Sunburn
Laura Lippman, 2018
HarperCollins
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062389923
Summary
Laura Lippman returns with a superb novel of psychological suspense about a pair of lovers with the best intentions and the worst luck: two people locked in a passionate yet uncompromising game of cat and mouse. But instead of rules, this game has dark secrets, forbidden desires, inevitable betrayals—and cold-blooded murder.
One is playing a long game. But which one?
They meet at a local tavern in the small town of Belleville, Delaware. Polly is set on heading west. Adam says he’s also passing through. Yet she stays and he stays—drawn to this mysterious redhead whose quiet stillness both unnerves and excites him.
Over the course of a punishing summer, Polly and Adam abandon themselves to a steamy, inexorable affair. Still, each holds something back from the other—dangerous, even lethal, secrets.
Then someone dies. Was it an accident, or part of a plan? By now, Adam and Polly are so ensnared in each other’s lives and lies that neither one knows how to get away—or even if they want to. Is their love strong enough to withstand the truth, or will it ultimately destroy them?
Something—or someone—has to give. Which one will it be?
Inspired by James M. Cain’s masterpieces The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, and Mildred Pierce, Sunburn is a tantalizing modern noir from the incomparable Laura Lippman. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 31, 1959
• Where—Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• Education—B.S., Northwestern University
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in Baltimore, Maryland
Lippman was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman Jr., a well known and respected writer at the Baltimore Sun, and Madeline Lippman, a retired school librarian for the Baltimore City Public School System. She attended high school in Columbia, Maryland, where she was the captain of the Wilde Lake High School It's Academic team.
Lippman is a former reporter for the (now defunct) San Antonio Light and the Baltimore Sun. She is best known for writing a series of novels set in Baltimore and featuring Tess Monaghan, a reporter (like Lippman herself) turned private investigator.
Lippman's works have won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Nero, Gumshoe and Shamus awards. Her 2007 release, What the Dead Know, was the first of her books to make the New York Times bestseller list, and was shortlisted for the Crime Writer's Association Dagger Award. In addition to the Tess Monaghan novels, Lippman wrote 2003's Every Secret Thing, which has been optioned for the movies by Academy Award–winning actor Frances McDormand.
Lippman lives in the South Baltimore neighborhood of Federal Hill and frequently writes in the neighborhood coffee shop Spoons. In addition to writing, she teaches at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, just outside of Baltimore. In January, 2007, she taught at the 3rd Annual Writers in Paradise at Eckerd College.
Lippman is married to David Simon, another former Baltimore Sun reporter, and creator and an executive producer of the HBO series The Wire. The character Bunk is shown to be reading one of her books in episode eight of the first season of The Wire. She appeared in a scene of the first episode of the last season of The Wire as a reporter working in the Baltimore Sun newsroom.
Awards
2015 Anthony Award-Best Novel (After I'm Gone)
2008 Anthony Award-Best Novel (What the Dead Know)
2008 Anthony Award-Best Short Story ("Hardly Knew Her")
2008 Barry Award-Best Novel (What the Dead Know)
2008 Macavity Award-Best Mystery (What the Dead Know)
2007 Anthony Award-Best Novel (No Good Deeds)
2007 Quill Award-Mystery (What the Dead Know)
2006 Gumshow Award-Best Novel (To the Power of the Three)
2004 Barry Award-Best Novel (Every Secret Thing)
2001 Nero Award (Sugar House)
2000 Anthony Award-Best Paperback Original (In Big Trouble)
2000 Shamus Award-Best Paperback Original (In Big Trouble)
1999 Anthony Award-Best Paperback Original (Butchers Hill)
1998 Agatha Award-Best Novel (Butchers Hill)
1998 Edgar Award-Best Paperback Original (Charm City)
1998 Shamus Award-Best Paperback Original (Charm City)
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Laura Lippman's Sunburn may be set in 1995, before Google searches made it a whole lot harder to vanish and start afresh elsewhere, but it takes its inspiration…from '40s noir: Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, The Postman Always Rings Twice…Sunburn, though cool and twisty, has more heart than expected. It's generous in other ways, too. The particular atmosphere of unlovely Belleville is deftly conveyed…People move in and out of the narrative with their own baggage and preoccupations. What they choose to tell us is very subjective and not always directly relevant, and this clamor of voices gives the novel satisfying depth and texture. There's a sense here that we're brushing up against many lives, many versions of the truth.
Harriet Lane - New York Times Book Review
I feel like it creates a whole new category, which I’m thinking of as "femme noir."… She’s taken this traditional noir structure of a man sweeping in to save a woman who then turns around and eats his heart out—she’s turned that notion on its head.
Wall Street Journal
The ingenious plot evolves into myriad twists that are as believable as they are surprising.… Sunburn delivers one of the year’s most intriguing mysteries.
Associated Press Staff
A masterful mix from a total pro.
People
(Starred review) [S]corching. Adam’s part in her potential downfall—comes to a boiling point. This is Lippman at her observant, fiercest best, a force to be reckoned with in crime fiction.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Lippman's complicated femme fatale heroine and conflicted hero are more layered than one would expect from noir protagonists…. With an economy of words, she creates three-dimensional characters.… [A] tasty feast of a novel. —Liz French
Library Journal
(Starred review) Ingeniously constructed and extremely suspenseful, the novel keeps us guessing right up until its final moments. Lippman is a popular and dependable writer, and this homage to classic noir showcases a writer at the height of her powers.
Booklist
(Starred review) Lippman’s version of the sexy stranger passing through town.… [Her] trademark is populating a whodunit with characters so believably complicated they don’t need the mystery to carry the book.… Plotty, page-turning pleasure plus.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, please use our LitLovers GENERIC MYSTERY QUESTIONS to start a discussion for Sunburn … then take off on your own:
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?
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Reminders
Val Emmich, 2017
Little, Brown and Company
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316316996
Summary
Grief-stricken over his partner Sydney's death, Gavin sets fire to every reminder in the couple's home before fleeing Los Angeles for New Jersey, where he hopes to find peace with the family of an old friend. Instead, he finds Joan.
Joan, the family's ten-year-old daughter, was born Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, or HSAM: the rare ability to recall every day of her life in cinematic detail. Joan has never met Gavin until now, but she did know his partner, and waiting inside her uncanny mind are startlingly vivid memories to prove it.
Gavin strikes a deal with Joan: in return for sharing her memories of Sydney, Gavin will help her win a songwriting contest she's convinced will make her unforgettable. The unlikely duo set off on their quest until Joan reveals unexpected details about Sydney's final months, forcing Gavin to question not only the purity of his past with Sydney but the course of his own immediate future.
Told in the alternating voices of these two irresistible characters, The Reminders is a hilarious and tender exploration of loss, memory, friendship, and renewal. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1978-79
• Raised—Manalapan, New Jersey, USA
• Education—B.A., Rutgers University
• Currently—lives in Jersey City, New Jersey
Dubbed a "Renaissance Man" by the New York Post, Val Emmich is a writer, singer-songwriter, actor, and now, with his 2017 The Reminders, a novelist. Raised in Manalapan, New Jersey, Emmich attended Rutgers University. Today, he lives with his wife and children in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Music
Emmich has been writing music since he was 15, and he signed his first record deal after graduating from Rutgers. Since then, he has released more than a dozen albums and toured the country several times over. Newark's Star-Ledger referred to him as "one of the finest songwriters in the Garden State, [and] also one of the most prolific."
Acting
Emmich has also been acting since he was 18 with recurring roles on Vinyl, The Big C, and Ugly Betty. He has also played Liz Lemon's "coffee-boy" on 30 Rock.
Writing
As he told NJ.com, Emmich had talked about writing a novel for so long it became a "running joke" among his friends:
I started writing long-form fiction in 2007, that's when I started my first novel, and it's been ten years of struggle. I wrote two other novels that weren't any good and didn't get me an agent or anywhere, and in 2013, I began this one — my third try. Then I got an agent in 2015 and it's finally being published in 2017, so it feels like a solid decade of "I WANNA WRITE A BOOK."
That book, of course, is his debut, The Reminders, the story of a gifted 10-year-old girl and her collaboration with a 30-year-old actor struggling with grief. The novel has been well reviewed and optioned for film. (Adapted from various online sources, including the author's website. Retrieved 6/13/2017.)
Book Reviews
Like Nick Hornby, Emmich has a knack for avoiding the treacly and saccharine while finding magic in unlikely relationships.
National Book Review
Charming, raw and filled with empathy and sorrow, The Reminders is also a refreshing look into the lives of people on the road to healing and new purpose, and for these reasons alone I give The Reminders five stars.
Aquarian
[T]his is a sad, sweet story of the pain and joy of the past, the curse of remembering everything, and the importance of new friendships.
Book Riot
Beautiful and beguiling, a story that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.
Popsugar
Emmich's quirky first novel tracks the developing friendship between 10-year-old Joan and 30-something Gavin as they unite to try to win a songwriting contest.… Told in the alternating voices of Joan and Gavin, and illustrated with doodled line drawings from Joan's journal, the breezy novel raises intriguing questions about the nature of memory.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) This adorable first novel alternates between two strangers who come together in a quirky way.… Emmich captures the voices of Joan and Gavin, two such different characters, brilliantly.… [A] quirky, touching, and addictive read. —Beth Gibbs, Davidson, NC
Library Journal
Charming and relatable.
Booklist
Overwhelmingly tender, sometimes verging on saccharine, the novel gets by on its profoundly likable pair of leading characters: what the book lacks in bite, it makes up for in charm. Heartfelt and charming; a book that goes down easy.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, please use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Reminders ...then take off on your own:
1. Joan Sully's memory of events in her life is infallible, and she wonders why other peoples' memories are so innacurate. As she says,
I don't understand how people can pretend something happened differently than it actually did, but Dad says they don't even realize they're pretending.
Why are human memories inaccurate? Is it because we want our life to be "like fairy tales… simpler and funnier and hahppier and more exciting than how life really is"? How accurate are your own memories (how would you know, of course, but do others ever challenge your version of events)?
2. What are the downsides of having a perfect memory — for Joan and those around her?
3. Talk about Gavin Winter's reaction to the death of Sydney — his need to rid himself of all the reminders of their life together. What is your reaction to Gavin's reaction?
4. How does Gavin respond to Joan when they first meet? How does he think she can help him? What does Gavin begin to learn about Sydney through Joan?
5. What happens to a person's understanding of someone when new information emerges about that individual? How unnerving would that be? How unnerving is it to Gavin when he learns that Sydney seemed to be hiding secrets from him?
6. (Follow-up to Question 5) The question the book explores is this: what is identity? Is it possible to truly know someone? If your perceptions of someone turnout to be far different from reality, what is "reality" — and who is that person?
7. One reviewer has written that this story tugs at the heartstrings without turning maudlin. Do you agree? If so, how does the author accomplish it — what prevents the novel from becoming saccharine?
8. Joan and Gavin tell their stories in alternating chapters. Why might the author have chosen shifting point-of-views? Does this stucture enhance or detract from your enjoyment? How would you describe the two characters? Do you find them appealing, engaging, believable?
9. What does Gavin come to understand about both himself and Sydney by the end of the novel? How is Joan changed by the end?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Female Persuasion
Meg Wolitzer, 2018
Penguin Publishing
464 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781594488405
Summary
An electric, multilayered novel about ambition, power, friendship, and mentorship, and the romantic ideals we all follow deep into adulthood, not just about who we want to be with, but who we want to be.
To be admired by someone we admire—we all yearn for this: the private, electrifying pleasure of being singled out by someone of esteem.
But sometimes it can also mean entry to a new kind of life, a bigger world.
Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman when she meets the woman she hopes will change her life. Faith Frank, dazzlingly persuasive and elegant at sixty-three, has been a central pillar of the women's movement for decades, a figure who inspires others to influence the world.
Upon hearing Faith speak for the first time, Greer—madly in love with her boyfriend, Cory, but still full of longing for an ambition that she can't quite place—feels her inner world light up.
And then, astonishingly, Faith invites Greer to make something out of that sense of purpose, leading Greer down the most exciting path of her life as it winds toward and away from her meant-to-be love story with Cory and the future she'd always imagined.
Charming and wise, knowing and witty, Meg Wolitzer delivers a novel about power and influence, ego and loyalty, womanhood and ambition. At its heart, The Female Persuasion is about the flame we all believe is flickering inside of us, waiting to be seen and fanned by the right person at the right time.
It's a story about the people who guide and the people who follow (and how those roles evolve over time), and the desire within all of us to be pulled into the light. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 28, 1959
• Where—Brooklyn, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Brown University
• Awards—National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1994; Best
American Short Stories, 1999; Pushcart Prize; 1998
• Currently—New York, New York
Meg Wolitzer grew up around books. Her mother, Hilma Wolitzer, published two novels while Meg was still in school, and weekly trips to the library were a ritual the entire family looked forward to. Not surprisingly, Meg served as editor for her junior high and high school literary magazines.
She graduated from Brown University in 1981. One year later, she published her debut novel, Sleepwalking, the story of three college girls bonded by an unhealthy fascination with suicidal women poets. It marked the beginning of a successful writing career that shows no sign of slacking.
Over the years, Wolitzer has proven herself a deft chronicler of intense, unconventional relationships, especially among women. She has explored with wit and sensitivity the dynamics of fractured families (This Is Your Life, The Position); the devastating effects of death (Surrender, Dorothy), the challenges of friendship (Friends for Life), and the prospective minefield of gender, identity, and dashed expectations (Hidden Pictures, The Wife, The Ten-Year Nap, The Interestings).
In addition to her bestselling novels, Wolitzer has written a number of screenplays. Her short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize, and she has also taught writing at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and at Skidmore College.
Extras
From a Barnes & Noble interview:
• First of all, I am obsessed with playing Scrabble. It relaxes me between fits of writing, and I play online, in a bizarro world of anonymous, competitive players. It's my version of smoking or drinking—a guilty pleasure. The thing is, I love words, anagrams, wordplay, cryptic crossword puzzles, and anything to do with the language.
• I also love children's books, and feel a great deal of nostalgia for some of them from my own childhood (Harriet the Spy and The Phantom Tollbooth among others) as well as from my children's current lives. I have an idea for a kids' book that I might do someday, though right now my writing schedule is full up.
• Humor is very important to me in life and work. I take pleasure from laughing at movies, and crying at books, and sometimes vice versa. I also have recently learned that I like performing. I think that writers shouldn't get up at a reading and give a dull, chant-like reading from their book. They should perform; they should do what they need to do to keep readers really listening. I've lately had the opportunity to do some performing on public radio, as well as singing with a singer I admire, Suzzy Roche, formerly of the Roches, a great group that started in 1979. Being onstage provides a dose of gratification that most writers never get to experience.
• But mostly, writing a powerful novel—whether funny or serious, or of course both—is my primary goal. When I hear that readers have been affected by something I've written, it's a relief. I finally have come to no longer fear that I'm going to have to go to law school someday....
• When asked what book most influenced her career as a writer, here is her response:
Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell—this is the perfect modern novel. Short, concise, moving, and about a character you come to care about, despite her limitations. It reminds me of life. It takes place over a span of time, and it's hilarious, tragic, and always stirring.
Book Reviews
Of Greer's interest in language, Wolitzer…writes, "All written words danced in a chain for her." And the same could be said of the author herself, who writes in warm, specific prose that neither calls attention to itself nor ignores the mandate of the best books: to tell us things we know in ways we never thought to know them.… [The Female Persuasion] is an ambitious 456 pages, tight but inclusive, and deserves to be placed on shelves alongside such ornate modern novels beginning in college as A Little Life, The Secret History and The Marriage Plot.… When all is said and done, Wolitzer is an infinitely capable creator of human identities that are as real as the type on this page, and her love of her characters shines more brightly than any agenda.
Lena Denham - New York Times Book Review
[Wolitzer is] old-fashioned in the best sense, a spiritual descendant of writers like Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë. Her novels blend philosophical matters with acute social commentary, grappling with ideas as robust as the characters she brings to life.
Wall Street Journal Magazine
Wolitzer understands—seemingly on a cellular level—the puzzled, needy heart that beats within any teenager.… [T]he book is full of Wolitzer’s trademark wit and insight.
Washington Post
A big, fat, delicious book about feminism and the power of female mentorship.
Los Angeles Times
Wolitzer is at her best when dropping wry but casual observations. The pages are peppered with little bonbons of accuracy.
Chicago Tribune
Wit and description are a few of Wolitzer's many strengths. … The work masterfully captures the highs, lows and unexpected twists of the idealistic life.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Wolitzer’s social commentary can be as funny as it is queasily on target.
USA Today
Wolitzer's talent as a writer shines in lines that say more in a sentence than most writers do in paragraphs.… One can only hope that her readers—of the male and female persuasion—will keep the conversation going after the last page.
Associated Press
Wolitzer’s ultra-readable latest illuminates the oceanic complexity of growing up female and ambitious—and reveals the author’s substantial insight into the tangles of gender and power.
Vogue
It takes readers to that sweet spot where fiction mirrors reality.… Filled with lighthearted moments and romantic detours, it’s equal parts cotton candy and red meat, in the best way.
People
[Wolitzer is] a keen humanist with a singular gift for social observation.
Entertainment Weekly
Wolitzer’s engrossing new novel, The Female Persuasion, is something of a rebel yell, slapping gender right in the title and confronting the question, What does a feminist look like?…So when you’re done binge-reading your copy, hand it off to a fellow literature lover. He’ll thank you for it.
Elle
(Starred review) Wolitzer writes with an easy, engrossing style and… seamlessly connects all the dots in the… four major story lines. This insightful and resonant novel explores what it is to both embrace womanhood and suffer because of it.
Publishers Weekly
The three true-to-life protagonists face struggles that will interest young adult readers because of the book's weighty and relevant themes. Here, they will also find a powerful character-driven coming-of-age story told in a stark, wry voice. —Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA
School Library Journal
(Starred review) Sweeping yet intimate.… In a complex web of friends, lovers, mentors, and rivals, Wolitzer compassionately and artfully discerns the subtle strengths at the core of these essential connections.
Booklist
(Starred review) A decade in the life of a smart, earnest young woman trying to make her way in the world.… This symphonic book feels both completely up-to-the-minute …with a can't-put-it-down plot that illuminates both its characters and larger social issues. The perfect feminist blockbuster for our times.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The Female Persuasion is about the relationship between a young woman and her mentor. What does Greer learn from Faith, and vice versa? In what ways do Greer and Faith surprise or disappoint each other? Have you ever had someone come into your life and change it forever?
2. Greer and Cory are high school sweethearts, but their romance is much deeper than their age might suggest. How do the social settings of their hometown and their families turn them into the couple that they are? Discuss the class differences between Greer’s family and Cory’s. How do family origins affect the characters’ ambitions?
3. Cory is entirely consumed by grief after a family tragedy. Talk about the ways in which grief can change a person’s goals. How does it alter Cory’s life path? What do you think about Greer’s reaction to Cory’s grief-induced changes? Is she right to give him space? Is he right to push her away? Could this moment in their relationship have gone any other way?
4. Compare Zee’s childhood with Greer’s. Have their backgrounds influenced the people they have grown up to be, or the decisions they make, or the ambitions they follow?
5. What do you think about Greer’s treatment of Zee and its effect on their friendship and their lives? Do you recognize Greer’s emotional response to the idea of sharing her job with Zee? Were you surprised by Zee’s reaction when she found out what really happened?
6. How has feminism changed between Faith’s youth and Greer’s youth? What do their generational differences show about the nature of progress? Discuss the portrayal of women’s advocacy as it evolves over the course of the book.
7. Faith Frank and Emmett Shrader have a long and complicated history. Do you empathize with Emmett’s character at any point? Do you judge Faith for accepting his funding?
8. At the end of the novel, Greer is forced to make a difficult decision about the Ecuador project. Do you think she makes the right choice? Would Faith have made the same choice if their roles were reversed?
9. Think about the way Faith and Greer’s relationship comes to an end. Do you think it’s for the best? Was it inevitable? By the end of the book, did you still love Faith Frank the way Greer did, despite her flaws, or had your opinion changed? Do you think it’s possible for Greer to move past her love for Faith, or will she always be haunted by it?
10. Wolitzer suggests that there are certain key people, events, and relationships that change the course of our lives. Obviously, Faith does this for Greer. Which other relationships might illustrate this kind of power? Think about Greer’s influence on Cory, and his on her; think about Zee’s life; think about Faith and Emmett. You might even think about Alby’s influence, long-term, on all of them.
(Questions issued by the publishers.)
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The Girl He Used to Know
Tracey Garvis Graves, 2019
St. Martin's Press
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250200358
Summary
A compelling, hopelessly romantic novel of unconditional love.
Annika (rhymes with Monica) Rose is an English major at the University of Illinois. Anxious in social situations where she finds most people's behavior confusing, she'd rather be surrounded by the order and discipline of books or the quiet solitude of playing chess.
Jonathan Hoffman joined the chess club and lost his first game—and his heart—to the shy and awkward, yet brilliant and beautiful Annika. He admires her ability to be true to herself, quirks and all, and accepts the challenges involved in pursuing a relationship with her.
Jonathan and Annika bring out the best in each other, finding the confidence and courage within themselves to plan a future together.
What follows is a tumultuous yet tender love affair that withstands everything except the unforeseen tragedy that forces them apart, shattering their connection and leaving them to navigate their lives alone.
Now, a decade later, fate reunites Annika and Jonathan in Chicago. She's living the life she wanted as a librarian. He's a Wall Street whiz, recovering from a divorce and seeking a fresh start. The attraction and strong feelings they once shared are instantly rekindled, but until they confront the fears and anxieties that drove them apart, their second chance will end before it truly begins. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Tracey Garvis Graves is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction.
Her 2011 debut novel, On the Island, spent 9 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into thirty-one languages, and is in development with MGM and Temple Hill Productions for a feature film. Her second novel, The Girl He Used to Know came out in 2019.
She is also the author of the e-books, Uncharted, Covet, Every Time I Think of You, Cherish, Heart-Shaped Hack, and White-Hot Hack. She is hard at work on her next book. (From the publisher .)
Book Reviews
An accidental meeting rekindles the romance between former college lovers Annika and Jonathan. Endearing characters will reinforce your faith in people's goodness.
Good Housekeeping
There are a lot of romantic books coming out in April, but none quite like The Girl He Used to Know.
Cosmopolitan
Unputdownable
Refinery29
Graves does a good job of putting readers in Annika’s shoes and setting up the foundation for the book’s ending, though the narrative often gets mired in lengthy lovey-dovey scenes. Readers who don’t mind the over-the-top emotional element will find a solid story here.
Publishers Weekly
[S]eparated by tragedy [Annika and Jonathan] meet again years later. She's a librarian (of course), he's a divorced Wall Street genius, and maybe their love has withstood what they've endured. Big promo, much love; from the New York Times best-selling author of On the Island.
Library Journal
Graves's strong, autistic heroine fights for the love she once lost in this sensitive, affecting romance.
Shelf Awareness
Graves creates a believable love affair in which Annika is not infantilized but rather fully realized as simply different. And her differences become her strengths when catastrophe strikes, compelling Annika to take the lead for the first time in her life. A heartwarming, neurodiverse love story.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE GIRL HE USED TO KNOW … then take off on your own:
1. As a high-functioning autistic student, Annika struggled in her first year of college. Talk about her initial experiences in this new environment, particularly her difficulties meeting and relating to people. How does her roommate help her? Might Janice's kindness and friendship been something you would have offered a shy, awkward loner?
2. Janice introduced Annika to the chess club. What is it about the game of chess that so appealed to Annika? Why the powerful pull to the game?
3. The story is told through both Annika's and Jonathan's perspectives. Why might the author have chosen both points-of-view rather than, say, only Annika's?
4. Ten years after college and living in Chicago, how has Annika changed from her younger days? Where does she find solace, and what has she come to accept about her life? After bumping into Jonathan, she thinks "I desire
5. Describe pair's grocery store meeting: how does each feel, what emotions run through them? Have you ever been in a similar situation—bumping into a former love interest after years apart?
6. How well does Tracey Gravis Graves present Annika's autism? Do you consider her a well-rounded character, do you feel you know her, understand her confusions in social situations? Do you sympathize with her—without pitying her?
7. How would you describe Jonathan? Why is he so leery of getting involved with Annika when they meet ten years on?
8. Are you satisfied with the way the book ended?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Magpie Murders
Anthony Horowitz, 2017
HarperCollins
496 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062645227
Summary
This fiendishly brilliant, riveting thriller weaves a classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie into a chilling, ingeniously original modern-day mystery.
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others
After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.
Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.
Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—April 5, 1955
• Where—Stanmore, Middlesex, UK
• Education—University of York
• Awards—Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award
• Currently—lives in London, England
Anthony Horowitz, OBE is a prolific English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His work for children and teenagers includes The Diamond Brothers series, the Alex Rider series, and The Power of Five series (aka The Gatekeepers). His work for adults includes the novel and play Mindgame (2001) and two Sherlock Holmes novels, The House of Silk (2011) and Moriarty (2014). He has also written extensively for television, contributing numerous scripts to ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot and Midsomer Murders. He was the creator and principal writer of the three ITV series—Foyle's War, Collision and Injustice.
Personal life
Horowitz was born in Stanmore, Middlesex, into a wealthy Jewish family, and in his early years lived an upper-middle class lifestyle. As an overweight and unhappy child, Horowitz enjoyed reading books from his father's library. At the age of eight, Horowitz was sent to the boarding school Orley Farm in Harrow, Middlesex. There, he entertained his peers by telling them the stories he had read. Overall, however, Horowitz described his time in the school as "a brutal experience," recalling that he was often beaten by the headmaster. At age 13 he went on to Rugby School and discovered a love for writing.
Horowitz adored his mother, who introduced him to Frankenstein and Dracula. She also gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. Horowitz said in an interview that it reminds him to get to the end of each story since he will soon look like the skull. From the age of eight, he knew he wanted to be a writer, realizing "the only time when I'm totally happy is when I'm writing." He graduated from the University of York with a lower second class degree in English literature and art history in 1977.
Horowitz's father was associated with some of the politicians in the "circle" of prime minister Harold Wilson, including Eric Miller. Facing bankruptcy, he moved his assets into Swiss numbered bank accounts. He died from cancer when his son Anthony was 22, and the family was never able to track down the missing money despite years of trying.
Horowitz now lives in Central London with his wife Jill Green. They have two sons whom he credits with much of his success in writing. They help him, he says, with ideas and research. He is a patron of child protection charity Kidscape.
Early writing
Horowitz published his first children's book, The Sinister Secret of Frederick K Bower in 1979 and, in 1981, a second, Misha, the Magician and the Mysterious Amulet. In 1983 he released the first of the Pentagram series, The Devil's Door-Bell, which was followed by three more in the series until the final in 1986.
In between his novels, Horowitz worked with Richard Carpenter on the Robin of Sherwood television series, writing five episodes of the third season. He also novelized three of Carpenter's episodes as a children's book under the title Robin Sherwood: The Hooded Man (1986). In addition, he created Crossbow (1987), a half-hour action adventure series loosely based on William Tell.
Starting in 1988, Horowitz published two Groosham Grange novels, partially based on his boarding school years. The first won the 1989 Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award.
The major release in his early career was The Falcon's Malteser (1986), which became the first in the eight-book Diamond Brothers series. The book was filmed for television in 1989 as Just Ask for Diamond. The series' final installment was issued in 2008.
Midcareer writing
Horowitz wrote numerous stand alone novels in the 1990s, but in 2000 he began the Alex Rider novels—about a 14-year-old boy becoming a spy for the British Secret Service branch MI6. The series is comprised of nine books (a tenth is connected but not part of it) with the final installment released in 2011.
Another series, The Power of Five (The Gatekeepers in the U.S.) began in 2005 with Raven's Gate—"Alex Rider with witches and devils," Horowitz called it. Five books in all were published by 2012
Horowitz also turned to playwrighting with Mindgame, which opened Off Broadway in 2009 at the Soho Playhouse in New York City. The production starred Keith Carradine, Lee Godart, and Kathleen McNenny; it was the New York stage directorial debut for Ken Russell
The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle selected Horowitz as the writer of a new Sherlock Holmes novel, the first such effort to receive an official endorsement. The resulting book, The House of Silk, came out in 2011, followed by Moriarty in 2014.
Horowitz was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to literature.
TV and film
Horowitz's association with televised murder mysteries began with the adaptation of several Hercule Poirot stories for ITV's popular Agatha Christie's Poirot series during the 1990s.
Starting in 1997, he wrote the majority of the episodes in the early series of Midsomer Murders. In 2001, he created a drama anthology series of his own for the BBC, Murder in Mind, an occasional series which deals with a different set of characters and a different murder every one-hour episode.
He is also less-favourably known for the creation of two short-lived and sometimes derided science-fiction shows, Crime Traveller (1997) for BBC One and The Vanishing Man (pilot 1996, series 1998) for ITV. The successful 2002 launch of the detective series Foyle's War, set during the Second World War, helped to restore his reputation as one of Britain's foremost writers of popular drama.
He devised the 2009 ITV crime drama Collision and co-wrote the screenplay with Michael A. Walker. Horowitz is the writer of a feature film screenplay, The Gathering, released in 2003 and starring Christina Ricci. He wrote the screenplay for Alex Rider's first major motion picture, Stormbreaker. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 12/1/2014.)
Book Reviews
Each of the narratives…is engaging and fluid, each with its own charm, though Horowitz’s joyful act of Christie ventriloquism is, in particular, spectacularly impressive.
Washington Post
An ingenious funhouse mirror of a novel sets a vintage "cozy" mystery inside a modern frame.
Wall Street Journal
Horowitz…has devised an ingenious whodunit within a whodunit, a metamystery with Agatha Christie roots.
Oprah Magazine
There’s much to enjoy in Anthony Horowitz’s spry, sardonic Magpie Murders.
Guardian (UK)
An ingenious novel-within-a-novel . . . part crime novel, part pastiche, this magnificent piece of crime fiction plays with the genre while also taking it seriously.
Sunday Times (UK)
Superbly written, with great suspects, a perfect period feel, and a cracking reveal at the end.
Spectator (UK)
Anthony Horowitz has devised a fiendish mystery within a mystery that will have you hooked from page one. We loved this Agatha Christie-esque crime novel.
Good Housekeeping (UK edition)
A stylish, multi-layered thriller—playful, ingenious and wonderfully entertaining.
Sunday Mirror (UK)
A compendium of dark delights.… A brilliant pastiche of the English village mystery and a hugely enjoyable tale of avarice and skullduggery in the world of publishing.
Irish Times
This can only be described as incredibly clever—but what else would you expect from Horowitz?
Glasgow Herald
(Starred review.) [A] tour de force that both honors and pokes fun at the genre.…Horowitz throws in several wicked twists as the narrative builds to a highly satisfying explanation of the prologue.
Publishers Weekly
Agatha Christie fans will line up for this salute to Golden Age whodunits.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) A preternaturally brainy novel within a novel.… Fans who still mourn the passing of Agatha Christie, the model who's evoked here in dozens of telltale details, will welcome this wildly inventive homage/update/commentary as the most fiendishly clever puzzle—make that two puzzles—of the year.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available. In the meantime, use our generic mystery questions …then take off on your own:
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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