A former US Navy Lt., Candace Irving is the daughter of a librarian and a retired boatswain’s mate chief. Candace grew up in the Philippines, Germany, and all over the United States. Her senior year of high school, she enlisted in the US Army. Following basic training, she transferred to the Navy’s ROTC program at the University of Texas-Austin. While at UT, she spent a summer in Washington, DC, as a Congressional Intern. She also worked security for the UT Police. BA in Political Science in hand, Candace was commissioned as an ensign in the US Navy and sent to Surface Warfare Officer’s School to learn to drive warships. From there, she followed her father to sea.
Q: Which of your series did you write first?
Candace: I wrote Blind Edge from the Deception Point series before the Hidden Valor series featuring Kate. I had also plotted a few chapters for the next books in the Deception Point series, Back Blast and Chokepoint. All these books were planned out in advance. However, I was advised that many readers prefer plots set within the U.S. One day, while biking in Arkansas, I saw a deserted seat in a field, and an image popped into my head of a brown bag filled with body parts. That idea led me to create The Garbage Man, featuring Kate Holland. This book was published first, even though I originally wanted Blind Edge released before the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Initially, I planned to alternate between the two series, but it didn’t turn out that way. Readers of the Kate series discovered Deception Point and loved it.
Q: How do the two series differ from one another?
Candace: The Hidden Valor series has an overarching arc about the characters’ backstories, but each book has a distinct plot. Meanwhile, Deception Point features a continuous arc where the plotline carries throughout multiple books. Both series should be read in order.
Q: Do both series share similarities in how they explore the characters’ backgrounds?
Candace: Yes, every character has a bad father and a mother who is missing in action.
Q: How would you classify the Deception Point series?
Candace: While they involve the military, I consider them crime thrillers rather than military thrillers. They’re not like Tom Clancy’s books. Some people compare them to the Jack Reacher series, but they are not the same. My protagonists are women, and they are all active duty.
Q: Does the Hidden Valor series include more references to PTSD than Deception Point?
Candace: Yes, because Kate was very debilitated at the beginning of her series. She could no longer function in the military. Regan and John, on the other hand, don’t really suffer from PTSD.
Q: Would you ever write a third series focusing solely on Mira, the featured character in Chokepoint?
Candace: No, she will remain within the Deception Point series. I consider this my active-duty series. Mira will be involved in Navy storylines, Regan in Army-related plots, and Kate, from Hidden Valor, in veteran-focused stories. There will also be a crossover between Regan and Kate in the Hidden Valor series. Regan goes undercover in Arkansas, investigating a case. If you recall, in In the Name Of, Regan and Kate had a couple of phone calls. In the crossover book, they will be together because Regan is Kate’s protégé.
Q: Why did you decide to have Regan get pregnant?
Candace: At first, I debated whether to keep that storyline, but I ultimately decided to go with it. Some readers have asked why she didn’t use protection, but she genuinely believed she couldn’t get pregnant.
Q: How would you compare your three female protagonists: Kate, Regan, and Mira?
Candace: Regan is skilled at masking her emotions and reading facial expressions, while Kate and Mira can do so only to a certain extent, as it was part of their jobs. Regan can lie convincingly—people can’t tell, even when she pretends to like someone. Mira, however, struggles to mask her feelings.
Kate is more compassionate due to her past experiences and is more forgiving of others’ mistakes compared to Mira and Regan. Mira carries a chip on her shoulder because she was wrongly charged with a crime.
All three women experience guilt. Kate feels guilty because her best friend was beheaded, and she is determined to prove to her father’s ghost that she is a good investigator. Regan carries the weight of her father being a dirty cop. Mira feels guilt over the emotional abuse her father inflicted on her brother.
They are all confident, self-assured, and gutsy. If knocked down, they will always get back up. Mira has a temper—if someone gets in her face, she gets right back in theirs. Though they are loners, they are not lonely, as they have strong support systems and friendships.
Q: Why was Kate retired while Mira and Regan remain on active duty?
Candace: I wanted Kate’s PTSD to reflect real struggles many veterans face, so her trauma forced her out of service. I also wanted to distinguish between the series—Kate’s storyline is veteran-focused, while the others remain active duty. Regan, for example, has arm issues that flare under stress, but they wouldn’t be severe enough to force her out of the Army. She did, however, have to retrain her left hand to become dominant.
Q: How would you compare your three male leads: Arash, John, and Riyad?
Candace: I wanted them to be distinct, though parts of Arash and John are based on my husband. Many readers think Riyad is a jerk, but that stems from his background. He takes no prisoners and makes no excuses. John, on the other hand, is willing to own up to his mistakes.
Riyad and John are active-duty Special Forces, trained to be confrontational, while Arash was in military intelligence and knows how to get what he wants without direct confrontation. Riyad operates with a SEAL mentality—his way is the only way. Because of his past as a SEAL commander, he has developed tunnel vision. All three men are stubborn, sarcastic, and stoic in their own ways.
Q: How do the relationships between Kate/Arash, Regan/John, and Mira/Riyad compare?
Candace: Each hero challenges the heroine in his life. Kate and, to some extent, Regan will cut Arash and John some slack, whereas Mira won’t give Riyad an inch. Riyad gets in Mira’s face and says no, just as John does with Regan. Arash, however, is more strategic in handling disagreements with Kate.
All three men are driven. John and Riyad are quick to judge Regan and Mira but eventually realize their mistakes and apologize—though Riyad struggles more with this. He even gets annoyed at himself for calling Mira “woman” because he genuinely cares about her. Over time, Mira begins to understand him better.
All the heroes are chauvinistic to a degree. Yet, all of the relationships are built on a foundation of intense emotions, persistence, compassion, and protectiveness. John and Regan, as well as Arash and Kate, feel secure in their relationships. If John is on one end of the emotional spectrum, Arash is in the middle, and Riyad is on the farthest end.
Q: What can readers expect in your upcoming books?
Candace: In both series, I always know what will happen in the book I’m writing and possibly the next one, but not beyond that. I’m a linear writer—I start at the beginning and plot every chapter in sequence.
The next Regan book, Pitch Black, will be released in January 2026. In this story, Mira is kidnapped after traveling to Saudi Arabia with Riyad for an investigation. She and John end up in Yemen, while Regan and Riyad must work together to find them.
The next Kate book, Blood on the Wire, will be published in August this year. Kate’s relationship with Arash will continue to develop. Additionally, her former partner, Seth, will play a significant role in the story. The plot centers around a psychologist at a Little Rock VA hospital who is found brutally stabbed. When Kate searches the victim’s home, she is shocked to find a cache of military-grade explosives. The psychologist had been privately investigating a heinous crime that took place more than two years ago in an active war zone. As Kate digs deeper, the bodies begin to pile up.
This is part II of the Candace Irving Q/A talking about the “Deception Point Series.”
In part I Candace talked about her “Hidden Valor Series.”
There are similarities between both series in that each has great characters, very unlikeable antagonists, an intense plot, some romance, and a riveting story that readers will not want to put down. The author allows readers to connect emotionally with the characters. The differences are that the “Hidden Valor Series” takes place mainly in Arkansas, with the heroine, Kate, a retired CID officer, now working with the State law enforcement, while in the other series the heroines move around the globe and are active duty, having a partner both romantically and professionally: Kate with Arash, Regan with John, and Mira with Riyad.
With both series, books should be read in order. The Deception Point Series should be read in this order: Aimpoint, Blind Edge, Back Blast, and Chokepoint. These books involve an active-duty Army investigator, Regan, and an active-duty Navy investigator, Mira, both who are women. It is obvious that Irving has done her due diligence, with the research put in making the stories realistic and believable.
