Nine Coaches Waiting (Stewart)

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Nine Coaches Waiting:

1. What does the title suggest about the kind of story Stewart wants to tell...and the kind of story her readers might expect?

2. What kind of character is Linda Martin? How would you describe her?

3. Why must Linda pretend ignorance of the French language, which she is quite facile at speaking?

3. Talk about young Philippe. How well does Linda relate to him as a charge?

4. What about Uncle Leon as a character? How does he treat his nephew? What might his injury suggest symbolically about him?

5. What makes Linda first suspect that the "accidents" are anything but accidents?

6. What draws Raoul and Linda together? Did you feel their attachment was genuine on both sides?

7. Linda finds herself in the middle of a murder plot and must spirit Philippe away to keep him safe. What will Linda have to sacrifice as she makes her decision? Whom does she suspect ...and whom, at this point, did you suspect?

8. Does this book deliver in terms of its triple objectives: to be a mystery / suspense / and romance in one book? Does Stewart succeed? Did you find yourself quickly turning pages to find out what happens next? Were you surprised by the turn of events, or did you find them predictable? Were you satisfied with the ending of the book? Does it end how you had hoped it would?

9. Loneliness is an underlying theme in this book. How does it evidence itself within the story?

10. Are there other literary heroines of whom Linda reminds you? And if you've read other Mary Stewart works, how does this one compare?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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