Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad Series 4)
Tana French, 2012
Penguin Grouip USA
464 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780143123309
Summary
The mesmerizing fourth novel of the Dublin murder squad by New York Times bestselling author Tana French
Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, the brash cop from Tana French’s bestselling Faithful Place, plays by the book and plays hard. That’s what’s made him the Murder squad’s top detective—and that’s what puts the biggest case of the year into his hands.
On one of the half-built, half-abandoned "luxury" developments that litter Ireland, Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care.
At first, Scorcher and his rookie partner, Richie, think it’s going to be an easy solve. But too many small things can’t be explained. The half dozen baby monitors, their cameras pointing at holes smashed in the Spains’ walls. The files erased from the Spains’ computer. The story Jenny told her sister about a shadowy intruder who was slipping past all the locks.
And Broken Harbor holds memories for Scorcher. Seeing the case on the news sends his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family one summer at Broken Harbor, back when they were children.
With her signature blend of police procedural and psychological thriller, French’s new novel goes full throttle with a heinous crime, creating her most complicated detective character and her best book yet. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1973
• Where—Vermont, USA
• Education—B.A., Trinity College (Dublin)
• Awards—Edgar Award, Macavity Award, Barry Award
• Currently—lives in Dublin, Ireland
Tana French is an Irish novelist and theatrical actress. Her debut novel In the Woods (2007), a psychological mystery, won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards for best first novel. She is a liaison of the Purple Heart Theatre Company and also works in film and voiceover.
French was born in the U.S. to Elena Hvostoff-Lombardi and David French. Her father was an economist working in resource management for the developing world, and the family lived in numerous countries around the globe, including Ireland, Italy, the US, and Malawi.
French attended Trinity College, Dublin, where she was trained in acting. She ultimately settled in Ireland. Since 1990 she has lived in Dublin, which she considers home, although she also retains citizenship in the U.S. and Italy. French is married and has a daughter with her husband.
Dublin Murder Squad series
In the Woods - 2007
The Likeness - 2008
Faithful Place - 2010
Broken Harbor - 2012
The Secret Places - 2014
The Trespasser - 2016
Stand-alone mystery
The Witch Elm - 2018
(Bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/2/2014.)
Book Reviews
Tana French's devious, deeply felt psychological chiller…may sound like a routine police procedural. But like Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl…Broken Harbor is something more. It's true that Ms. French takes readers to all the familiar way stations of a murder investigation: the forensics, the autopsies, the serial interrogations and so on. But she has urgent points to make about the social and economic underpinnings of the Spain family murders. And she has irresistibly sly ways of toying with readers' expectations.
Janet Maslin - New York Times
Edgar-winner French’s eloquently slow-burning fourth Dublin murder squad novel shows her at the top of her game. In a half-built luxury development near Dublin, a family of four is attacked and left for dead, with only the mother clinging to life. For Det. Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy, introduced in 2010’s Faithful Place, this is a case that makes—or breaks—a career. With his new rookie partner, Det. Richie Curran, Mick arrives soon after Patrick Spain and his two children, six-year-old Emma and three-year-old Jack, are discovered stabbed to death in their home, while mother Jennifer is taken to the hospital. The house, one of the few completed in the Brianstown development, is a bloody mess, and suspicion immediately falls on Patrick, who recently lost his job. The recession figures prominently, as Brianstown—once known as Broken Harbor—was abandoned by contractors when money dried up. Mick’s own childhood memories of Broken Harbor are marred by tragedy and intertwined with watching over his mentally unstable sister, Dina. As usual, French excels at drawing out complex character dynamics.
Publishers Weekly
French's fourth novel about the Dublin Murder Squad (In the Woods; The Likeness; Faithful Place) opens with a gruesome triple homicide in a seaside town outside of Dublin. Patrick Spain and his two children are dead, while Spain's wife, Jennie, lands in intensive care. A by-the-book officer with a hard-nosed reputation who is saddled with a rookie partner, Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy discovers further complications when he finds suspicious surveillance equipment near the Spains' apartment. But that's not all: Mick and his troubled sister, Dina, have a disturbing history with the town of Broken Harbor—dating back to a horrific childhood experience with their mentally unstable mother. Following a pattern established with French's first and second novels, this is another "chain-linked" novel, featuring a secondary character from the previous book (in this case, Faithful Place) as the protagonist. Furthermore, French uses Ireland's current economic recession as an effective backdrop for the escalating tension and calamity within the Spain family. Verdict: French's deft psychological thriller, focusing on parallel stories of mentally ill mothers and the tragedy of depression, offers a nuanced take on family relationships that will satisfy her fans and readers of psychological thrillers and police procedurals. —Rebecca M. Marrall, Western Washington Univ. Libs., Bellingham
Library Journal
A mystery that is perfectly in tune with the times, as the ravages of the recession and the reach of the Internet complicate a murder that defies easy explanation within a seemingly loving household. The Irish author continues to distinguish herself with this fourth novel, marked by psychological acuteness and thematic depth.... The novel rewards the reader's patience: There are complications, deliberations and a riveting resolution.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. French’s protagonist, Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy, prides himself on his self–control. Is Scorcher’s self–control as strong as he imagines? In what other ways might Scorcher’s self–image be somewhat incorrect?
2. French writes with considerable affection for Ireland. However, her books often contain more than a hint of lament for the country’s recent decline. What aspects of Ireland in the present day seem to sadden her most?
3. Scorcher believes that post–modern society has begun to turn “feral” and that “everything that stops us being animals is eroding, washing away like sand” (p. 85). Do you agree with Scorcher’s assessment? Explain why or why not. How does Scorcher’s view of society dovetail with his self–image?
4. How do Scorcher’s class prejudices affect his perceptions of the Spain case? Is class bias the only reason he is so desperate to believe in the integrity of Patrick Spain?
5. The relationship between Scorcher and Richie evolves rapidly, beginning as one between an all–wise mentor and his trainee but transforming into a much more contentious one. Discuss this evolution and the ways French uses it to develop the two men’s characters.
6. Why do you think Scorcher doesn’t want to have children? Try to come up with as many plausible explanations as you can.
7. Tana French is a master of creating characters with virtues that are turned into vices by unlucky circumstances. What are some examples of this kind of characterization in Broken Harbor, and how do they act as a commentary on human nature?
8. Explaining her madness, Dina says, “There is no why.” Why is this statement especially disturbing to her brother, Scorcher?
9. How has Scorcher’s childhood shaped the person he is now?
10. How have the more youthful experiences of Conor, Pat, and Jenny shaped their characters and destinies?
11. Tana French manages the emotions of her interrogation scenes with great expertise, creating tremendous tensions and moving toward great crescendos of feeling. Read over one of these scenes and discuss how the emotional force builds, breaks, and subsides.
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn, 2012
Crown Publishing
432 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307588364
Summary
Marriage can be a real killer.
One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong.
The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around. (From the publisher.)
See the 2014 movie with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.
Listen to our Movies Meet Book Club Podcast as Hollister and O'Toole discuss book and movie.
Author Bio
• Birth—February 24, 1971
• Where—Kansas City, Missouri, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Kansas; M.A., Northwest University
• Awards—Ian Fleming Steel Daggers
• Currently—lives in Chicago, Illinois
Gillian Flynn is an American author, screenwriter, comic book writer, and former television critic for Entertainment Weekly. Her three published novels are the thrillers: Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and Gone Girl.
Early life
Flynn was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Both of her parents were professors at Metropolitan Community College–Penn Valley: her mother, Judith Ann (nee Schieber), a reading-comprehension professor; her father, Edwin Matthew Flynn, a film professor. "Painfully shy," Flynn found escape in reading and writing and watching horror movies.
Flynn attended the University of Kansas, where she received her undergraduate degrees in English and journalism. She spent two years in California writing for a trade magazine for human resources professionals before moving to Chicago where, in 1997, she earned a Master's in journalism at Northwestern University.
Career
Initially, Flynn wanted to work as a police reporter but soon discovered she had no aptitude for police reporting. She worked briefly at U.S. News & World Report before being hired as a feature writer in 1998 for Entertainment Weekly. She was promoted to television critic, writing about both tv and film.
Flynn attributes her craft to her 15-some years in journalism:
I could not have written a novel if I hadn't been a journalist first, because it taught me that there's no muse that's going to come down and bestow upon you the mood to write. You just have to do it. I'm definitely not precious.
Although Flynn considers herself a feminist, some critics accuse her of misogyny because of the unflattering depiction of female characters in her books. Yet feminism, she feels, allows for women to be bad characters in literature:
The one thing that really frustrates me is this idea that women are innately good, innately nurturing.
Flynn also said people will dismiss...
trampy, vampy, bitchy types—there's still a big pushback against the idea that women can be just pragmatically evil, bad, and selfish.
Books
Flynn began writing novels during her free time while working for Entertainment Weekly. Her three books are—
♦ Sharp Objects (2006) revolves around a serial killer in Missouri and the reporter who returns to her Missouri hometown from Chicago to cover the event. Partly inspired by Dennis Lehane's 2001 Mystic River, the book deals with dysfunctional families, violence, and self-harm. It was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar in 2007 for Best First Novel by an American Writer. It won the Crime Writers' Association "New Blood" and "Ian Fleming Steel Daggers" awards.
♦ Dark Places (2009) centers on a woman investigating her brother who was convicted in the 1980s, when she was only a child, of murdering their parents.The book explores the era's satanic rituals and was adapted into a 2015 film. Flynn makes a cameo appearance in the film.
♦ Gone Girl (2012) concerns a couple, the wife of which disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary, and her husband who comes under police scrutiny as the prime suspect.
The novel hit No. 1 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list for eight weeks. Times culture writer Dave Itzkoff wrote that the novel was, except for the Fifty Shades of Grey series, the biggest literary phenomenon of 2012. By the end of that year, Gone Girl had sold over two million copies (print and digital).
After selling the film rights for $1.5 million, Flynn wrote the Gone Girl screenplay. The 2014 film, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, was released to popular and critical acclaim.
Other writing
Flynn was an avid reader of comic and graphic novels when she was a child. She collaborated with illustrator Dave Gibbons and wrote a comic book story called "Masks," as part of the Dark Horse Presents series. It came out in 2015.
Flynn agreed to write the scripts for Utopia, an forthcoming HBO drama series adapted from the acclaimed British series Utopia. The HBO series is to be directed and executive produced by David Fincher, who also directed Gone Girl.
Personal life
She married lawyer Brett Nolan in 2007. They met through Flynn's grad school classmate at Northwestern but did not start dating until Flynn, then in her mid-30s, moved back to Chicago from New York City. The couple still resides in Chicago with their two children. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/13/2015.)
Book Reviews
Ms. Flynn's dazzling breakthrough. It is wily, mercurial, subtly layered and populated by characters so well imagined that they're hard to part with—even if, as in Amy's case, they are already departed. And if you have any doubts about whether Ms. Flynn measures up to Patricia Highsmith’s level of discreet malice, go back and look at the small details. Whatever you raced past on a first reading will look completely different the second time around.
Janet Maslin - New York Times
Ice-pick-sharp… Spectacularly sneaky… Impressively cagey… Gone Girl is Ms. Flynn’s dazzling breakthrough. It is wily, mercurial, subtly layered and populated by characters so well imagined that they’re hard to part with—even if, as in Amy’s case, they are already departed. What makes Flynn so fearless a writer is the way she strips her characters of their pretenses and shows no mercy while they squirm…Flynn dares the reader to figure out which instances of marital discord might flare into a homicidal rage.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review
Gillian Flynn's new novel, Gone Girl, is that rare thing: a book that thrills and delights while holding up a mirror to how we live… Through her two ultimately unreliable narrators, Flynn masterfully weaves the slow trickle of critical details with 90-degree plot turns… Timely, poignant and emotionally rich, Gone Girl will peel away your comfort levels even as you root for its protagonists—despite your best intuition.
San Francisco Chronicle
I picked up Gone Girl because the novel is set along the Mississippi River in Missouri and the plot sounded intriguing. I put it down two days later, bleary-eyed and oh-so-satisfied after reading a story that left me surprised, disgusted, and riveted by its twists and turns… A good story presents a reader with a problem that has to be resolved and a few surprises along the way. A great story gives a reader a problem and leads you along a path, then dumps you off a cliff and into a jungle of plot twists, character revelations and back stories that you could not have imagined. Gone Girl does just that.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Gillian Flynn's barbed and brilliant Gone Girl has two deceitful, disturbing, irresistible narrators and a plot that twists so many times you'll be dizzy. This "catastrophically romantic" story about Nick and Amy is a "fairy tale reverse transformation" that reminded me of Patricia Highsmith in its psychological suspense and Kate Atkinson in its insanely clever plotting.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
For a creepy, suspenseful mystery, Ms. Pearl suggested Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, a novel due out this week. "You will not be able to figure out the end at all. I could not sleep the night after I read it. It's really good," Ms. [Nancy] Pearl said. "It's about the way we deceive ourselves and deceive others.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Flynn’s third noir thriller recently launched to even more acclaim than the first two novels, polishing her reputation for pushing crime fiction to a new literary level and as a craftsman of deliciously twisting and twisted plots.
Kansas City Star
To call Gillian Flynn's new novel almost review-proof isn't a put-down, it's a fact. That's because to give away the turn-of-the-screw in this chilling portrait of a marriage gone wrong would be a crime. I can say that Gone Girl is an ingenious whodunit for both the Facebook generation and old-school mystery buffs. Whoever you are, it will linger, like fingerprints on a gun… Flynn's characters bloom and grow, like beautiful, poisonous plants. She is a Gothic storyteller for the Internet age.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
That adage of no one knows what goes on behind closed doors moves the plot of Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn's suspenseful psychological thriller… Flynn's unpredictable plot of Gone Girl careens down an emotional highway where this couple dissects their marriage with sharp acumen… Flynn has shown her skills at gripping tales and enhanced character studies since her debut Sharp Objects, which garnered an Edgar nod, among other nominations. Her second novel Dark Places made numerous best of lists. Gone Girl reaffirms her talent.
Oline Cogdill - South Florida Sun-Sentinel
An ingenious and viperish thriller… It’s going to make Gillian Flynn a star… The first half of Gone Girl is a nimble, caustic riff on our Nancy Grace culture and the way in which ''The butler did it'' has morphed into ''The husband did it.'' The second half is the real stunner, though. Now I really am going to shut up before I spoil what instantly shifts into a great, breathless read. Even as Gone Girl grows truly twisted and wild, it says smart things about how tenuous power relations are between men and women, and how often couples are at the mercy of forces beyond their control. As if that weren’t enough, Flynn has created a genuinely creepy villain you don't see coming. People love to talk about the banality of evil. You’re about to meet a maniac you could fall in love with.
Jeff Giles - Entertainment Weekly
A great crime novel, however, is an unstable thing, entertainment and literature suspended in some undetermined solution. Take Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, the third novel by one of a trio of contemporary women writers (the others are Kate Atkinson and Tana French) who are kicking the genre into a higher gear… You couldn’t say that this is a crime novel that’s ultimately about a marriage, which would make it a literary novel in disguise. The crime and the marriage are inseparable. As Gone Girl works itself up into an aria of ingenious, pitch-black comedy (or comedic horror — it’s a bit of both), its very outlandishness teases out a truth about all magnificent partnerships: Sometimes it’s your enemy who brings out the best in you, and in such cases, you want to keep him close.
Salon
A portrait of a marriage so hilariously terrifying, it will make you have a good hard think about who the person on the other side of the bed really is. This novel is so bogglingly twisty, we can only give you the initial premise: on their fifth anniversary, Nick Dunne’s beloved wife Amy disappears, and all signs point to very foul play indeed. Nick has to clear his name before the police finger him for Amy’s murder.
Time
Amy disappears on her fifth wedding anniversary, and while Nick has not been a model husband, could he really have killed her? It's soon evident that if Amy is dead, that's the least of the reader's worries. Flynn's last novel, Dark Objects, was a New York Times best seller, but this one is expected to break her out.
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
A bonanza! We have two sets of Discussion Questions for Gone Girl: LitLovers own talking points...and the publisher-issued questions. Have at it!
1. Consider Amy and Nick Dunne as characters. Do you find them sympathetic...at first? Talk about the ways each reveals him/herself over the course of the novel. At what point do your sympathies begin to change (if they do)?
2. Nick insists from the beginning he had nothing to do with Amy's disappearance. Did you believe him, initially? When did you begin to suspect that he might have something to do with it? At what point did you begin to think he might not?
3. How would you describe the couple's marriage? What does it look like from the outside...and what does it look like from the inside? Where do the stress lines fall in their relationship?
4. On their fifth anniversary, Nick wonders, "What have we done to each other? What will we do?" Is that the kind of question that might present itself in any marriage? Yours? In other words, does this novel make you wonder about your own relationship? And can you ever truly know the other person?
5. Amy and Nick lie. When did you begin to suspect that the two were lying to one another...and to you, the reader? Why do they lie...what do they gain by it?
6. Do you find the Gillian Flynn's technique of alternating first-person narrations compelling...or irritating. Would you have preferred a single, straightforward narrator? What does the author gain by using two different voices?
7. A skillful mystery writer knows which details to reveal and when to reveal them. How much do you know...and when do you know it? In other words, how good is Flynn at burying her clues in plain sight? Now that you know how the story plays out, go back and pick out the clues she left behind for you.
8. Flynn divides her narrative into two parts. Why? What are the difference between the two sections?
9. In what way does Amy's background—her parents' books about her perfection—affect her as an adult?
10. The Dunnes move to North Carthage, near Hannibal, the home of Mark Twain. How has Tom Sawyer been worked into Gone Girl...and why? What does that extra-textual detail add to the story?
11. Did you suspect Nick's big secret? Were you surprised—shocked—by it? Or did you have an inkling?
12. Does Amy try hard enough to like North Carthage? Or is she truly a duck out of water, too urbane to ever fit into a small, Midwestern town?
13. What are Amy's treasure hunts all about? Why does she initiate them for Nick?
14. Critics, to a one, talk about the book's dark humor and author's wit. What passages of the book do you find particularly funny?
15. Movie time: who would you like to see play what part?
(Above questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Below are Penguin Random House Questions:
1. Do you like Nick or Amy? Did you find yourself picking a side? Do you think the author intends for us to like them? Why or why not?
2. Does the author intend for us to think of Nick or Amy as the stronger writer? Do you perceive one or the other as a stronger writer, based on their narration/journal entries? Why?
3. Do you think Amy and Nick both believe in their marriage at the outset?
4. Nick, ever conscious of the way he is being perceived, reflects on the images that people choose to portray in the world—constructed, sometimes plagiarized roles that we present as our personalities. Discuss the ways in which the characters—and their opinions of each other—are influenced by our culture’s avid consumption of TV shows, movies, and websites, and our need to fit each other into these roles.
5. Discuss Amy’s false diary, both as a narrative strategy by the author and as a device used by the character. How does the author use it to best effect? How does Amy use it?
6. What do you make of Nick’s seeming paranoia on the day of his fifth anniversary, when he wakes with a start and reports feeling, You have been seen?
7. As experienced consumers of true crime and tragedy, modern “audiences” tend to expect each crime to fit a specific mold: a story, a villain, a heroine. How does this phenomenon influence the way we judge news stories? Does it have an impact on the criminal justice system? Consider the example of the North Carthage police, and also Tanner Bolt’s ongoing advice to Nick.
8. What is Go’s role in the book? Why do you think the author wrote her as Nick’s twin? Is she a likable character?
9. Discuss Amy’s description of the enduring myth of the "cool girl"—and her conviction that a male counterpart (seemingly flawless to women) does not exist. Do you agree? Why does she assume the role if she seems to despise it? What benefit do you think she derives from the act?
10. Is there some truth to Amy’s description of the "dancing monkeys"—her friends' hapless partners who are forced to make sacrifices and perform “sweet” gestures to prove their love? How is this a counterpoint to the “cool girl”?
11. What do you think of Marybeth and Rand Elliott? Is the image they present sincere? What do you think they believe about Amy?
12. How does the book deal with the divide between perception and reality, or between public image and private lives? Which characters are most skillful at navigating this divide, and how?
13. How does the book capture the feel of the recession—the ending of jobs and contraction of whole industries; economic and geographical shifts; real estate losses and abandoned communities. Are some of Nick and Amy’s struggles emblematic of the time period? Are there any parts of the story that feel unique to this time period?
14. While in hiding, Amy begins to explore what the "real" Amy likes and dislikes. Do you think this is a true exploration of her feelings, or is she acting out yet another role? In these passages, what does she mean when she refers to herself as “I” in quotes?
15. What do you think of Amy’s quizzes—and "correct" answers—that appear throughout the book? As a consistent thread between her Amazing Amy childhood and her adult career, what does her quiz-writing style reveal about Amy’s true personality and her understanding of the world?
16. Do Nick and Amy have friends? Consider Nick’s assurance that Noelle was deluded in her claims of friendship with Amy, and also the friends described in Amy’s journal. How "rea" are these friendships? What do you think friendship means to each of them?
17. What was the relationship between Amy and Nick’s father? Do you think the reader is meant to imagine conversations between the two of them? Why does Nick’s father come to Nick and Amy’s home?
18. Amy publicly denounces the local police and criticizes their investigation. Do you think they did a good job of investigating her disappearance? Were there real missteps, or was their failing due to Amy’s machinations?
19. Do you believe Amy truly would have committed suicide? Why does she return?
20. Were you satisfied with the book’s ending? What do you think the future holds for Nick, Amy, and their baby boy?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Angel Time (The Songs of the Seraphim)
Anne Rice, 2009
Knopf Doubleday
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400078950
Summary
Anne Rice returns to the mesmerizing storytelling that has captivated readers for more than three decades in a tale of unceasing suspense set in time past—a metaphysical thriller about angels and assassins.
The novel opens in the present. At its center: Toby O’Dare—a contract killer of underground fame on assignment to kill once again. A soulless soul, a dead man walking, he lives under a series of aliases—just now: Lucky the Fox—and takes his orders from “The Right Man.”
Into O’Dare’s nightmarish world of lone and lethal missions comes a mysterious stranger, a seraph, who offers him a chance to save rather than destroy lives. O’Dare, who long ago dreamt of being a priest but instead came to embody danger and violence, seizes his chance.
Now he is carried back through the ages to thirteenth-century England, to dark realms where accusations of ritual murder have been made against Jews, where children suddenly die or disappear.... In this primitive setting, O’Dare begins his perilous quest for salvation, a journey of danger and flight, loyalty and betrayal, selflessness and love. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Aka—Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; Anne Rampling;
A. N. Roquelaure
• Birth—October 4, 1931
• Where—New Orleans, Louisana, USA
• Education—B.A., M.A., San Francisco State University
• Currently—lives in California
Anne Rice is an American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature, and erotica. She is perhaps best known for her popular and influential series of novels, The Vampire Chronicles, revolving around the central character of Lestat. Books from The Vampire Chronicles were the subject of two film adaptations, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles in 1994, and Queen of the Damned in 2002.
Born in New Orleans, Rice spent much of her early life there before moving to Texas, and later San Francisco. She was raised in an observant Roman Catholic family, but became an atheist as a young adult.
She began her professional writing career with the publication of Interview with the Vampire in 1974, while living in California, and began writing sequels to the novel in the 1980s. In the mid-2000s, following a publicized return to Catholicism, Rice published the novels Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, fictionalized accounts of certain incidents in the life of Jesus. However, she distanced herself from organized Christianity shortly thereafter, citing disagreement with the church's stances on social issues, but pledged that faith in God remained "central to [her] life."
Rice's books have sold nearly 100 million copies, placing her among the most popular authors in recent American history. While reaction to her early works was initially mixed, she became more popular with critics and readers in the 1980s. Her writing style and the literary content of her works have been deeply analyzed by literary commentators. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years, from 1961 until his death from brain cancer in 2002 at age 60. She and Stan had two children, Michele, who died of leukemia at age five, and Christopher, who is also an author.
In addition to her vampire novels, Rice has authored books such as The Feast of All Saints (adapted for television in 2001), and Servant of the Bones, which formed the basis of a 2011 comic book miniseries. Several books from The Vampire Chronicles have been adapted as comics by various publishers. Rice has also authored erotic fiction under the pen names Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure, including Exit to Eden, which was later adapted into a 1994 film.
Early Life
Born on October 4, 1941 in New Orleans, Rice was the second of four daughters of Irish Catholic parents, Howard O'Brien and Katherine "Kay" Allen O'Brien. Her father, a Naval veteran of World War II and lifelong resident of New Orleans, worked as a Personnel Executive for the U.S. Postal Service and authored one novel, The Impulsive Imp, published posthumously. Rice's older sister, Alice Borchardt, later became a noted author of fantasy and horror fiction.
Rice spent most of her childhood and teenage years in New Orleans, a city that forms the backdrop against which many of her stories are set. Her early years were marked by coping with the family's poverty and her mother's alcoholism. She and her family lived in the rented home of her maternal grandmother, Alice Allen, known as "Mamma Allen," at 2301 St. Charles Avenue in the Irish Channel, which Rice says was widely considered a "Catholic Ghetto."
Allen, who began working as a domestic shortly after separating from her alcoholic husband, was an important early influence in Rice's life, keeping the family and household together as Rice's mother sank deeper into alcoholism. Allen died in 1949, but the O'Briens remained in her home until 1956, when they moved to 2524 St. Charles Avenue, a former rectory, convent and school owned by the parish, in order to be closer to both the church and support for Katherine's addiction. As a young child, Rice studied at St. Alphonsus School, a Catholic institution previously attended by her father.
About her unusual given name, Rice said:
Well, my birth name is Howard Allen because apparently my mother thought it was a good idea to name me Howard. My father's name was Howard, she wanted to name me after Howard, and she thought it was a very interesting thing to do. She was a bit of a Bohemian, a bit of mad woman, a bit of a genius, and a great deal of a great teacher. And she had the idea that naming a woman Howard was going to give that woman an unusual advantage in the world.
However, according to the authorized biography, Prism of the Night by Katherine Ramsland, Rice's father was the source of his daughter's birth name: "Thinking back to the days when his own name had been associated with girls, and perhaps in an effort to give it away, Howard named the little girl Howard Allen Frances O'Brien."
Rice became "Anne" on her first day of school, when a nun asked her what her name was. She told the nun "Anne," which she considered a pretty name. Her mother, who was with her, let it go without correcting her, knowing how self-conscious her daughter was of her real name. From that day on, everyone she knew addressed her as "Anne," and her name was legally changed in 1947.
Rice was confirmed in the Catholic Church when she was twelve years old and took the full name Howard Allen Frances Alphonsus Liguori O'Brien, adding the names of a saint and of an aunt, who was a nun. "I was honored to have my aunt's name," she said, "but it was my burden and joy as a child to have strange names."
When Rice was fifteen years old, her mother died as a result of alcoholism, and soon afterward she and her sisters were placed by their father in St. Joseph's Academy. Rice described St. Joseph's as "something out of Jane Eyre...a dilapidated, awful, medieval type of place. I really hated it and wanted to leave. I felt betrayed by my father."
In November 1957, Rice's father married Dorothy Van Bever...and, when she was sixteen, her father moved the family to north Texas, purchasing their first home in Richardson. Rice first met her future husband, Stan Rice, in a journalism class while they were both students at Richardson High School.
San Francisco and Berkeley
Graduating from Richardson High School in 1959, Rice completed her freshman year at Texas Woman's University in Denton and transferred to North Texas State College for her sophomore year, but dropped out when she ran out of money and was unable to find employment. She soon decided to move to San Francisco, and got permission from her friend, Dennis Percy, to stay with his family there until she found work as an insurance claims processor. She persuaded her former roommate from Texas Woman's University, Ginny Mathis, to join her, and they found an apartment in the Haight-Ashbury district. Mathis acquired a job at the same insurance company as Rice.
Soon after, they began taking night courses at University of San Francisco, an all-male Jesuit school that allowed women to take night courses. For Easter vacation Anne returned home to Texas, rekindling her relationship with Stan Rice. After her return to San Francisco, Stan Rice came for a week-long visit during summer break. He returned to Texas, Rice moved back in with the Percys, and Mathis left San Francisco in August to enroll in a nursing program in Oklahoma. Some time later, Anne received a special delivery letter from Stan Rice asking her to marry him. They married on October 14, 1961, in Denton, Texas, soon after she turned 20 years old, and when he was just weeks from his nineteenth birthday.
The Rices moved back to San Francisco in 1962, experiencing the birth of the Hippie movement firsthand as they lived in the soon-to-be fabled Haight-Ashbury district, Berkeley, and later the Castro District. "I'm a totally conservative person," she later told The New York Times, "In the middle of Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, I was typing away while everybody was dropping acid and smoking grass. I was known as my own square." Rice attended San Francisco State University and obtained a B.A. in Political Science in 1964. Their daughter Michele, later nicknamed "Mouse", was born to the couple on September 21, 1966, and Rice later interrupted her graduate studies at SFSU to become a Ph.D. candidate at Berkeley. However, she soon became disenchanted with the emphasis on literary criticism and the language requirements.
Rice returned to San Francisco State in 1970 to finish her studies in Creative Writing, and in 1972 graduated with an M.A.. Stan Rice became an instructor at San Francisco State shortly after receiving his own M.A. in Creative Writing from the institution, and later chaired the Creative Writing department before retiring in 1988. In 1970, while Rice was still in the graduate program, her daughter was diagnosed with acute granulocytic leukemia. Rice later described having a prophetic dream, months before Michele became ill, that her daughter was dying from "something wrong with her blood." On August 5, 1972, Michele died of leukemia at Stanford Children's Hospital in Palo Alto.
Writing career
In 1973, while she was still grieving the loss of her daughter, Rice took a previously written short story and turned it into her first novel, the bestselling Interview with the Vampire. After completing the novel and following many rejections from publishers, Rice developed obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). She became obsessed with germs, thinking that she contaminated everything she touched, engaged in frequent and obsessive hand washing and obsessively checked locks on windows and doors. Of this period, Rice says, "What you see when you're in this state is every single flaw in our hygiene and Fyou can't control it and you go crazy."
In August 1974, after a year of therapy for her OCPD, Rice attended a writer's conference at Squaw Valley, conducted by writer Ray Nelson. While at the conference, Rice met her future literary agent, Phyllis Seidel. In October 1974, Seidel sold the publishing rights to Interview with the Vampire to Alfred A. Knopf for a $12,000 advance of the hardcover rights, at a time when most new authors were receiving $2,000 advances Interview with the Vampire was published in 1976. In 1977, the Rices traveled to both Europe and Egypt for the first time.
Rice's son Christopher was born in Berkeley, California in 1978, later going on to become a best selling author. In mid-1979, Rice, an admitted alcoholic, and her husband, Stan Rice, quit drinking so their son would not have the life that she had as a child.
Following the publication of Interview with the Vampire, while living in California, Rice wrote two historical novels, The Feast of All Saints and Cry to Heaven, along with three erotic novels, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, and Beauty's Release, under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure, and two more under the pseudonym Anne Rampling, Exit to Eden and Belinda. Rice then returned to the vampire genre with The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned, her bestselling sequels to Interview with the Vampire.
Back to New Orleans
In June 1988, following the success of The Vampire Lestat and with The Queen of the Damned about to be published, the Rices purchased a second home in New Orleans. Stan took a leave of absence from his teaching, and together they moved to New Orleans. Within months, they decided to make it their permanent home. Shortly after moving to New Orleans, Rice penned The Witching Hour as an expression of her joy at coming home. She also continued her popular Vampire Chronicles series, which later grew to encompass ten novels, and followed up on The Witching Hour with Lasher and Taltos, completing the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy. She also published Violin, a tale of a ghostly haunting, in 1997.
Rice returned to the Catholic Church in 1998. which she'd left at 18 and after decades of self-avowed atheism. Her return did not come with a full embrace of the Church's stances on social issues; Rice remained a vocal supporter of equality for gay men and lesbians (including marriage rights), as well as abortion rights and birth control, writing extensively on such issues. In October 2005, while promoting her book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, she announced in Newsweek that she would now use her life and talent of writing to glorify her belief in God, but did not renounce her earlier works.
On December 14, 1998, she fell into a coma and nearly died. She was later diagnosed with Diabetes mellitus type 1, or "brittle" Diabetes, and is now insulin-dependent. In 2003, following the recommendation of her husband, and shortly after his death, Rice underwent gastric bypass surgery and shed 103 pounds. In 2004, Rice nearly died again from an intestinal blockage or bowel obstruction, a common complication of gastric bypass surgery.
Leaving New Orleans
In 2004, Rice announced on her website that she had made plans to leave New Orleans. She cited living alone since the death of her husband and her son's move to California as reasons. She left shortly before the events of Hurricane Katrina in August and settled first in La Jolla, California. Later, she purchased a six-bedroom home in Rancho Mirage, California
On July 18, 2010, Rice auctioned off her large collection of antique dolls at Thierault's in Chicago. Beginning in the summer of 2010 and continuing through the spring of 2011, Rice also began auctioning off her household possessions, collectibles featured in her many books, jewelry, and wardrobe on eBay. She also sold a large portion of her library collection to Powell's Books.
Renunciation of Christianity
On July 28, 2010, Rice publicly renounced her dedication to Christianity on her Facebook page:
Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply imposible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.
A media frenzy ensued with newspaper reporters, Internet bloggers, radio and TV commentators and news reporters around the world interviewing Rice and commenting on her announcement. In an August 7, 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rice elaborated on her view regarding being a member of a Christian church:
I feel much more morally comfortable walking away from organized religion. I respect that there are all kinds of denominations and all kinds of churches, but it's the entire controversy, the entire conversation that I need to walk away from right now.
In response to the question, "[H]ow do you follow Christ without a church?" Rice replied:
I think the basic ritual is simply prayer. It's talking to God, putting things in the hands of God, trusting that you're living in God's world and praying for God's guidance. And being absolutely faithful to the core principles of Jesus' teachings. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
A mystical thriller: forebodings of doom, promises of supernatural happenings to come. The first-person narrator is the melodramatically named Toby O'Dare, a preternaturally gifted hit man with a black hole where his soul should be.... [Yet]Toby is on his way to salvation.... It doesn't help Angel Time that Toby plunges into what seems to be a completely different novel when he's sent to 13th-century Norwich to help the city's Jewish community, victims of blood libel....It's impossible to doubt the sincerity of Rice's religious feelings...[but] Angel Time isn't a story so much as a message: Fear not, even the most depraved human being is loved by God and can find peace and purpose in accepting Him. Thus endeth the lesson.
Lloyd Rose - Washington Post Book World
Full of provocative moral reflections, this kickoff to bestseller Rice's new Songs of the Seraphim religious romance series centers on hired assassin Toby O'Dare, a one-time aspirant to the priesthood until personal tragedy unmoored his life. Guardian angel Malchiah visits Toby, who's just consummated his latest kill, and offers him redemption for his sins. After accepting the offer, Toby is whisked away to 13th-century England, where, in the guise of a Dominican friar, he becomes the protector of a Jewish couple accused wrongly by the gentile populace of having murdered their young daughter for her conversion to Christianity. Two eloquently told if clunkily joined digressions give the backstory on Toby and on the persecution of the Jews in medieval Europe. Readers will revel in Rice's colorful recreation of the historical past and in her moving depiction of characters struggling to reconcile matters of the heart with their personal sense of faith.
Publishers Weekly
In Rice's latest, an assassin meets an angel who puts him to work for God. Although "Lucky the Fox" has always justified his contract killing by letting himself believe he was really working for the proverbial "good guys," the seraph takes Lucky back to the 1200s and gives him the task of preventing a pogrom against Jews accused of ritually murdering Christian children. Readers of Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" and "Mayfair Witch" sagas develop a deep connection with protagonists Lestat and Rowan Mayfair, but it is hard to relate to Lucky. However, the novel is more fluid and action-oriented than Rice's recent trilogy about Jesus. At the heart of this odd mix of metaphysical thriller and historical novel is one man's rediscovery of his religious beliefs. Verdict: While smoothly written and full of Rice's noted descriptive detail, this title may disappoint fans of her wildly popular series about vampires and witches, while Christian readers who know Rice only as a paranormal writer will probably avoid it unless they have read her Jesus novels. Finding the proper audience may prove to be the hardest battle for this intriguing book. —Amanda Scott, Cambridge Springs P.L., PA
Library Journal
Time travel, ultraviolence and medieval madness—divine intervention rendered fantastically by Rice (Called Out of Darkness, 2008, etc.). A "man paralyzed by dissonance," Toby O'Dare is also a helluva hit man; he plays lute, reads Aquinas and shoves poisoned syringes in the necks of his tricks. A Beverly Hills penthouse serves as his crash pad, but he's otherwise nomadic, dodging Interpol for his faceless boss, the Right Man. RM insists that "the Good Guys" bankroll Toby's missions, but O'Dare thinks murder is murder and gluts on guilt. With two marvelous reimaginings of the Gospels and a spiritual autobiography recently extending her range, Rice revisits the shadows of her vampire classics; now, however, with her return to Catholicism, her sinners vie for redemption. O'Dare's desperate for it. His childhood dream of becoming a Dominican was dashed by trauma downright demonic; he rebelled against God when his drunken mother drowned his siblings and killed herself. His apostasy is of the tortuous, Graham Greene-ish variety; he can't stop praying to the God he left. Deliverance comes as a mysterious stranger. Right after dispatching a billionaire banker at a pricey hotel, Toby freaks at an interloper: Malchiah, it turns out, a seraph disguised as a swell. The angel's charge? Beam Toby back to 13th-century England, amok with anti-Semitic persecution. "Natural Time" becomes "Angel Time," and in this transcendental zone O'Dare is transformed into a Dominican friar bidden by Malchiah to save his soul through expiation. He must use all his cunning to rescue Meir and Fluria from a mob convinced that this harmless Jewish couple have poisoned their daughter for daring enter a cathedral on Christmasnight. Having become an Agent of Good, O'Dare, proving that God works in mysterious ways, descends into a world of faith perverted in order both to restore order and reclaim his own lost innocence. Emerging repentant "for every evil thing I'd ever done," he returns transfigured to the present time. Angelically inspiring. Devilishly clever.
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 help get a discussion started for Angel Time:
1. Describe Toby O'Dare. He is obviously flawed—is he evil? Talk about the way the events of his upbringing shaped him. Is there anything in his character you identify with? How does he change during the course of the novel? What does he learn?
2. Rice has said that presenting a character like Malchiah, who is "perfect and sinless," is a real challenge, especially trying to make him an appealing character. Do you think Rice pulled it off—is Malchiah appealing? If so, in what way? Does he have emotional depth...or is he more one-dimensional?
3. What is Malchiah's purpose? Does he function as a judge, a guide, a messenger, a recruiter...all or none of the above?
4. Why do people believe in angels? Do you? Does Anne Rice's conception of angels jibe with your own? Do you think differently about angels after reading this book?
5. Can you explain the concept of Angel Time?
6. What have you learned about the history of the Jews in medieval Europe? Do those background sections enhance the story...or do they drag down the narrative flow?
7. How difficult is it in your life to reconcile matters of the heart—your desires and all-too-human impulses—with your personal sense of faith?
8. Talk about Anne Rice, herself. She embraced Catholicism...only to renounce it years later. How do you view this book—where does it fit into her overall body of work? How does Angel Time jive with her vampire and witch books...or her soft-porn Sleeping Beauty series? How do you explain the variety of genres Rice writes in? (See our guide's author bio.)
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Sworn to Silence (Kate Burkerholder Series-1)
Linda Castillo, 2009
St. Martin's Press
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780312597160
Summary
Some secrets are too terrible to reveal. Some crimes are too unspeakable to solve....
In Painters Mill, Ohio, the Amish and “English” residents have lived side by side for two centuries. But sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community. A young Amish girl named Kate Burkholder survived the terror of the Slaughterhouse Killer...but ultimately decided to leave her community.
A wealth of experience later, Kate has been asked to return to Painters Mill as chief of police. Her Amish roots and big-city law enforcement background make her the perfect candidate. She’s certain she’s come to terms with her past—until the first body is discovered in a snowy field.
Kate vows to stop the killer before he strikes again. But to do so, she must betray both her family and her Amish past—and expose a dark secret that could destroy her. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Bestselling author Linda Castillo knew at a very young age that she wanted to be a writer—and penned her first novel at the age of 13. She is the winner of numerous writing awards, including the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence, the Holt Medallion and a nomination for the prestigious RITA. She loves writing edgy stories that push the envelope and take her readers on a roller coaster ride of breathtaking romance and thrilling suspense.
Linda spins her tales of love and intrigue from her home in Dallas, Texas, where she lives with her husband and four lovable dogs. In her spare time she enjoys riding horses, especially trail riding, and dabbles in barrel racing. (From the publishers and author website.)
Book Reviews
Lovers of suspense will find no better novel to read this summer than Sworn to Silence, a teeth-chattering debut thriller from romance writer Linda Castillo.... This first in a series will delight fans of Chelsea Cain and Thomas Harris...compelling characters, excellent plotting and a hair-raising finale.
USA Today
Romance novelist Castillo, who grew up near Amish country, convincingly switches gears with this debut thriller, balancing chilling suspense and a nuanced portrait of the English-Amish divide. Starring a tough, complicated cop who speaks Pennsylvania Dutch as smoothly as she downs a vodka, Silence is the opening salvo in what promises to be a gripping series.
People
(Starred review.) [An] excellent first in a new suspense series from romance veteran Castillo…. Adept at creating characters with depth and nuance, Castillo smoothly integrates their backstories into a well-paced plot.
Publishers Weekly
This debut mystery… marks Castillo's move from romantic suspense to straight mystery, and judging by this novel, the move is a good one. Though the ending feels a bit rushed and serial killers abound in crime fiction today, this is very well done. —Jane Jorgenson
Library Journal
(Starred review.) [A] consistently chilling mystery debut.… Deeply flawed characters in a distinctive setting make this a crackling good series opener, recommended for fans of T. Jefferson Parker and Robert Ellis… who generate the same kind of chills and suspense. —Allison Block
Booklist
Discussion Questions
We'll add questions if and when they're issued by the publishers. In the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for SWORN TO SILENCE … then take off on your own:
1. How would you describe Kate Burkholder? What kind of character is she? Is she a likable heroine? What are her flaws...and do they overwhelm her more admirable qualities?
2. Follow-up to Question 1—Kate comes across as a woman of strength and integrity. When do you begin to see cracks in that facade? Why are they there?
3. Why did Kate abandon the Amish way of life? What is her current relationship with the community? What special insights does her Amish background give her as she pursues the murderer. Talk about the way in which she balances the opposing cultures of "English" and Amish.
4. What if anything have you learned about the Amish culture? What surprised you?
5. Four officers work under Kate Burkholder's direction—T.J., Glock, Skid, and Pickles. Does the author do a good job of drawing these secondary characters? Describe them—their strengths and weaknesses.
6. What about John Tomasetti. Is he a good cop? How does he initially view Kate… and what makes him change how he views her? Talk about his own past and the way it's impinged on his career and on this investigation in particular.
7. Kate makes some questionable choices as the mystery unfolds. What explanation can be given for those missteps?
8. Sworn to Silence contains graphic descriptions of murder and rape. Does the writing border on sensational… or are the descriptions necessary to further the plot? What do you think?
9. Were you surprised by the killer's identity? Does the book's ending satisfy? Or is it too predictable? If so, what did you know...and when did you know it? How well does Castillo plant her clues (they need to be planted but not obvious)?
10. What was your experience reading Sworn to Silence. The word "intense" is frequently used to describe the book. Did you find it too intense… or is the level of suspense just right?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Two Seas: A Journey into the Heart of Italy
Lynn Rodolico, 2012
Eccolo Editions
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9788890698699
Summary
An American woman happily married to an Italian and living in Florence for the past twenty years, unexpectedly finds herself falling in love-with Sicily. This beautifully written, deeply personal cross-cultural memoir, recounted with an astute foreigner-in-residence perspective, offers a graceful strategy for growing older: the wonders in store for those willing to exchange the symptoms of an empty nest for the veil of a second honeymoon.
By turns insightful and humorous, this seemingly simple tale of true happiness is chock-full of nuance: every page offers a glimpse of the sublime at the end of the rainbow. (From the publisher.)
Here's also a stunning video with original music of the spot in Sicily where the book takes place.
Author Bio
• Birth—April 1, 1953
• Where—Santa Monica, California, USA
• Education—Univeristy of California, Santa Barbara
• Awards—Book of the Month Award (France)
• Currently—lives in Sicily and Florence, Italy
Lynn was born in 1953 in Santa Monica, California, and grew up in the coastal town of Pacific Palisades. Her earliest, happiest memories come from inventing stories beneath the large fruit trees in her backyard, and later, when she was old enough to roam, the dramatic pounding of the Pacific Ocean below the town’s cliffs. Despite the idyllic setting, it wasn’t until she left Pacific Palisades and her family that she began to feel at home.
Writing had always been a favourite pastime but it wasn’t until she quit her job as Administrator of Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Massachusetts that she started writing full time. She gave herself one year in which to succeed or fail as a writer. To perfect her skills, first in the Berkshires and later in New York City, she wrote commercial novels in the Romance genre under a series of pseudonyms. Her success was quick and exceptional.
Her first published novel, Passion’s Flight sold 350,000 copies and was translated into seven languages. Her second novel, Heart and Soul, proved a greater success, both commercially and literary, winning the Book of the Month Club Award in France. Opening Bid was another best seller romance and was translated into eleven languages. Intimates moved out of the romance category, allowing for real character development, but its circulation was thwarted when her editor changed publishing houses and the book remained orphaned in the warehouse.
In 1985 she moved to Italy for a year to finish a novel, Wooden Nickels. On her first day in Florence she met Antonino Rodolico, the man who would transform her life from a solitary search to a unified communion. Two Seas is a fictionalized memoir of their life on an olive farm in the Tuscan hills and their unexpected love affair with the Island of Sicily. They have two grown daughters.
Lynn's most recent novel, Small Change, takes place in Italy and England. It was published in 2013. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
There are no mainstream press reviews online. See the author's website, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble for helpful customer reviews and reviews by other writers.
Discussion Questions
1. Two Seas raises the question: how much is enough?” Do you believe that simplicity can facilitate happiness?
2. Discuss the relevance of the book's title? Does its significance remain the same throughout the novel? What does it imply as an overall statement to the novel?
3. What is the meaning of the trice-repeated line: “Is it the clouds that reflect on the sea, coloring it in shades of gray and white, or the sea itself, turbulent?” Can an image alter the way we perceive the world? What is the significance of nature for Kate in Two Seas?
4. Kate describes the cheese making process as miraculous, while Eugenio dismisses it with a rational explanation. What is your opinion? Are there logical experiences in your life that you find miraculous?
5. What is the importance of the little pool in Two Seas? What does it reveal about Niccolo and Kate as characters?
6. Weather is a constant but changing presence in Two Seas, appearing in many guises: fog, mist, storms, winds. Are these images descriptive of the place or metaphorical?
7. What emotions were engaged as you read Two Seas? Were you saddened by the death of Edoardo? Convinced of Kate’s love for Niccolo? How did you view Niccolo’s relationship with his mother? His brother? Did any of these relationships feel similar to those in your life?
8. Do the Italian characters in Two Seas reinforce an Italian stereotype? Did you see differences between the Tuscan and Sicilian personalities? Did the author’s descriptions of Italy evoke the place? Elicit your curiosity? Has your perception of Italy and Italians changed after reading this novel?
9. How would you describe the Aragona family? In what ways does it differ from your family? In what ways is it the same?
10. What feelings are evoked from the description of the harvest of olives in Tuscany? Did it create nostalgia for a familiar time and place or give you a glimpse into an unfamiliar world? Is the author romanticizing hard work? Can you find a parallel example in your own life?
11. How would you describe Electra’s relationship with her mother? With her sister? What do you believe will happen between Electra and Bernardo after Two Seas finishes?
12. What is the significance of the animals present in Two Seas? Are they part of the depiction of place or do they serve a deeper purpose?
13. How does Kate’s flawed relationship with her father affect her rapport with the other characters in Two Seas? Is the relationship resolved during the course of the novel? Are there other relationships left unresolved?
14. Would you agree with Kate’s change in career from commercial success to artistic satisfaction? Do you believe she needed to leave the country to find her “still, small voice," as she says? How large a part, if any, does fate play in the events in Two Seas?
15. Were you surprised by the events in Two Seas or did you find the plot predictable? Would you describe it as a plot-driven novel or focussed on character development and setting?
16. What is the meaning of Il Faro—The Lighthouse? Why does it capture Kate and Niccolo’s attention? And what do they gain when they decide to let it go?
17. If you could ask the author a question, what would it be? Have you read other books by the same author? If so, how are they similar or dissimilar? If not, does this book inspire you to read others?
18. Has this novel changed you? Has it broadened your perspective? Have you learned something new about Italy? About yourself? Can you see yourself living the life the author describes?
(Questions from author's website.)