The Trespasser
Tana French, 2016
Penguin Publishing
464pp.
ISBN-13: 9780670026333
Summary
In bestselling Tana French’s newest “tour de force,”* being on the Murder squad is nothing like Detective Antoinette Conway dreamed it would be.
Her partner, Stephen Moran, is the only person who seems glad she’s there. The rest of her working life is a stream of thankless cases, vicious pranks, and harassment. Antoinette is savagely tough, but she’s getting close to the breaking point.
Their new case looks like yet another by-the-numbers lovers’ quarrel gone bad. Aislinn Murray is blond, pretty, groomed to a shine, and dead in her catalogue-perfect living room, next to a table set for a romantic dinner. There’s nothing unusual about her—except that Antoinette’s seen her somewhere before.
And that her death won’t stay in its neat by-numbers box. Other detectives are trying to push Antoinette and Steve into arresting Aislinn’s boyfriend, fast. There’s a shadowy figure at the end of Antoinette's road. Aislinn's friend is hinting that she knew Aislinn was in danger. And everything they find out about Aislinn takes her further from the glossy, passive doll she seemed to be.
Antoinette knows the harassment has turned her paranoid, but she can’t tell just how far gone she is. Is this case another step in the campaign to force her off the squad, or are there darker currents flowing beneath its polished surface? (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
One of Ms. French's great strengths has always been the keen insight with which she endows her characters and the coy distance at which she keeps them from the reader. Her books would be mysterious even if they didn't involve outright murders. The people in them keep secrets, imperceptibly change, create facades, hide motives and, as she illustrated so brilliantly in Faithful Place, even fool their own families about matters of life or death for decades. That remains the most stunning of her books, but this new one is a tour de force, too…The Trespasser is brisk but not breathless. It would be a pity if Ms. French raced through such beautifully conceived and executed material…When you read Ms. French—and she has become required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting—make only one assumption: All of your initial assumptions are wrong. This author drops just enough breadcrumbs through her book to create trails that lead away from whatever the detectives' conventional wisdom happens to be, and she doesn't follow up on them until she's good and ready.
Janet Maslin - New York Times
It has become increasingly clear that U.S.-born, Dublin-based Tana French is the most interesting, most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years. Now, with the publication of her sixth novel, The Trespasser, it’s time to recognize that French’s work renders absurd the lingering distinction between genre and literary fiction—the notion that although crime novels might be better plotted and more readable, only literary fiction, supposedly blessed with superior writing, characterizations and intellectual firepower, deserves the respect of serious readers.
Patrick Anderson - Washington Post
There’s more than a little of the noir about Tana French’s latest, The Trespasser. Set, like her previous thrillers, among the detectives of Dublin’s murder squad, perhaps it (hard-)boils down to the fact that her protagonist this time, detective Antoinette Conway, manages to fizz with contempt for the world around her, bristle with toughness and sink regularly into poetic gloom all at the same time.
Alison Flood - Guardian (UK)
There's nothing standard about French's approach to crime fiction, which plays the form much like a jazz musician improvising on a standard. Even when the outlines of the mystery seem familiar…she finds a way to get at enriching themes and powerful emotional truths in fresh and surprising ways.
Chicago Tribune
As in all of the author's work, meaning lurks beneath every quip and glance. French not only spins a twisty cop tale, she also encases it in meticulous prose, creating a read that is as elegant as it is dark.
Associated Press
French is less adept than usual, however, in weaving in her main characters’ backstories. The underlying themes of loyalty and how far one should go to protect a person are what makes this entry worthy of French’s prodigious talents, though Conway isn’t her best conduit.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) French's interconnected first-person novels easily stand alone, but consuming them in order gives readers the pleasure of seeing characters they've come to know through others' eyes. [For] readers who crave tightly plotted, character-driven crime fiction. —Stephanie Klose
Library Journal
[T]he investigation is impeded by their own murder squad. But why? It's not just because the guys think Conway has a stick up you know where. Respect is owed to French for making her interrogation scenes good enough to really spike your blood pressure, but the magic of previous installments is missing.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, use our generic mystery questions.)
GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they flat, one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers embed hidden clues in plain sight, slipping them in casually, almost in passing. Did you pick them out, or were you...clueless? Once you've finished the book, go back to locate the clues hidden in plain sight. How skillful was the author in burying them?
4. Good crime writers also tease us with red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray? Does your author try to throw you off track? If so, were you tripped up?
5. Talk about the twists & turns—those surprising plot developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray.
- Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense?
- Are they plausible or implausible?
- Do they feel forced and gratuitous—inserted merely to extend the story?
6. Does the author ratchet up the suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? A what point does the suspense start to build? Where does it climax...then perhaps start rising again?
7. A good ending is essential in any mystery or crime thriller: it should ease up on tension, answer questions, and tidy up loose ends. Does the ending accomplish those goals?
- Is the conclusion probable or believable?
- Is it organic, growing out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 3)?
- Or does the ending come out of the blue, feeling forced or tacked-on?
- Perhaps it's too predictable.
- Can you envision a different or better ending?
8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?
(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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The German Girl
Armando Lucas Correa, 2016
Atria Books
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501121142
Summary
A stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel, perfect for fans of The Nightingale, Schindler’s List, and All the Light We Cannot See, about twelve-year-old Hannah Rosenthal’s harrowing experience fleeing Nazi-occupied Germany with her family and best friend, only to discover that the overseas asylum they had been promised is an illusion.
Before everything changed, young Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life.
But now, in 1939, the streets of Berlin are draped with red, white, and black flags; her family’s fine possessions are hauled away; and they are no longer welcome in the places that once felt like home. Hannah and her best friend, Leo Martin, make a pact: whatever the future has in store for them, they’ll meet it together.
Hope appears in the form of the SS St. Louis, a transatlantic liner offering Jews safe passage out of Germany. After a frantic search to obtain visas, the Rosenthals and the Martins depart on the luxurious ship bound for Havana.
Life on board the St. Louis is like a surreal holiday for the refugees, with masquerade balls, exquisite meals, and polite, respectful service. But soon ominous rumors from Cuba undermine the passengers’ fragile sense of safety. From one day to the next, impossible choices are offered, unthinkable sacrifices are made, and the ship that once was their salvation seems likely to become their doom.
Seven decades later in New York City, on her twelfth birthday, Anna Rosen receives a strange package from an unknown relative in Cuba, her great-aunt Hannah. Its contents will inspire Anna and her mother to travel to Havana to learn the truth about their family’s mysterious and tragic past, a quest that will help Anna understand her place and her purpose in the world.
The German Girl sweeps from Berlin at the brink of the Second World War to Cuba on the cusp of revolution, to New York in the wake of September 11, before reaching its deeply moving conclusion in the tumult of present-day Havana.
Based on a true story, this masterful novel gives voice to the joys and sorrows of generations of exiles, forever seeking a place called home. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1959
• Where—Guantamo, Cuba
• Education—Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana
• Awards—for journalism (see below)
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York, USA
Armando Lucas Correra is a Cuban-born journalist, editor, and author now living in New York City.
After graduating with a degree in theater and dramaturgy from Cuba's Superior Institute of Art of Havana, Correa began his career as a theater and dance critic. He became an editor for Tablas, a magazine covering the Cuban art scene, and also worked as a correspondent for the Spanish newspaper, El Publico. Later Correa taught dramatical analysis to students of scriptwriting in the International School of Cinema of San Antonio de los Banos.
In 1991 Correa left Cuba for Miami in the U.S. and began working as a reaporter for El Nuevo Herald. Six years later he moved to New York City, where he was hired as principal writer for the recently created People en Espanol. In 2007, he became the magazine's editorial-in-chief, a position he still holds, in which he oversees all editorial content. Today, People en Espanol is the top selling Hispanic magazine in the U.S. with more than 7 million monthly readers.
Correa is the recipient of various outstanding achievement awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications and the Society of Professional Journalism. He is the primary spokesperson for People en Espanol and regularly appears on national Spanish-language television programs discussing celebrity news and scoops.
His first novel, The German Girl, came out in 2016. His memoir En busca de Emma (In Search of Emma: Two Fathers, One Daughter and the Dream of a Family) was published in 2007 and recounts his struggle to adopt his first daughter as a gay man.
He currently resides in Manhattan with his partner and their three children. (Adapted from Amazon.)
Book Reviews
In 1939, the German ship St. Louis set sail from Hamburg for Havana carrying more than 900 passengers, most of them German Jewish refugees, escaping from the Nazi regime. Correa’s debut novel follows one of those passengers, a 12-year-old girl.... Though the novel covers an important piece of history, the story of the Rosenthals never quite comes together.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Correa bases his debut novel on the real-life account of the ill-fated 1939 voyage of the St. Louis, delivering an engrossing and heartbreaking Holocaust story; his listing of the passengers' names at the end of the book adds to its power. —Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA
Library Journal
The parts of the book set in Berlin and aboard the St. Louis are powerful and affecting.... By contrast, the Cuban scenes seem a little flat and drawn out, and the ending—with Hannah now an old woman—is unexpectedly maudlin. Still, this is a mostly well-told tale that sheds light on a sorrowful piece of Holocaust history.
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.)
One Indian Girl
Chetan Bhagat, 2016
Rupa Publications
280 pp.
ISBN-13: 9788129142146
Summary
Hi, I'm Radhika Mehta and I'm getting married this week.
I work at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank.
Thank you for reading my story.
However, let me warn you. You may not like me too much. One, I make a lot of money. Two, I have an opinion on everything. Three, I have had a boyfriend before. Ok, maybe two.
Now if all this was the case with a guy, one might be cool with it. But since I am a girl these three things I mentioned don't really make me too likeable, do they?
Bestselling author Chetan Bhagat, writing for the first time in a female voice, brings to you One Indian Girl, the heart-warming story of a modern Indian girl. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—April 22, 1974
• Where—New Dehli, India
• Education—M.E., Indian Inst. of Technology; M.B.A, Indian Inst. of Management
• Awards—Time's 100 Most Influential People list
• Currently—lives in Mumbai, India
Chetan Bhagat is the Indian author of numerous bestselling books. These include the novels Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), Half Girlfriend (2014), and One Indian Girl (2016). He has also published two collections of speeches, columns, and essays, What Young India Wants (2012) and Making India Awesome (2015).
Chetan’s books have remained bestsellers since their release, and several of the novels have been adapted into Bollywood films. The New York Times called Chetan the "the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history." Time magazine named him among the "100 most influential people in the world" and Fast Company, USA, listed him as one of the world’s "100 most creative people in business."
In addition to his books, Chetan writes columns for leading English and Hindi newspapers, focusing on youth and national development issues. He is also a motivational speaker and screenplay writer. In 2009 he quit his international investment banking career to devote himsself to full-time writing and to making change happen in the country.
He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Anusha, who was his classmate at the Indian Institute of Management, and their twin boys, Shyam and Ishaan. (From the author's webpage.)
Book Reviews
Bhagat’s first ever female narrator is a strong, female character that one can root for.But you can’t help spot the problems. Why are all the women in the book set up in opposition to each other? Her mother nags her to get married, her sister is obsessed with appearances, but Radhika never rises above her contempt for them. Bhagat gets some things right. He captures perfectly the discomfort a modern woman might feel when she’s expected to act like a shy, obedient dulhan. When relatives flock to see the bride-to-be, she wryly remarks: “The monkey was out of the cage and there was a free sighting in the lobby.” She says all the right things about how giving women the right to choose is not enough—they need to have the right to choose the things they want, not what men want.
India Express
Two things make you wince in this book. The biggest is how Bhagat lays on the feminism too thick. The stereotypes he paints are far removed from reality—that an intelligent woman has to be a nerd who has never had her legs waxed, or is clueless on how to interact with men.... Goldman Sachs is the second pain in the book. As per Bhagat, there can’t be a more sympathetic, fair, just and great place to work at. It just might be, but the author didn’t have to extoll the virtues of Goldman Sachs on every page,
Financial Express
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
The Life She Wants
Robyn Carr, 2016
MIRA
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780778319672
Summary
A poignant novel with a rich tapestry of characters, and a story that will leave the reader laughing and crying as two friends confront their pasts and move towards their futures.
In the aftermath of her financier husband’s suicide, Emma Shay Compton’s dream life is shattered.
Richard Compton stole his clients’ life savings to fund a lavish life in New York City and, although she was never involved in the business, Emma bears the burden of her husband’s crimes.
She is left with nothing.
Only one friend stands by her, a friend she’s known since high school, who encourages her to come home to Sonoma County. But starting over isn’t easy, and Sonoma is full of unhappy memories, too. And people she’d rather not face, especially Riley Kerrigan.
Riley and Emma were like sisters—until Riley betrayed Emma, ending their friendship. Emma left town, planning to never look back. Now, trying to stand on her own two feet, Emma can’t escape her husband’s reputation and is forced to turn to the last person she thought she’d ever ask for help—her former best friend.
It’s an uneasy reunion as both women face the mistakes they’ve made over the years. Only if they find a way to forgive each other—and themselves—can each of them find the life she wants. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1951
• Where—the State of Minnesota, USA
• Education—nursing degree
• Awards—RITA Award; Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award
• Currently—lives in Henderson, Nevada
Robyn Carr is an American author of more than 50 historical and romance novels. She is perhaps best known for her Virgin River Series, 20 some books published from 2007-2012.
Carr originally intended a career as a nurse rather than a writer. But she married her high school sweetheart who had enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as a helicopter pilot. It was during the Vietnam War, and as Robyn accompanied him, moving from base to base, it became obvious that her peripatetic lifestyle made it almost impossible to accommodate a nursing schedule.
Then in the mid-'70s came two children. When her doctor told her she needed to stay off her feet during one of her pregnancies, she turned to writing. Two healthy infants later, Robyn was still writing all the while juggling babies, feedings and diaper changes. She published her first historical novel in 1978.
Thirty years and some 25 novels later, she hit the New York Times bestseller list with her breakthrough novel, A Virgin River Christmas (2008). Three years later, Bring Me Home for Christmas, the 17th in what had become the Virgin River series, reached #1 on the NYT list; all told, since 2008 her books have spent more than 230 weeks on the NYT bestseller list.
Robyn and her husband Jim, now retired, live near Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to traveling and enjoying her grandchildren, Carr hosts monthly "Carr Chats" at the Paseo Verde Library in Henderson, Nevada, her hometown, where she interviews other authors.
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Too much melodrama, shallow character portrayals, and lifeless romantic scenes unfortunately undercut what could have been an insightful exploration of a woman’s world turned upside down by circumstances beyond her control.
Publishers Weekly
A layered, well-paced plot and flawed, three-dimensional characters whom readers will care about make this quick and entertaining read for those who relish contemporary family sagas with strong female characters as well as readers who like their stories tinged with romance. —Charli Osborne, Oak Park P. L., MI
Library Journal
Carr’s take on this complicated situation is interesting, though readers seeking a deeper reflection from Emma in the aftermath of her husband’s death or her stepmother’s spite may be disappointed. A satisfying reinvention story that handles painful issues with a light and uplifting touch.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for The Life She Wants...then take off on your own:
1. What do you think of Emma Compton? How would you describe her? Do you find her sympathetic? What about Riley Kerrigan? Describe her. Were you able to connect or identify with either character? Is one more likable than the other?
2. Emma berates herself for having failed to see what was going on with her husband's financial schemes. Do you blame her? Was she overly naive? Should she, could she, have understood his business operations?
3. Follow-up to Question #2: Is it fair for Emma to be blamed and mistrusted for her husband's actions?
4. Talk about Emma and Riley's friendship years ago. What was the breaking point, and who was at fault? Has something similar ever happened between you and a friend?
5. On the other hand, is it strange to you that two women have held a grudge against one another for something that happened so many years in the past?
6. What is Riley's back story? Why is she working so hard to forgive herself?
7. How do the main characters change or grow by the end of the novel?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
America's First Daughter: A Novel
Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, 2016
HarperCollins
624 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062347268
Summary
In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, bestselling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph—a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.
From her earliest days, Patsy Jefferson knows that though her father loves his family dearly, his devotion to his country runs deeper still.
As Thomas Jefferson’s oldest daughter, she becomes his helpmate, protector, and constant companion in the wake of her mother’s death, traveling with him when he becomes American minister to France.
It is in Paris, at the glittering court and among the first tumultuous days of revolution, that fifteen-year-old Patsy learns about her father’s troubling liaison with Sally Hemings, a slave girl her own age.
Meanwhile, Patsy has fallen in love—with her father’s protege William Short, a staunch abolitionist and ambitious diplomat. Torn between love, principles, and the bonds of family, Patsy questions whether she can choose a life as William’s wife and still be a devoted daughter.
Her choice will follow her in the years to come, to Virginia farmland, Monticello, and even the White House. And as scandal, tragedy, and poverty threaten her family, Patsy must decide how much she will sacrifice to protect her father's reputation, in the process defining not just his political legacy, but that of the nation he founded. (From the publisher.)
Author Bios
Stephanie Dray is a bestselling author of historical women's fiction. Her work has been translated into six different languages, was nominated for RWA s RITA Award, and won NJRW s Golden Leaf. She is a frequent panelist and presenter at national writing conventions and lives near the nation's capital. (From the publisher.)
Laura Kamoie is the bestselling author of historical fiction. She holds a doctoral degree in early American history from The College of William and Mary, published two non-fiction books on early America, and most recently held the position of Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy before transitioning to a full-time career writing fiction. Laura lives among the colonial charm of Annapolis, Maryland, with her husband and two daughters. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
This is a stunning historical novel that will keep you up late, hoping the engaging story never ends. Highly, highly recommended!
Historical Novel Society
At the age of 10, upon the death of her mother, Patsy Jefferson steps into the role of mistress of the house for her father, Thomas. Patsy, our narrator, recounts the story of a man of great contradictions.... A thorough and well-researched if sometimes flowery saga of the Jefferson family.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. If Thomas Jefferson’s wife hadn’t died, how might he and his daughter have lived different lives? Historically, Jefferson is said to have made a deathbed promise to his wife, and in the novel his daughter makes one as well. How might their lives have differed if they hadn’t made those deathbed promises?
2. As portrayed in the novel and in their letters to each other, how would you describe Jefferson and Patsy’s relationship with each other? Was Jefferson a good father? Did he change as a father over the course of the novel? Was Patsy a good daughter?
3. Does seeing Jefferson through his daughter’s eyes make him more relatable as a Founding Father? How so or why not?
4. The limited choices women had available to them in the Revolutionary era is one theme explored in this book. What were the most important choices Patsy made throughout her life? Do you agree with why she made them? Could or should she have chosen differently?
5. What did you think of Sally’s choice to return to Virginia with Jefferson? Why did she make that decision? What were her alternatives and how viable were they?
6. Another theme explored in this book is sacrifice. What does Patsy sacrifice in her effort to protect her father? What did Jefferson sacrifice? What did Sally sacrifice? What did William Short sacrifice?
7. Why does Patsy think her father needs to be protected? Why does she think she is the only one to do it? In what ways does she protect him? What do you think of Patsy’s effort to protect Jefferson? Would you have done the same thing?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)