The Marauders
Tim Cooper, 2015
Crown Publishing
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780804140560
Summary
When the BP oil spill devastates the Gulf coast, those who made a living by shrimping find themselves in dire straits.
For the oddballs and lowlifes who inhabit the sleepy, working class bayou town of Jeannette, these desperate circumstances serve as the catalyst that pushes them to enact whatever risky schemes they can dream up to reverse their fortunes.
At the center of it all is Gus Lindquist, a pill-addicted, one armed treasure hunter obsessed with finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. His quest brings him into contact with a wide array of memorable characters, ranging from a couple of small time criminal potheads prone to hysterical banter, to the smooth-talking Oil company middleman out to bamboozle his own mother, to some drug smuggling psychopath twins, to a young man estranged from his father since his mother died in Hurricane Katrina.
As the story progresses, these characters find themselves on a collision course with each other, and as the tension and action ramp up, it becomes clear that not all of them will survive these events. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—
• Where—
• Education—
• Awards—
• Currently—
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Book Reviews
It's always the voice, the singular sound of a place like none other, that draws you into a regional mystery. In Tom Cooper's first novel, The Marauders, that beguiling music comes out of the Louisiana bayous, where a raucous chorus of shrimp fishermen, marijuana growers, treasure hunters, professional crooks and common thieves fight to be heard. Every last one of these gaudy characters has a story to tell about life on the Gulf Coast.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review
Sad, grotesque, hilarious, breathtaking...stands with ease among the work of such stylistic predecessors as Twain, Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard. One thing that gives The Marauders its own clear hallmark is its quicksilver prose. The book’s other standout aspect is how it demands and earns sympathy for all but its most evil characters and for the fate-blasted but nature-blessed locale they inhabit. You might not want to retire there, but you’ll savor this visit.
Wall Street Journal
Excellent, finely written and funny—an admirable novel from a very promising writer.
USA Today
Tom Cooper has Louisiana dead to rights. Every aspect. Jeanette, the sleepy bayou town ravaged by man and nature alike, is rendered in Technicolor detail. Its residents, lifers and visitors alike, leap from the pages. The story rolls like a tide, handling triumph and tragedy alike with a dark, mischievous humor that Cooper wields expertly…There’s more than a hint of the Southern gothic here, more than a little Flannery O’Connor…It’s easy to forget this is his first novel. Some books require boxes of tissues. This one requires an, as Cooper writes, “an ass-pocket whiskey bottle.” Get you a drink and get comfortable. You won’t be moving until you hit the last page.
Beth Colvin - Baton Rouge Advocate
The first great book of the 2015 beach season is already here...Tom Cooper’s début novel, The Marauders, certainly should not be confined to beach season or to the implication that it’s light or airless good fun, but it seems to be a book that should be savored on a deck overlooking the beach or pool with a cold beer nearby...an enjoyable and impossibly difficult to put down novel.
Drew Gallagher - Fredericksburg Free Lance Star
Cooper conjures all the complexities of post-Katrina, post–Deepwater Horizon bayou life..., a noirish crime story with a sense of humor set on the Louisiana Gulf Coast.... Cooper’s novel is a blast; descriptions of the natural beauty of the cypress swamps and waterways, along with the hardscrabble ways of its singular inhabitants, further elevate this story.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Self-assured and highly entertaining...Cooper’s writing is taut, his story is gripping, and the characters and their problems will stay with you long after you finish this book.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Cooper offers a believable portrait of a bayou town and a cast of deeply engaging characters wrestling inchoately with the likely extinction of the only life they know. There is real substance and humanity in this fine debut novel.
Booklist
(Starred review.) This is one hell of a debut novel. Cooper combines the rough-hewn but poetic style favored by writers like Charles Willeford with the kinds of miscreants so beloved by Elmore Leonard, all operating in the tumultuous modern-day disaster that is New Orleans.. With crisp, noir-inspired writing and a firmly believable setting, Cooper has written an engaging homage to classic crime writing that still finds things to say about the desperate days we live through now. Somewhere, Donald E. Westlake, John D. MacDonald and Elmore Leonard are smiling down on this nasty, funny piece of work.
Kirkus Reviews
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)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
The Last Flight of Poxl West
Daniel Torday, 2015
St. Martin's Press
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250081605
Summary
Poxl West fled the Nazis' onslaught in Czechoslovakia. He escaped their clutches again in Holland. He pulled Londoners from the Blitz's rubble. He wooed intoxicating, unconventional beauties. He rained fire on Germany from his RAF bomber.
Poxl West is the epitome of manhood and something of an idol to his teenage nephew, Eli Goldstein, who reveres him as a brave, singular, Jewish war hero. Poxl fills Eli's head with electric accounts of his derring-do, adventures and romances, as he collects the best episodes from his storied life into a memoir.
He publishes that memoir, Skylock, to great acclaim, and its success takes him on the road, and out of Eli's life. With his uncle gone, Eli throws himself into reading his opus and becomes fixated on all things Poxl.
But as he delves deeper into Poxl's history, Eli begins to see that the life of the fearless superman he's adored has been much darker than he let on, and filled with unimaginable loss from which he may have not recovered. As the truth about Poxl emerges, it forces Eli to face irreconcilable facts about the war he's romanticized and the vision of the man he's held so dear.
Daniel Torday's debut novel, The Last Flight of Poxl West, beautifully weaves together the two unforgettable voices of Eli Goldstein and Poxl West, exploring what it really means to be a hero, and to be a family, in the long shadow of war. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Raised—near Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Kenyon College; M.F.A., Syracuse University
• Currently—lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Daniel Torday is the Director of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College. An author and former editor at Esquire magazine, Torday currently serves as an editor at The Kenyon Review. His short stories and essays have appeared in Esquire, Glimmer Train, Harper Perennial's Fifty-Two Stories, Harvard Review, The New York Times and The Kenyon Review. Torday's novella, The Sensualist, won the 2012 National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction. (From the publisher.)
An introduction to an interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air:
Torday pulled from his own family's experiences to write about the war [in The Last Flight of Poxl West]—his father was born in Hungary two years after World War II ended. He says, "My grandfather falsified papers to make himself appear to not be Jewish anymore and that was how they were able to live out the war in Hungary."
Seven years after the war, Torday's grandparents moved to a Hungarian community on Long Island, N.Y.—but they still kept their secrets.
My grandmother died in the early '90s without ever once admitting that she was Jewish, to me or to anybody else," Torday says. "My grandfather, actually, after her funeral, admitted to the rest of the family that he was Jewish and then wanted to tell those stories for the next decade of his life." —March 17,2015
Book Reviews
The Last Flight provides both a touching, old-fashioned drama about war and love…and a more modern framing tale that makes us rethink the impulses behind storytelling, and the toll that self-dramatization can take not only on practitioners but also on those who believe and cherish their fictions…. It's Mr. Torday's ability to shift gears between sweeping historical vistas and more intimate family dramas, and between old-school theatrics and more contemporary meditations on the nature of storytelling that announces his emergence as a writer deserving of attention.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
[An] expertly crafted first novel…. There doesn't seem to be a germane subject for which the author hasn't done his homework, from the leather trade to the cockpit controls of military aircraft to the kabbalah…. And all of this is rendered in Torday's unobtrusively lyrical prose, superb Rothian sentences that glide over the page as smoothly as a Spitfire across a cloudless sky…. The Last Flight of Poxl West…[is] an utterly accomplished novel…. Daniel Torday is a writer…with real talent and heart.
Teddy Wayne - New York Times Book Review
OMFG! What a book! Eli Goldstein has the retrospective candor of Roth's Zuckerman and the sensitivity of a Harold Brodkey narrator, and Poxl West is an unforgettable creation. Plus, things happen in this book, big things like the world wars. A delight!
Gary Shteyngart
The Last Flight of Poxl West manages to be about WWII, the Holocaust, the place of novels and memoirs in the lives of their readers, and what the book's narrator makes of all this.
Terry Gross - NPR's Fresh Air
The last sentence of The Last Flight of Poxl West is one of the great conclusions.... The best 149 words published this year.
Chris Jones - Esquire Magazine
Torday’s descriptive and powerful prose stands as the book’s highlight. The book-within-a-book memoir is a page-turner.... [His nephew] Elijah’s chapters culminate with him looking at his uncle through more mature eyes...culminating with a tender ending to Elijah’s narrative.
Publishers Weekly
Torday...is a polished writer who creates an unforgettable character for whom the term flight describes his whole life.... This portrait of a Holocaust survivor's experiences is innovative, and its page-turning plot will keep readers on the edge until the very end. —Andrea Kempf, formerly with Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS
Library Journal
(Starred review.) While Torday is more likely to be compared to Philip Roth or Michael Chabon than Gillian Flynn, his debut novel has two big things in common with Gone Girl—it's a story told in two voices, and it's almost impossible to discuss without revealing spoilers. A richly layered, beautifully told and somehow lovable story about war, revenge and loss.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. After Poxl's book is published his relationship with Eli becomes distant. He blames his busy schedule, but do you think there were other reasons why Poxl pulled away from Eli? Do you think Eli comes to understand and accept Poxl's withdrawal?
2. What do you think is the biggest lesson Eli learns from his experience with his Uncle Poxl's memoir in the immediate aftermath? How does that understanding change after years of reflection?
3. What roles does art play in Poxl's life, specifically his admiration for Egon Schiele and William Shakespeare? How do you think Poxl's love of the arts shapes Eli's perception of him?
4. How does Poxl's knowledge of his mother's infidelities affect his view of her? How does it affect his views of his father? Do his judgments change after he begins to suspect their fates? How does he feel about the actions he's taken toward them?
5. Do you think Poxl's parents' relationship affected his own relationships with women? How?
6. Who do you think was Poxl's great love? What role did Francoise serve in his life? Glynnis? Victoria? How does each intimate relationship affect subsequent relationships in this life?
7. Eli says of himself that he was not drawn to learning about his Jewish heritage as a boy. What about Poxl's stories captures his interest? Was Poxl's wartime experience as a Jewish refugee who fights militarily against the Nazi invasion different than other Jewish experiences you've read before? How?
8. How did you feel about the ending? Would you call it happy?
9. Can a memoir ever be considered strictly nonfiction? Or does autobiographical recollection always possess a level of fiction,regardless of the factual foundation?
10. This novel alternates between two coming-of-age narratives: Eli's reflections and Poxl's memoir, inviting comparisons between both their experiences of adolescence? How are they similar? How do they differ? Do you like novels composed of two different stories or perspectives?
11. Half of the novel takes place in 1940s Europe, and the other half in Boston in the 1980s and '90s. Was there a time period or section that you preferred? Why?
12. How does Skylock, as a book-within-a-book, affect your reading? What is your experience of returning to the Eli sections after long periods in Poxl's head?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Paris Architect
Charles Belfoure, 2015
Sourcebooks
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781402294150
Summary
A beautiful and elegant account of an ordinary man's unexpected and reluctant descent into heroism during the second world war. —Malcolm Gladwell
In 1942 Paris, gifted architect Lucien Bernard accepts a commission that will bring him a great deal of money—and maybe get him killed. But if he's clever enough, he'll avoid any trouble.
All he has to do is design a secret hiding place for a wealthy Jewish man, a space so invisible that even the most determined German officer won't find it. He sorely needs the money, and outwitting the Nazis who have occupied his beloved city is a challenge he can't resist.
But when one of his hiding spaces fails horribly, and the problem of where to hide a Jew becomes terribly personal, Lucien can no longer ignore what's at stake. The Paris Architect asks us to consider what we owe each other, and just how far we'll go to make things right.
Written by an architect whose knowledge imbues every page, this story becomes more gripping with every soul hidden and every life saved. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1954
• Where—suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland, USA
• Education—Pratt Institute; Columbia Univeristy
• Awards—from the Maryland Historical Trust (see below)
• Currently—lives in Westminster, Maryland
An architect and architectural consultant by profession, Charles Belfoure's area of specialty is historic preservation. He graduated from the Pratt Institute and Columbia University and has taught at Pratt, as well as at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.
Belfoure has published several architectural histories, winning multiple awards from the Maryland Historical Trust, as well as a Graham Foundation Grant for research. Those works include Monuments to Money: The Architecture of American Banks (2011) and Edmund Lind: Anglo-American Architect of Baltimore and the South (2009). He is the co-author of Niernsee & Neilson, Architects of Baltimore (2006) and The Baltimore Rowhouse (2001).
The Paris Architect (2015) is Belfoure's foray into fiction.
In addition to his books, Belfoure has been a freelance writer for the Baltimore Sun and New York Times. He lives in Maryland. (Adapted from the publisher and the author's website.)
Book Reviews
All novelists are architects. But are all architects novelists? Charles Belfoure in his impressive debut seems to have brought us the best of both worlds. Here is a novel to read alongside the latest Alan Furst. I hope there will be more.
Alan Cheuse - NPR
Architect and debut author Belfoure's portrayal of Vichy France is both disturbing and captivating, and his beautiful tale demonstrates that while human beings are capable of great atrocities, they have a capacity for tremendous acts of courage as well.
Library Journal
A thrilling debut novel of World War II Paris, from an author who's been called "an up and coming Ken Follett".... There's plenty of detail to interest architecture buffs, too.
Booklist
During the Nazi occupation of Paris, an architect devises ingenious hiding places for Jews.... [A]rchitectural and historical details are closely rendered, while the characters are mostly sketchy stereotypes.... [S]trictly workmanlike prose. [But ] as the tension increases, the most salient virtue of this effort—the expertly structured plot—emerges.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Why did the majority of people in France refuse to help the Jews during World War II?
2. In the beginning of the novel, Lucien didn’t care about what happened to the Jews. Discuss how his character evolved throughout the novel. How did your opinion of him change?
3. The Germans were disgusted that the French always informed on one another during the Occupation. Would you assume that this is a common war practice? Why? In what ways does war bring out the worst in people? In what ways does it bring out the best in people?
4. Many spouses abandoned each other because one was Jewish. What did you think when Juliette Trenet’s husband left her? Is there any defense for what he did?
5. One reason Lucien helped Jews was to get architectural commissions from Manet. Did you agree with the French Resistance? Did Lucien’s love of design and the need to prove his talent cross the line into collaboration with the enemy?
6. Most fiction and films portray Nazis as monsters during World War II. Do you believe that some German military men secretly hated or doubted what they were doing? Does following the crowd make these men just as bad as those who carried out their duties without conscience?
7. Discuss the unusual relationship between Lucien and Herzog. Can two men from warring countries be friends?
8. Lucien was already taking an enormous risk by hiding Jews for Manet; why do you think he agreed to take in Pierre?
9. What was your impression of Father Jacques? What kind of role do you think faith plays throughout the novel?
10. Adele had no qualms about sleeping with the enemy. Why would she take such a risk?
11. Bette could have her pick of men but chose Lucien. Discuss what made him special in her eyes. What are the most important qualities you look for in a friend/significant other? Would you be willing to compromise on any of these qualities? For what?
12. If you were a gentile living under the Nazis in World War II, do you think you would have had the courage to hide Jews? What consequences are you willing to face to help others?
13. It’s easy to say, knowing what we do about the horrors that occurred during WWII, that we would have helped Jews with nowhere to hide. How do you think you’d react if a similar situation occurred today? Do you think it’s even possible for a similar situation to occur in our day and age? Why? Why not?
14. Suppose you had been taken from your apartment by Captain Bruckner and lined up in the street. If you knew your life was about to end, what would you be thinking about?
15. If you were under the stairs in the Geibers’ place during the Gestapo’s search, how would you have reacted?
16. Schlegal was disappointed that the people he tortured always talked. What do you think were the motivations behind someone who talked and someone who didn’t? If you were in a situation where someone was trying to get information from you, what would be the final straw to make you talk?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Cold Cold Heart
Tami Hoag, 2015
Penguin Publishing Group
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525954545
Summary
Dana Nolan was a promising young TV reporter until a notorious serial killer tried to add her to his list of victims. Nearly a year has passed since she survived her ordeal, but the physical, emotional, and psychological scars run deep.
Struggling with the torment of post-traumatic stress syndrome, plagued by flashbacks and nightmares, Dana returns to her hometown in an attempt to begin to put her life back together. But home doesn’t provide the comfort she expects.
Dana’s harrowing story and her return to small-town life have rekindled police and media interest in the unsolved case of her childhood best friend, Casey Grant, who disappeared without a trace the summer after their graduation from high school.
Terrified of truths long buried, Dana reluctantly begins to look back at her past. Viewed through the dark filter of PTSD, old friends and loved ones become suspects and enemies. Questioning everything she knows, refusing to be defined by the traumas of her past, Dana seeks out a truth that may prove too terrible to be believed. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 20, 1959
• Where—Cresco, Iowa, USA
• Raised—Harmony, Minnesota
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in Malibu, California, and Wellington, Florida
Tami Hoag is an American novelist, best known for her work in the romance and thriller genres. More than 22 million copies of her books are in print.
Early years
Hoag was born in Cresco, Iowa and raised in the small town of Harmony, Minnesota. Because her siblings were more than ten years older than she, and there were not a lot of other children nearby, Hoag developed an active imagination, making up stories to entertain herself.
In 1977 she married her high school sweetheart, Daniel Hoag, shortly before he finished college. However, she never had the opportunity to go to college herself, as they moved to a town without easy access to higher education. The couple were later divorced.
Before publishing her first novel, Hoag held varying jobs, including a stint as a photographer's assistant, training show horses, working at the circulation desk at a newspaper, and even selling designer bathroom accessories.
Writing career
She began her career as an author in 1988, writing category romances for the Bantam Books Loveswept Line. After several years of success in that field, Hoag switched her focus to single-title suspense novels. She has had fifteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers, including five in a 20-month span. Her novel Night Sins became a TV miniseries starring Valerie Bertinelli and Harry Hamlin. Hoag has been invited to do a reading at one of Barbara Bush's literacy functions, and then had lunch with former President George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Bush at their home.
Hoag and three other authors who made the leap from romance to thrillers at roughly the same time (Eileen Dreyer, Elizabeth Grayson and Kimberly Cates) have formed a group they call the Divas. The group provides support and encouragement for each other, and Hoag often thanks them in the acknowledgement section of her books.
Personal
Hoag currently lives in Malibu, California, and Wellington, Florida. She owns horses and often goes for a ride to combat writer's block. She has competed in dressage at a national level, but stopped competing after breaking five vertebrae in her back during a fall while trying out a horse for a friend. Hoag is fully recovered from her accident, and has returned to the competition arena. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 3/24/2015.)
Book Reviews
Ms. Hoag weaves the intensifying plot in Cold Cold Heart with the expertise of a master seamstress blind stitching the facts, moving through multiple characters' voices, taking readers on a journey into the inner depths of her characters' minds, and in Hoag style, deliveri
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Chilling and satisfying.
People
An unforgettable read.
RT Book Reviews
Dana Nolan, the heroine of this chilling psychological thriller from bestseller Hoag...was captured by the serial killer known as Doc Holiday, who tortured and raped her. Dana managed to escape her tormentor, but she suffers from PTSD as well as a traumatic brain injury.... Hoag fans will appreciate the cameo appearances of detectives Nikki Liska and Sam Kovac from earlier books.
Publishers Weekly
TV news reporter Dana Nolan, who escaped from a serial killer, still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Is that why everyone looks suspect when she reopens the investigation of her best friend's disappearance after high school graduation?
Library Journal
[T]alented young newscaster Dana Nolan is left to navigate a psychological maze after escaping a serial killer.... Tense, tightly woven, with every minor character...ratcheting up the tension, Hoag's narrative explodes with an unexpected but believable conclusion. A top-notch psychological thriller.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The prologue of Cold Cold Heart opens with a chilling scene as Dana is poised to try and fight her captor for her life. Imagine yourself in that situation. Do you think you could summon the courage to do what she did? Do some people have more of a survivor’s instinct than others?
2. As the only surviving victim of a serial killer, Dana’s scars are both physical and emotional. Consider the differences between the two types of pain. Which would be the worst for you to live with? How would you cope with each?
3. In chapter 1 Dr. Rutten explains Dana’s brain injury to her mother, saying every brain is different but there’s one thing he does know to be true in every case: "the person you love will be changed from this, and that will be the hardest thing of all to accept." This indeed plays out throughout the novel. Discuss old Dana and new Dana.
4. Dana’s mom and stepdad deal with Dana’s ordeal and recovery in very different ways. Discuss their coping mechanisms, both healthy and unhealthy. Does one deal better than the other?
5. Tami Hoag never goes into too much detail about what happened to Dana during her captivity. Why do you think that is?
6. When Dana’s brain injury results in memory loss she must learn about her best friend’s disappearance all over again, essentially reliving it. Can you imagine having to relive a traumatic event all over again and experience it anew?
7. How does Dana’s perception of her teenage self differ from how others viewed her at that time? Are you the same person you were in high school? How would someone perceive you differently today from your teenage self?
8. If you were the victim of a horrific crime would you want to remember what happened?
9. Discuss John Villante. Do you find him to be a sympathetic character?
10. What about Tim Carver? Did your opinion of him evolve as the story went on?
11. Discuss post-traumatic stress disorder and the different ways Dana and John both experience it. Do any of the other characters exhibit signs of PTSD?
12. How is the stray dog an important figure in the story? What effect does the dog have on John and his life?
13. What were your thoughts about Dan Hardy when he was first introduced into the story? Did those thoughts evolve?
14. John Villante has a complex relationship and history with his father. Dana has difficulty in her present-day relationship with her stepfather. Discuss the father/child dynamics and how the parents’ lives impact their children’s lives in this story.
15. Through the tragedy of Dana’s experience, she gets an opportunity to reinvent her life. If you could reimagine your life, would you do things differently?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Siege Winter
Ariana Franklin and Samantha Norman, 2015
HarperCollins
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062282569
Summary
A powerful historical novel by the late Ariana Franklin and her daughter Samantha Norman, The Siege Winter is a tour de force mystery and murder, adventure and intrigue, a battle for a crown, told by two courageous young women whose fates are intertwined in twelfth century England’s devastating civil war.
1141. England is engulfed in war as King Stephen and his cousin, the Empress Matilda, vie for the crown. In this dangerous world, not even Emma, an eleven-year-old peasant, is safe. A depraved monk obsessed with redheads kidnaps the ginger-haired girl from her village and leaves her for dead. When an archer for hire named Gwyl finds her, she has no memory of her previous life.
Unable to abandon her, Gwyl takes the girl with him, dressing her as a boy, giving her a new name—Penda—and teaching her to use a bow. But Gwyn knows that the man who hurt Penda roams free, and that a scrap of evidence she possesses could be very valuable.
Gwyl and Penda make their way to Kenilworth, a small but strategically important fortress that belongs to fifteen-year-old Maud. Newly wedded to a boorish and much older husband after her father’s death, the fierce and determined young chatelaine tempts fate and Stephen’s murderous wrath when she gives shelter to the empress.
Aided by a garrison of mercenaries, including Gwyl and his odd red-headed apprentice, Maud will stave off Stephen’s siege for a long, brutal winter that will bring a host of visitors to Kenilworth—kings, soldiers...and a sinister monk with deadly business to finish. (From the publisher.)
Author Bios
Diana Norman (aka Ariana Franklin)
• Birth—August 25, 1933
• Where—London, England, UK
• Death—January 27, 2011
• Where—London, England
• Awards—British Crime Writers' Assn. Historical Dagger Award
Diana Norman was a British author and journalist. She is well known for her historical crime fiction, written under the pen name Ariana Franklin.
Personal
Norman was born Mary Diana Narracott. She lived in London until World War II when her family moved her to Devon to escape the blitz. Her father wrote for the (London) Times, and although she lacked formal education—she left school at 15—she followed in his journalistic footsteps. At 17 she returned to London to work for a local newspaper in the East End.
At 20 Norman was hired by the Daily Herald, becoming the youngest reporter on Fleet Street. She covered royal visits, war exercises with the Royal Marines (she wore camouflage), and an occasional murder.
In 1957 she married a fellow journalist, Barry Norman, now a well-known media personality and film critic for the BBC. The couple raised two daughters. Their marriage is the subject of a 2013 memoir published by Barry, See You in the Morning.
Writing
After becoming a mother Norman gave up journalism and devoted herself full-time to writing, first medieval history and later historical fiction. Her first book, nonfiction, came out in 1963: The Stately Ghosts of England. Two more nonfiction works followed—Road from Singapore (1970) and Terrible Beauty: Life of Constance Markievicz, 1868–1927 (1987).
In 1980 Nornam turned to historical novels, still writing under her own name, Diana Norman. Her first novel, Fitzempress' Law, set in Henry II's reign, came out in 1980, and she followed it with 10 more.
In 2006, with City of Shadows, she began writing under the name Ariana Franklin, eventually publishing seven Franklin books, three of which featured the fictional medieval pathologist, Adelia Aguilar. Mistress of the Art of Death, published in 2007, won the British Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger Award for the year's best historical crime novel. Her final work, The Siege Winter, a stand alone, was written with her daughter Samantha Norman; it was published posthumously in 2015.
Norman died in 2011 after a long illness from vasculitis, a rare autoimmune disease. (Adapted from The Guardian obituary and from Wikipedia. Both sources accessed 3/23/2015.)
Samanatha Norman
• Birth—December 28, 1962
• Where—Datchworth, Hertfordshire, England, UK
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in London, England
Samantha Norman began working life in publishing as a junior editor in children's books before moving in to freelance journalism. She became variously a boxing correspondent, feature writer, travel writer, theatre critic, film critic and showbusiness columnist for most national newspapers and magazines before falling in to television where she worked as a presenter for many years. Nowadays, as well as writing, she is an interviewer for Celebrity Productions, specifically their Audience With ... series.
She completed The Siege Winter, a historical thriller written by her mother Diana Norman, aka Ariana Franklin. The book was published in 2015, four years after her mother's death in January, 2011 (see above). According to an interview with Bookish, Norman credited her mother for teaching her how to write:
Shortly after leaving university, I found myself in a rather dull office job with the ambition—although, alas, not the opportunity—to become a journalist. As in all times of crisis, I went home to mum—a trained journalist herself—who sat down with me and patiently taught me how to research a subject, conduct an interview, and craft a story. Under her tutelage I went on to have the most wonderful career traveling the world and visiting extraordinary places to interview remarkable people.
(Author bio adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Readers will note Franklin’s hand in the storytelling and see the freshness Norman brings to the tale, filled with fascinating characters who drive the plot as much as the tempestuous backdrop. With its bit of intrigue, historical setting and lovely characters, readers will be captivated by this compelling tale.
Historical Novels Review
(Starred review.) Norman ably fills the hole in historical fiction left by the death of her late mother, Franklin by bringing the author's final manuscript to fruition with aplomb.... Norman and Franklin excel at showing how the war impacts everyone in this richly researched, female-driven historical mystery. —Liza Oldham, Beverly, MA
Library Journal
Franklin and Norman draw a tale of intrigue and violence from the Anarchy, the 12th-century struggle over the right to rule England between Stephen of Blois and Empress Matilda.... [A] thoroughly captivating tale.
Kirkus Reviews
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)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, use our generic mystery questions.)
GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they more one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you, the reader, begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers are skillful at hiding clues in plain sight. How well does the author hide the clues in this work?
4. Does the author use red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray?
5. Talk about plot's twists & turns—those surprising developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray. Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense? Are they plausible? Or do the twists & turns feel forced and preposterous—inserted only to extend the story.
6. Does the author ratchet up the story's suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? How does the author build suspense?
7. What about the ending—is it satisfying? Is it probable or believable? Does it grow out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 2). Or does the ending come out of the blue? Does it feel forced...tacked-on...or a cop-out? Or perhaps it's too predictable. Can you envision a better, or different, ending?
8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?
(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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