52 pages • 1 hour read
Rachel Koller CroftStone Cold Fox
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: Old Money in the United States
Though many works of literature center around the wealthier classes, Stone Cold Fox distinguishes between “old” and “new” money as a focal point of the narrative. “Old money” is specifically the wealth of families or groups that has persisted through inheritance over multiple generations. When a person from the lower or middle class achieves remarkable wealth, such as in technology or finance in the novel, they have what is called “new money,” as it was accumulated recently. Old money, on the other hand, has accumulated over time to become larger than most people would be able to achieve in a lifetime, forming what many consider to be a form of aristocracy in the United States. Because the accumulation of money is often tied to power, and a large enough supply of money can prevent decreases in social standing and mobility, old money has become a symbol of lasting social nobility, much as the inherited titles of other countries have served to maintain a family’s standing.
Notable examples of these different types of wealth include the Byrd family, which accumulated wealth during the colonial period of the United States’s history, lasting well into the 20th century in both finance and politics, which is an example of old money. On the other hand, notable figures like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller did not inherit wealth, instead creating empires in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Case family in Stone Cold Fox, along with the Bradford and Wallace-Leicester families, fall into the same category as the Byrd family, possessing wealth and power that has been passed down, presumably, for centuries, establishing them in their own social and financial circle above and separate from those with relatively recent wealth.
Genre Context: Thrillers and “Cat and Mouse”
Many thrillers involve a psychological competition between characters, much like Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series, or Walter White and Hank Schrader in the critically acclaimed television show Breaking Bad. These thrillers emphasize the battle of wits between a protagonist and an antagonist, often with an explicit narrative of getting ahead of one another or remaining one step ahead or behind the other character. The suspense in these narratives comes from the audience’s anticipation of a conclusion to the chase, in which one character must inevitably show their hand and be deemed the victor. Such stories often use chasing, mental manipulation, deception, and betrayal as defining actions that change the pace of the conflict.
This trope is often referred to as “cat and mouse,” referring to the way a cat plays with its prey, mice. In the context of Stone Cold Fox, Koller Croft introduces a predatory “cat” character in Bea, whose prey is Collin Case and the wealth he possesses. However, Bea becomes the “mouse” to Gale’s “cat,” and, even further, Gale and Bea both become “mice” to Bea’s mother, the ultimate “cat” in the narrative. As Bea navigates the path to manipulating Collin and his family, she initially sees Gale as prey, someone she can manipulate, as well. However, as Gale puts up more of a fight, dropping hints that she has the upper hand, Bea needs to go on the defensive, following a traditional outline of the “cat and mouse” narrative. Though not all thrillers feature these archetypical characters and actions, Stone Cold Fox fits neatly into this subgenre of thrillers, as the reader waits in anticipation to see which of these characters will ultimately emerge victorious.
