Matisse at being a persona — long enough to let someone else in.
If you’ve read anything else of mine, you’ll recognise the shape: a hero who refuses to give up even when he’s furious at the world, a found family doing a lot of quiet, unglamorous work in the background (Matisse’s security guys, Oats and Rigger, and his terrifyingly competent manager Marissa are all carrying more of this story than they get credit for), and a slow climb back toward hope.
It also has a fabulous declaration — the kind that happens in front of several thousand witnesses, because subtlety was never going to work for either of these two.
Undercover Star is on sale in my direct store all through October — a good excuse to finally meet Josh and Mat if you haven’t, or to go back for a reread if you have.
And if you’ve already read it — tell me: are you Team Oats or Team Rigger?
A love that doesn’t shout