The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike Series, 1)
Robert Galbraith / J.K. Rowling, 2013
Little, Brown & Co.
464 pp.
ISBN-13: 970316206853
Summary
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.
Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier.
The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.
You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.
Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Aka—Robert Galbraith
• Birth—July 31, 1965
• Where—Chipping Sodbury near Bristol, England, UK
• Education—Exeter University
• Awards—3 Nestle Smarties Awards; British Book Award-Children's Book of the Year; British Book Awards- Author of the Year; British Book Awards- Book of the Year.
• Currently—lives in Perthshire, Scotland and London, England.
Joanne "Jo" Rowling, better known under the pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived while on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies, and been the basis for a popular series of films.
Rowling is perhaps equally famous for her "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on welfare to multi-millionaire status within five years. As of March 2010, when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling's net worth to be $1 billion. The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($798 million), ranking her as the twelfth richest woman in Great Britain. Forbes ranked Rowling as the forty-eighth most powerful celebrity of 2007, and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom.
She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, and the Children's High Level Group.
Early years
Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling (nee Volant), on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, 10 miles (16.1 km) northeast of Bristol. The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four. She attended St Michael's Primary School, a school founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce. (The school's headmaster has been suggested as the inspiration for Harry Potter's Albus Dumbledore).
As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories, which she would read to her sister. "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it. Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called "Rabbit." He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee." When she was a young teenager, her great aunt gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels. Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling subsequently read all of her books.
She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother, Anne, had worked as a technician in the Science Department. Rowling has said of her adolescence, "Hermione [A bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth owned a turquoise Ford Anglia, which she says inspired the one in her books. "Ron Weasley [Harry Potter's best friend] isn't a living portrait of Sean, but he really is very Sean-ish."
Rowling read for a BA in French and Classics at the University of Exeter. After a year of study in Paris, Rowling moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International.
In 1990, while she was on a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry "came fully formed" into her mind. When she had reached her Clapham Junction flat, she began to write immediately. In December of that same year, Rowling’s mother died, after a ten-year battle with multiple sclerosis, a death that heavily affected her writing: she introduced much more detail about Harry's loss in the first book, because she knew about how it felt.
Rowling then moved to Porto, Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. While there she married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes in 1992. Their child, Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes (named after Jessica Mitford), was born in 1993 in Portugal. The couple separated in November 1993. In December 1993, Rowling and her daughter moved to be near her sister in Edinburgh, Scotland. During this period Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression, which brought her the idea of Dementors, soul-sucking creatures introduced in the third book.
After Jessica's birth and the separation from her husband, Rowling had left her teaching job in Portugal. In order to teach in Scotland she would need a postgraduate certificate of education (PGCE), requiring a full-time, year-long course of study. She began this course in August 1995, after completing her first novel while having survived on state welfare support.
She wrote in many cafes, especially Nicolson's Cafe, whenever she could get Jessica to fall asleep. As she stated on the American TV program A&E Biography, one of the reasons she wrote in cafes was not because her flat had no heat, but because taking her baby out for a walk was the best way to make her fall asleep.
Harry Potter books
In 1995, Rowling finished her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on an old manual typewriter. The book was submitted to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected the manuscript. A year later she was finally given the green light (and a £1500 advance) by Bloomsbury, a small British publishing house in London, England. The decision to publish Rowling's book apparently owes much to Alice Newton, the eight-year-old daughter of Bloomsbury’s chairman, who was given the first chapter to review by her father and immediately demanded the next.
Although Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book, her editor Barry Cunningham says that he advised Rowling to get a day job, since she had little chance of making money in children’s books. Soon after, in 1997, Rowling received an £8000 grant from the Scottish Arts Council to enable her to continue writing. The following spring, an auction was held in the United States for the rights to publish the novel, and was won by Scholastic Inc., for $105,000. Rowling has said she “nearly died” when she heard the news.
In June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher’s Stone with an initial print-run of 1000 copies, five hundred of which were distributed to libraries. Today, such copies are valued between £16,000 and £25,000. Five months later, the book won its first award, a Nestle Smarties Book Prize. In February, the novel won the prestigious British Book Award for Children’s Book of the Year, and later, the Children’s Book Award. Its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published in July, 1998.
In December 1999, the third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, won the Smarties Prize, making Rowling the first person to win the award three times running. She later withdrew the fourth Harry Potter novel from contention to allow other books a fair chance. In January 2000, Prisoner of Azkaban won the inaugural Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year award, though it lost the Book of the Year prize to Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf.
The fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was released simultaneously in the UK and the US on 8 July 2000, and broke sales records in both countries. Some 372,775 copies of the book were sold in its first day in the UK, almost equalling the number Prisoner of Azkaban sold during its first year. In the US, the book sold three million copies in its first 48 hours, smashing all literary sales records. Rowling admitted that she had had a moment of crisis while writing the novel; "Halfway through writing Four, I realised there was a serious fault with the plot....I've had some of my blackest moments with this book..... One chapter I rewrote 13 times, though no-one who has read it can spot which one or know the pain it caused me." Rowling was named author of the year in the 2000 British Book Awards.
A wait of three years occurred between the release of Goblet of Fire and the fifth Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This gap led to press speculation that Rowling had developed writer's block, speculations she fervently denied. Rowling later admitted that writing the book was a chore. "I think Phoenix could have been shorter", she told Lev Grossman, "I knew that, and I ran out of time and energy toward the end."
The sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was released on 16 July 2005. It too broke all sales records, selling nine million copies in its first 24 hours of release. While writing, she told a fan online, "Book six has been planned for years, but before I started writing seriously I spend two months re-visiting the plan and making absolutely sure I knew what I was doing." She noted on her website that the opening chapter of book six, which features a conversation between the Minister of Magic and the British Prime Minister, had been intended as the first chapter first for Philosopher's Stone, then Chamber of Secrets then Prisoner of Azkaban. In 2006, Half-Blood Prince received the Book of the Year prize at the British Book Awards.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in July, 2007, (0:00 BST) and broke its predecessor's record as the fastest-selling book of all time. It sold 11 million copies in the first day of release in the United Kingdom and United States. She has said that the last chapter of the book was written "in something like 1990", as part of her earliest work on the entire series. During a year period when Rowling was completing the last book, she allowed herself to be filmed for a documentary which aired in Britain on ITV on 30 December 2007. It was entitled J K Rowling... A Year In The Life and showed her returning to her old Edinburgh tenement flat where she lived, and completed the first Harry Potter book. Re-visiting the flat for the first time reduced her to tears, saying it was "really where I turned my life around completely."
Harry Potter is now a global brand worth an estimated £7 billion ($15 billion), and the last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history. The series, totalling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages.
The Harry Potter books have also gained recognition for sparking an interest in reading among the young at a time when children were thought to be abandoning books for computers and television, although the series' overall impact on children's reading habits has been questioned.
Life after Harry Potter
Forbes has named Rowling as the first person to become a U.S.-dollar billionaire by writing books, the second-richest female entertainer and the 1,062nd richest person in the world. When first listed as a billionaire by Forbes in 2004, Rowling disputed the calculations and said she had plenty of money, but was not a billionaire. In addition, the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List named Rowling the 144th richest person in Britain. In 2001, Rowling purchased a luxurious nineteenth-century estate house, Killiechassie House, on the banks of the River Tay, near Aberfeldy, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Rowling also owns a home in Merchiston, Edinburgh, and a £4.5 million ($9 million) Georgian house in Kensington, West London, (on a street with 24-hour security).
On 26 December 2001, Rowling married Neil Michael Murray (born 30 June 1971), an anaesthetist, in a private ceremony at her Aberfeldy home. Their son was born in 2003 and a daughter in 2005.
In the UK, Rowling has received honorary degrees from St Andrews University, the University of Edinburgh, Napier University, the University of Exeter and the University of Aberdeen; and in the US, from Harvard. She has been awarded the Légion d'honneur by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. (During the Elysée Palace ceremony, she revealed that her maternal French grandfather had also received the Légion d'honneur for his bravery during World War I.) According to Matt Latimer, a former White House administrator for President George W. Bush, Rowling was turned down for the Presidential Medal of Freedom because administration officials believed that the Harry Potter series promoted witchcraft.
Subsequent writing
Rowling has stated that she plans to continue writing, preferably under a pseudonym. In 2012, however, under her own name, she published her first novels for adults, The Casual Vacancy. Although she "thinks it's unlikely" that she will write another Harry Potter, an "encyclopedia" of wizarding along with unpublished notes may be published sometime in the future.
Using the pen name "Robert Galbraith," Rowling published The Cuckoo's Calling in 2013. It reached the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list within weeks. (Adapted from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Robert Galbraith has written a highly entertaining book... Even better, he has introduced an appealing protagonist in Strike, who's sure to be the star of many sequels to come.... its narrative moves forward with propulsive suspense. More important, Strike and his now-permanent assistant, Robin (playing Nora to his Nick, Salander to his Blomkvist), have become a team - a team whose further adventures the reader cannot help eagerly awaiting.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
[Rowling's] literary gift is on display in this work. She crafts an entertaining story [and] comes up with an ending that I'll admit I was surprised by. . . . A fun read, with a main character you can care about and one you'll want to see again in other adventures.
Washington Post
It's really, really good - beautifully written with a terrific plot ... It's a terrific read, gripping, original and funny ... Please, please give us more of Robert Galbraith and Cormoran Strike. I can't wait for the next.
Richard & Judy - Daily Express (UK)
In a rare feat, the pseudonymous Galbraith combines a complex and compelling sleuth and an equally well-formed and unlikely assistant with a baffling crime in his stellar debut.... [John Bristow] asks Strike to look into the putative suicide of his adopted, mixed-race sister, supermodel Lula Landry.... The methodical Strike and the curious Ellacott work their way through a host of vividly drawn suspects and witnesses toward an elegant solution.
Publishers Weekly
Lula Landry, a celebrity model rumored to have a drug problem, falls to her death one snowy night.... Lula's brother asks struggling London PI Cormoran Strike to investigate. Cormoran knows what he's up against: the rich are famously good at blockading information sharing.... Laden with plenty of twists and distractions, this debut ensures that readers will be puzzled and totally engrossed for quite a spell.
Library Journal
London PI Cormoran Strike’s....childhood acquaintance asks him to investigate his supermodel sister’s apparent suicide.... Galbraith nimbly sidesteps celebrity superficiality, instead exploring the ugly truths in Lula’s six degrees of separation.... Kate Atkinson’s fans will appreciate [Stirke's] reliance on deduction and observation along with Galbraith’s skilled storytelling. —Christine Tran
Booklist
Murderous muggles are up to no good, and it's up to a seemingly unlikely hero to set things right. The big news surrounding this pleasing procedural is that Galbraith, reputed former military policeman and security expert, is none other than J. K. Rowling.... The trope of rumpled detective and resourceful Girl Friday is an old one, of course, but Rowling dusts it off and makes it new.... A quick, fun read. Rowling delivers a set of characters every bit as durable as her Potter people, and a story that, though no more complex than an Inspector Lewis episode, works well on every level.
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)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for The Cuckoo's Calling:
1. What do you think of Cormoran Strike What are his secrets...and what drives him in the dogged pursuit of the Truth?
2. What makes Lulu Landry's apparent suicide suspicious? Lulu's character is gradually revealed and the story progresses. What kind of person was she?
3. How does the author portray the culture—and the characters—of worlds of fashion world and the very rich?
4. Using a hard-bitten investigator assisted by an young, ambitious "Girl Friday" is a classic detective-story trope. What do you think of Robin Ellacott? What does her character bring to the story?
5. Good mystery writing leads readers astray with red-herrings. Who were you first suspicious of?
6. Does the fact that the book was penned by J.K. Rowling affect you view of it? "In speculating as to why J.K. Rowling might have written The Cuckoo's Calling under a pseudonym, the New York Times wrote, "Ms. Rowling may well have felt that the reaction, both critical and commercial [to Casual Vacancy, her first effort after Harry Potter], was distorted by her fame." Why do you think she felt compelled to use a pseudonym? If you've read her Harry Potter books, do you detect any similarities, either in style or structure?
7. Were you surprised by the ending? Or did you see it coming? Why...or why not?
8. It appears that Strike may be part of an ongoing series. Will you be reading more of his escapades?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Gravity of Birds
Tracy Guzeman, 2013
Simon & Schuster
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451689761
Summary
How do you find someone who wants to be lost?
Sisters Natalie and Alice Kessler were close, until adolescence wrenched them apart. Natalie is headstrong, manipulative—and beautiful; Alice is a dreamer who loves books and birds.
During their family’s summer holiday at the lake, Alice falls under the thrall of a struggling young painter, Thomas Bayber, in whom she finds a kindred spirit. Natalie, however, remains strangely unmoved, sitting for a family portrait with surprising indifference. But by the end of the summer, three lives are shattered.
Decades later, Bayber, now a reclusive, world-renowned artist, unveils a never-before-seen work, Kessler Sisters—a provocative painting depicting the young Thomas, Natalie, and Alice. Bayber asks Dennis Finch, an art history professor, and Stephen Jameson, an eccentric young art authenticator, to sell the painting for him. That task becomes more complicated when the artist requires that they first locate Natalie and Alice, who seem to have vanished. And Finch finds himself wondering why Thomas is suddenly so intent on resurrecting the past.
In The Gravity of Birds histories and memories refuse to stay buried; in the end only the excavation of the past will enable its survivors to love again. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Tracy Guzeman lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work has appeared in Gulf Coast, Vestal Review, and Glimmer Train Stories. The Gravity of Birds is her first novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
If literary fiction is on the verge of extinction...Tracy Guzeman's The Gravity of Birds ought to inspire new hope for an endangered species. With its deft interweaving of psychological complexity and riveting narrative momentum, with its gorgeous prose and poetic justice, Guzeman's book is about sibling rivalry, tragedies, and resurrections. And it's irresistibly exquisite.
San Francisco Chronicle
The captivating prose of Tracy Guzeman’s first novel instantly pulls you into the lives of the Kessler sisters, Alice and Natalie, and their intertwined love story with Thomas Bayber, an attractive young artist. Forty years later, as Bayber lies dying, he sends two trusted, but disparate, colleagues to find a missing painting that the Kessler sisters possess. Clandestine love affairs, painterly clues and a world of untruths come seamlessly together in this exceptional debut.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
A compelling debut....This book is about details and secrets—and possessing the perceptiveness to notice how details can reveal secrets....Guzeman creates flesh-and-blood characters that readers come to care about.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
In this richly textured novel, two young sisters encounter art and their sensuality under the watchful gaze of a seductive painter. Forty-four years later, when a never-before-seen portrait of them is unveiled, a complex web of jealousy and heartache is exposed.
Oprah Magazine
In this riveting debut novel, a famous artist-recluse unveils a 40-year-old painting never shown before, then sends collectors on a scavenger hunt to locate two teenage girls who posed for him, but disappeared decades ago.
Good Housekeeping
Talented...ncredibly assured...her cast of endearing eccentrics and her stellar prose will win a loyal audience.
Booklist
When Thomas Bayber...runs into the Kessler sisters during a 1963 summer vacation, he unknowingly seals all their fates.... The narrative shifts to 2007.... [with Bayber] unveiling a portrait....based on that long-ago Kessler sketch.... [It] is part of a triptych: There are two other panels out there somewhere…but where?... At times burdened by overblown prose and the weight of its own ambitions, this novel exhibits, particularly in characterization and dialogue, glimmers of genius.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Reread “No Voyage” by Mary Oliver, the poem that opens the novel. Alice puzzles over this poem at the beginning of the story, trying to understand the “secrets in the lines.” (p. 9) How do you interpret the poem? Now that you have read the novel, think about the poem in the context of the characters and their situations. How would young Alice relate to these verses? How would Alice feel differently about the poem as an older woman?
2. When Alice stops by to see Thomas at his lake house, she decides: “This place was like Thomas…flawed and sad, yet perfectly true.” (p. 19) Look back at a description of each place. How do the various settings throughout the novel reflect the people who occupy them? Are the characters able to leave their pasts behind by relocating? Discuss how settings, particularly homes, preserve memories and emotions.
3. Thomas tells Alice that the job of an artist is “to make people look at things—not just at things, but at people and at places—in a way other than they normally would. To expose what’s hidden below the surface.” (p. 20) How does Thomas achieve this in his paintings of the Kesslers?
4. Alice suffers from rheumatoid arthritis for the majority of her life, and the illness almost becomes its own character with an active role in the story. Other than its obvious role in restricting Alice’s physical abilities, how else does Alice’s illness affect her life as well as the lives of the people around her?
5. The story is told from multiple perspectives: Alice, Finch, and Stephen, but never Natalie or Thomas. Discuss how this narrative style affected your reading experience. What does each person’s point of view contribute to the story? Why do you think the author chose to leave out the voices of Natalie and Thomas?
6. Finch and Stephen are both in the art world, but have contrasting ways of approaching art, even differing in their opinions as to the way art is best viewed: “…people go to museums to see an exhibition someone has told them they have to see. The implication being that unless they see this particular exhibition, and have the appropriate reaction to the work, they have no real appreciation for art.” (p. 173) Discuss whether the environment in which we see art influences our experience of it, and how you feel viewing art in a crowd versus viewing it in a more intimate setting.
7. Natalie and Alice have a strained, sometimes hostile relationship. Yet there are a few moments in the novel when Natalie is truly there for Alice. Explore some of the factors at play in this sibling relationship. Does Alice always deserve the reader’s sympathy? Do you think Natalie deserves Alice’s hatred? (p. 204) Does she deserve the reader’s hatred?
8. Alice is drawn to both Thomas and Phinneaus, two very different men. What does she see in each of them? Discuss how love can take many forms, and consider other instances of love between characters.
9. When Alice discovers her daughter is alive, she contemplates what it means to be a mother: “So she was someone’s mother…But evidently not the sort who would know, instinctively, her own daughter was alive.” (p. 259) What does it mean to be a mother? Do you think Alice is right to identify with Frankie’s mother?
10. Before Alice’s trip to Santa Fe, Agnete was unaware of her true past. Alice assumes that since “Natalie went to see her twice a year…Agnete must have loved her.” (p. 265) Imagine the conversation between Agnete and Alice, when Alice reveals what actually happened. Do you think Agnete tries to justify or excuse Natalie’s actions when she is talking to Stephen? If so, why? Talk about the role of forgiveness in the story.
11. Find descriptions of the Bayber lake house and compare them with Thomas’s rendering in Kessler Sisters. What elements does Thomas include and why? Dennis and Stephen infer things about the relationship between Bayber and the sisters based solely on the painting: “On canvas at least, the sisters seemed to have no connection to each other, circling in separate orbits, whether around their parents or Thomas.” (p. 298) Discuss how Dennis and Stephen interpret both the painting and the small sketch of the Kessler family. How accurate are their speculations?
12. When he needs advice or another opinion, Finch often turns to his “spiritual advisor”—his deceased wife, Claire. Do you think this is a healthy way for him to cope with her death? All of the characters in the novel experience some sort of loss, and each of them deals with it in their own way. How do different characters come to grips with loss in the novel?
13. Why do you think the title of the novel is
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Love Letters (Rose Harbor Series 3)
Debbie Macomber, 2014
Random House
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780553391138
Summary
In this enchanting novel set at Cedar Cove’s cozy Rose Harbor Inn, #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber celebrates the power of love—and a well-timed love letter—to inspire hope and mend a broken heart.
Summer is a busy season at the inn, so proprietor Jo Marie Rose and handyman Mark Taylor have spent a lot of time together keeping the property running. Despite some folks’ good-natured claims to the contrary, Jo Marie insists that Mark is only a friend.
However, she seems to be thinking about this particular friend a great deal lately. Jo Marie knows surprisingly little about Mark’s life, due in no small part to his refusal to discuss it. She’s determined to learn more about his past, but first she must face her own—and welcome three visitors who, like her, are setting out on new paths.
Twenty-three-year-old Ellie Reynolds is taking a leap of faith. She’s come to Cedar Cove to meet Tom, a man she’s been corresponding with for months, and with whom she might even be falling in love. Ellie’s overprotective mother disapproves of her trip, but Ellie is determined to spread her wings.
Maggie and Roy Porter are next to arrive at the inn. They are taking their first vacation alone since their children were born. In the wake of past mistakes, they hope to rekindle the spark in their marriage—and to win back each other’s trust. But Maggie must make one last confession that could forever tear them apart.
For each of these characters, it will ultimately be a moment when someone wore their heart on their sleeve—and took pen to paper—that makes all the difference. Debbie Macomber’s moving novel reveals the courage it takes to be vulnerable, accepting, and open to love. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 22, 1948
• Where—Yakima, Washington, USA
• Education—high school
• Awards—Quill Award; RITA and Distinguished Lifetime Achievement (Romance Writers of America)
• Currently—Port Orchard, Washington
Debbie Macomber is a best-selling American author of over 150 romance novels and contemporary women's fiction. Over 170 million copies of her books are in print throughout the world, and four have become made-for-TV-movies. Macomber was the inaugural winner of the fan-voted Quill Award for romance in 2005 and has been awarded both a Romance Writers of America RITA and a lifetime achievement award by the Romance Writers of America.
Beginning writer
Although Debbie Macomber is dyslexic and has only a high school education, she was determined to be a writer. A stay-at-home mother raising four small children, Macomber nonetheless found the time to sit in her kitchen in front of a rented typewriter and work on developing her first few manuscripts. For five years she continued to write despite many rejections from publishers, finally turning to freelance magazine work to help her family make ends meet.
With money that she saved from her freelance articles, Macomber attended a romance writer's conference, where one of her manuscripts was selected to be publicly critiqued by an editor from Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. The editor tore apart her novel and recommended that she throw it away. Undaunted, Macomber scraped together $10 to mail the same novel, Heartsong, to Harlequin's rival, Silhouette Books. Silhouette bought the book, which became the first romance novel to be reviewed by Publishers Weekly.
Career
Although Heartsong was the first of her manuscripts to sell, Starlight was the first of her novels to be published. It became #128 of the Silhouette Special Edition category romance line (now owned by Harlequin). Macomber continued to write category romances for Silhouette, and later Harlequin. In 1988, Harlequin asked Macomber to write a series of interconnected stories, which became known as the Navy series. Before long, she was selling "huge" numbers of books, usually 150,000 copies of each of her novels, and she was releasing two or three titles per year. By 1994, Harlequin launched the Mira Books imprint to help their category romance authors transition to the single title market, and Macomber began releasing single-title novels. Her first hardcover was released in 2001.
In 2002, Macomber realized that she was having more difficulty identifying with a 25-year-old heroine, and that she wanted to write books focusing more on women and their friendships. Thursdays at Eight was her first departure from the traditional romance novel and into contemporary women's fiction.
Since 1986, in most years Macomber has released a Christmas-themed book or novella. For several years, these novels were part of the Angel series, following the antics of angels Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy. Macomber, who loves Christmas, says that she writes Christmas books as well because "Every woman I know has a picture of the perfect Christmas in her mind, the same way we do romance. Reality rarely lives up to our expectations, so the best we can do is delve into a fantasy."
In general, Macomber's novels focus on delivering the message of the story and do not include detailed descriptive passages. Her heroines tend to be optimists, and the "stories are resolved in a manner that leaves the reader with a feeling of hope and happy expectation." Many of the novels take place in small, rural town, with her Cedar Cove series loosely based on her own hometown. Because of her Christian beliefs, Macomber does not include overly explicit sexual details in her books, although they do contain some sensuality.
Over 170 million copies of her books are in print throughout the world. This Matter of Marriage, became a made-for-tv movie in 1998. In 2009, Hallmark Channel broadcast "Debbie Macomber's Mrs. Miracle," their top-watched movie of the year. The next year Hallmark Channel aired "Call Me Mrs. Miracle," based on Debbie's novel of the same name, and it was the channel's highest rated movie of 2010. In 2011 Hallmark premiered "Trading Christmas," based on Debbie's novel When Christmas Comes (2004).
Debbie also now writes inspirational non-fiction. Her second cookbook, Debbie Macomber's Christmas Cookbook, and her second children's book, The Yippy, Yappy Yorkie in the Green Doggy Sweater (written with Mary Lou Carney), were released in 2012. There is also a Debbie Macomber line of knitting pattern books from Leisure Arts and she owns her own yarn store, A Good Yarn, in Port Orchard, Washington.
Now writing for Random House, Debbie published two Ballantine hardcovers in 2012, The Inn at Rose Harbor and Angels at the Table (November). The same year also saw the publication of two inspirational non-fiction hardcovers, One Perfect Word (Howard Books) and Patterns of Grace (Guideposts April). Starting Now, the ninth in her Blossom Street series, was issued in 2013.
Recognition
Macomber is a three-time winner of the B. Dalton Award, and the inaugural winner of the fan-voted Quill Award for romance (2005, for 44 Cranberry Point). She has been awarded the Romantic Times Magazine Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award and has won a Romance Writers of America RITA Award, the romance novelist's equivalent of an Academy Award, for The Christmas Basket. Her novels have regularly appeared on the Waldenbooks and USAToday bestseller lists and have also earned spots on the New York Times Bestseller List. On September 6, 2007 she made Harlequin Enterprises history, by pulling off the rarest of triple plays—having her new novel, 74 Seaside Avenue, appear at the #1 position for paperback fiction on the New York Times, USAToday and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. These three highly respected bestseller lists are considered the bellwethers for a book's performance in the United States.
She threw out the first pitch in Seattle Mariners games at Safeco Field in 2007 and 2012. The Romance Writers of America presented Debbie with their prestigious 2010 Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award.
Personal
Macomber has mentored young people, is the international spokesperson for World Vision’s Knit for Kids and serves on the Guideposts National Advisory Cabinet. She was appointed an ambassador for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America national office in 1997.
Debbie and her husband, Wayne, raised four children and have numerous grandchildren. They live in Port Orchard, Washington and winter in Florida. When not writing, she enjoys knitting, traveling with Wayne and putting on Grandma Camps for her grandchildren, for whom she has built a four-star tree house behind her home in Port Orchard. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 3/11/2015.)
Book Reviews
Prolific author Macomber’s mastery of women’s fiction is evident in her latest.... Macomber breathes life into each plotline, carefully intertwining her characters’ stories to ensure that none of them overshadow the others. Yet it is her ability to capture different facets of emotion which will entrance fans and newcomers alike.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Romance and a little mystery.... Innkeeper Jo Marie Rose is working through her grief over the loss of her husband—and...sets out to learn what she can about [Mark Taylor].... Macomber's latest...will have [fans]flipping pages until the end and eagerly anticipating the next installment. —Jane Blue, Prince William Cty. Lib. Syst., VA
Library Journal
Tensions rise when Mark discovers Jo Marie’s probing [into his past] and doesn’t like it one bit. Meanwhile, new guests arrive at the inn, bringing their own troubled pasts along with them.... As per usual, Macomber’s fans will be lining up to see what happens in this gentle and heartwarming read, and they won’t be disappointed. —Rebecca Vnuk
Booklist
[D]ud of a handyman, Mark Taylor...may be hiding a troubled past. Jo Marie's guests are in even more awkward predicaments.... Hurt feelings are mended in believable and unexpectedly uplifting ways, and a cliffhanger ending for Jo Marie begs for a swift resolution in the next book.
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.)
Cache a Predator
M. Weidenbenner, 2013
Random Publishing, LLC
264 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781490936390
Summary
Geocaching mystery about a father's love, justice, and the unhinged game of hide-the-cache.
Officer Brett Reed will do anything to gain custody of his five-year-old daughter, Quinn. But when a judge grants Brett's drug-addicted ex-wife custody and slaps him with a protective order for losing his temper, he fears for Quinn's safety. Who will protect her now?
When Quinn is found abandoned on the streets the child is placed in a temporary foster home until Child Protective Services can complete an assessment. It should only take a few days.
But a lot can happen in a few days.
Especially when there's a deranged psychopath on the loose, someone who's attacking pedophiles, someone who wants to protect children like Quinn, and someone who's planting body parts in geocaching sites. (From the author.)
Watch the video.
Author Bio
• Birth—July 1, 1957
• Where—Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.S., Taylor University
• Currently—lives in Warsaw, Indiana
Michelle is a fulltime employee of God's kingdom, writing and encouraging writers every day. She's often a sucker for emotional stories, her sensitive side fueling the passion for her character's plights, often giving her the ability to show readers the "other" side of the story. Her sensitive side hears the emotional, pain-filled stories that plague people in the world, their shouts and secrets wake her from sleep, cause her to miss turns in the road, and interrupt unrelated conversations.
She grew up in the burbs of Detroit with five brothers. No sisters. Each time her mom brought the boy bundle home Michelle cried, certain her mom liked boys better than girls. But when her brothers pitched in with the cooking, cleaning, and babysitting--without drama, Michelle discovered having brothers wasn't so bad. They even taught her how to take direct criticism without flinching, which comes in handy with book reviews.
Michelle is living her dream—writing every day and thanking God for the stories He puts in her path. When Michelle isn't writing she's winning ugly on the tennis court. She's known as "Queen of the Rim Shots." No joke. It's ugly. (From author's website.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Michelle on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Cache a Predator grabbed me from the very first chapter and into the unhinged predatory mind of a vigilante on the rampage for justice. I am a fan of SVU, Bones, and Dexter, thus this novel is right up my alley. I love the unpredictable plot and the pacing is faultless. The characterization is the best I have read so far. Mind-blowing from start to end, I finished my reading in just one sitting. I highly recommend Cache a Predator to any readers who are looking for a new, excellent crime novel that is heartrending and thought-provoking.
Lit Amri - Readers' Favorite
When a couple taking part in a geo-caching game find the box they have been lead to by following the coordinates on their GPS, they are horrified to find a body part. Thinking the find is a one off occurrence the police are not prepared for another call with the same find. Putting the pieces together the police realize the predator is targeting pedophiles.
Jodi Hanson - Chapters and Chats
From the very first chapter, I was riveted. M.Weidenbenner writes in such a way that I can't imagine how and when something more predatory than what is already happening could possibly come into this storyline, and then, all of a sudden, it's there. I'm in the middle of something way more scary and I'm terrified for more than one character. I am IN the story. Once you start reading Cache a Predator you won't stop until the end. You'll talk to the characters, telling them to do something different, or something this way or that way. You'll root for the victims, the underdogs, the perpetrator, the hero. You find yourself telling your hero or heroine to "watch out for that one." Whatever you do, you will finish it, close it, and sit still for a few minutes. Then you will be looking for more from this author!
Ebeth
Cache a Predator was intense and had real life scenarios that was truly tough to see but they where real. Abuse is real and it was very difficult to read and the author wrote with such great insight. The book was a page turner, I was truly hoping that Brett would find Quinn and that she was okay. This book is like watching Criminal Minds or Law and Order. I had a guess on who was the perpetrator but I was slightly wrong. I loved the characters especially how much of a good father Brett was. One thing that I truly appreciated was that Clay and even Brett's father were open in offering their prayers, Clay even prayed for Brett which to me was awesome because I rarely see that in the books I've been reading.
Pia Bernardino
I've never read any other book like this one, and you haven't either. Weidenbenner spins a uniquely compelling tale that is a paradoxical mix of experiences—it manages to be raw and gritty, edgy and suspenseful, warm and inspirational, and thoroughly involving from beginning to end. The characters are made of flesh and blood, and totally believable. The author writes about dark and disturbing issues with a deft and assured hand. Though parts of the book are so intense as to make a grown man squirm, Weidenbenner carries it off tastefully and without prurience.
Jim Denney
Discussion Questions
1. The vigilante in this novel was a victim of sex abuse. Do you know of someone who was abused as a child? How has the abuse affected them and those around them? Often times the victim is treated, but what about the others who are affected by the victim's experience? How does society help victims? Is it enough?
2. The vigilante likes to play games and plants the body parts in geocaching sites. Have you ever been geocaching? If so, what was the most unique item that you found? If you've never geocached before would you consider trying it with your family? Why/why not? How many cache sites do you have in your community? There are over 450 sites in Hursey Lake, Indiana. Did that seem far-fetched? How would the police in your area handle this type of situation?
3. Do you know how many sex offenders live in your city? Did you know you can look online to find a map that shows where they live, their names, and when they were convicted? Would you let this sway you from moving into your dream home if the house was near an offender?
4. We often hear of men who suffer from substance abuse, but not as many women. In your experience, does it seem like there are more mothers who are unable to cope with trying to do it all—have a career and be a great mom? Do you think there are more men who are addicts or is it that we don't hear of the women as often?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Doha 12
Lance Charnes, 2012
Wombat Group Media
420 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780988690301
Summary
Jake Eldar’s and Miriam Schaffer’s names may kill them.
Jake manages a bookstore in Brooklyn. Miriam is a secretary at a Philadelphia law firm. Both grew up in Israel and emigrated to build new lives in America. Neither knows the other exists…until the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad uses their identities in an operation to assassinate a high-ranking Hezbollah commander in Doha, Qatar.
Now Hezbollah plans to kill them both.
Jake, Miriam and ten other innocents in five countries—the Doha 12—awake to find their identities stolen and their lives caught between Mossad and Hezbollah in an international game of murder and reprisal. Jake stumbles upon Hezbollah’s plot but can't convince the police it exists. When his wife is murdered in a botched hit meant for him, Jake and Miriam try desperately to outrun and outfight their pursuers while shielding Jake's young daughter from the killers on their trail.
Hezbollah, however, has a fallback plan: hundreds of people will die if Jake and Miriam survive.
Inspired by actual events, Doha 12 will sweep you from the suburbs of Beirut and Tel Aviv to a pulse-pounding climax in the wintry streets of Manhattan as Jake and Miriam race along the thin, faded gray line between good and bad, hero and villain, truth and lies. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1960
• Where—Oakland, California, USA
• Education—B.A. University of California, Berkeley; M.S.,California State University, Long Beach
• Currently—lives in Orange County, California
Lance Charnes has been an Air Force intelligence officer, information technology manager, computer-game artist, set designer and Jeopardy! contestant, and is now an emergency management specialist. He’s had training in architectural rendering, terrorist incident response and maritime archaeology, but not all at the same time. His Facebook author page features spies, archaeology and art crime.
Lance is the author of the international thriller DOHA 12, the near-future thriller SOUTH, and the DEWITT AGENCY FILES series of international art-crime novels. All are available in trade paperback and digital editions. He's also a frequent contributor to Macmillan's Criminal Element website. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Lance on Facebook.
Book Reviews
This book does this thing that I feel all thriller books should do, and that is, be engaging within the first 20 pages…There is so much to the book. Such a rich backdrop to what is unfolding. The characters have their own backstories which are great and the scale of what is going on is amazing…These characters are humanized, and the weight of what they do is shown to weigh on them, more than in the physical manner…The treatment of life and death in the literal, figurative and spiritual sense is remarkable, as well as living in fear and allowing circumstances to leave you shortchanged.
The Review Hutch
Mr. Charnes has beaten James Patterson in all categories…The characters are ordinary people drawn from your family, your neighbors, your coworkers. There are no demigods, no super humans, no magical powers, no extraordinary luck. These are people who toil in lower to middle-income jobs reacting to danger the way you would, rising to the occasion as you would, falling apart as you would. Their emotions are deep and visceral.
Seeley James - author, The Geneva Decision
Fast-paced, action-packed thriller that takes the reader on an emotional journey across the globe. I would love to read more.
Juniper Grove
Discussion Questions
1. Doha 12 is based on an actual event in which the Mossad used the names of real dual-national Israelis during an assassination operation. What would you do if you saw your name connected to a major crime in the news? What steps would you take to protect yourself? How do you think your friends and relatives might react?
2. Jake is compelled by circumstances to give up a low-paying job he loves to take a higher-paying job he’s good at, but doesn’t like. Have you ever been placed in that position? How did your decision work out for you in the long run? Would you do the same thing again?
3. Jake hides from Rinnah the nature of the threat against them. If you knew of such a threat to your family but were helpless to protect them, would you still tell them, and what would you say? Do you believe Jake’s feelings of guilt are justified, and if so, why? What do you think Jake should have done?
4. Late in the story, Jake wonders, “What kind of father am I?” (p. 326, paperback edition). How would you answer him? What, if anything, should he have done differently with Eve?
5. Do you believe that a woman can have the attitudes Miriam does and take the actions she does, and still be “womanly” or “feminine”? Do you think she would be a good substitute mother for Eve?
6. Under the same circumstances, would you do to Ziyad what Miriam does? If not, what would you do instead? How did her actions and their consequences change your view of torture?
7. Who do you see as the villains in Doha 12: the Mossad team, Alayan’s team, al-Shami’s team, some combination, or none of them? Explain why.
8. Discuss Alayan’s motives. Do you understand how he came to be what he is? Is he a patriot, a soldier, a terrorist, or some combination? Can someone such as he be a sympathetic character? Why or why not?
9. Compare Alayan’s and al-Shami’s tactics. What moral or ethical differences can you see? How might each one’s tactics be more effective than the other’s, and how might they be less effective?
10. Gur worries whether his Mossad team is a greater threat to Jake and Miriam than Hezbollah (p. 213, paperback edition). Why do you think he has that concern, and is it justified? To what extent should Gur’s team have protected the “Doha 12,” as opposed to concentrating entirely on stopping Alayan’s team?
11. Gur and Kelila become involved during the operation. Given the circumstances and their prior (unconsummated) attraction, do you think this is realistic? Contrast this with Jake’s and Miriam’s failure to act on their growing attraction. If you found yourself drawn to someone during a high-stress situation, would you act on that attraction if it seemed likely you might not get a chance afterward? Why or why not?
12. Real-world gunfights tend to be messy, confused actions, frightening to both participants and onlookers, in which far more shots miss than hit their targets. Did the author portray this reality effectively in the action sequences? Do you find this preferable to the usual Hollywood depiction of gunfights, and why/why not?
13. Are you familiar with any of the real-world locations that appear in Doha 12? If so, do you feel the author presented them effectively and made good use of them? What other locations could the author have used to greater effect, and how might that have changed the action or the story?
14. Consider the various fates of the principal characters. Which ones ended up the way you expected? Which ones had outcomes different from what you expected? If you could change one main character’s fate, whose would it be, and what would you change?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)