A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham Discussion Questions

 It was my turn to lead the book discussion at our mystery book group.  I like to have the questions printed for everyone so they can follow along.   I'm out of practice doing these :)  Click to enlarge.

 

 

Discussion Questions: A Daughter of Time

Cleaning off a Flash drive.... I always carry a Flash drive on my lanyard and it is handy but often full.  I even had to lend it to a program presenter recently when her own wouldn't work.  Tsk, would there be room and would she be gooning my Flash contents and be thinking hmmmm.  Not that I have Racy Beagle in Bikini photos or anything...

Click to enlarge!

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

This wonderful spy thriller features an operative in a secret British agency which deals with supernatural beasts and phenomena.

Our heroine, once known as Rook Myfanwy Thomas awakens in a park surrounded by dead people wearing latex gloves. She has no idea who she is or what could have happened to the people around her. In her coat pocket she finds an envelope with the first of many letters addressed "Dear You..."

The new Myfanwy is given a directive to get to a safe place that has been arranged for her where she will find more letters explaining her situation and giving her a choice of continuing Rook Thomas's life or making an escape to a new life.

Circumstances make it almost impossible not to continue on as Myfanwy, so the new Rook (a high level operative) carefully follows the advice in the letters.

With no memory of who she was or how to do her work she takes over Myfanwy's life and tries to find out who in the Chequy organization betrayed her and wiped her memory.

This is a fine mystery story, as we try to figure out who the traitors in the organization are, and what they might be trying to do using Myfanwy as a tool.

We learn who the "original" Myfanwy was and see the "new" Myfanwy grow in her confidence and her powers in ways the lost Myfanwy could not manage.

The writing is light and breezy, has plenty of humor, and yet it is a suspenseful read. The ending leaves plenty of room for a sequel, thank heavens.




Discussion Questions for the Rook:

If you knew you were going to lose your memory as Myfanwy has, what are the top five things you would want you to tell you?

Would you choose to live Myfanwy’s life or would you have taken the money and run?

Who was your suspect for Myfanwy’s attempted murderer? What made you suspect them?

Did the author play fair and leave enough clues for you to see who the second traitor was?

Do you think that the letters left behind by the “original” Myfanwy fill in background information, help propel the story forward, and flesh out the character and life of the real Myfanwy or do they break up the narrative?

As Myfanwy was investigating her potential murder/memory wipe she seemed to be changing, growing bolder, and using her abilities a bit more. Do you agree? Is the “new” more “take charge” Myfanwy an expected development?

Is the history of the Grafters believable? Would their “technology” be possible even as a result of some supernatural power?

Would you categorize The Rook as a mystery, a spy novel or science fiction?

Do the Rooks in the the Chequy operate within their organization as Rooks do in the game of chess? If not, why name the book “The Rook”?

The Americans operate their organization very differently, from day to day operations to how they recruit. Do you think they would be as effective as the uber efficient Chequy?

D.O.A. Recommends Red Knife by William Kent Krueger

The powerful eighth book in William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor mystery series opens with a young Anishinaabeg warrior preparing for his first war party. This traditional scene and the fear and ultimate triumph the boy feels over his foe leads the story into modern day tensions where rules and transitions to manhood are not so clear cut.

A group of young men who call themselves the “Red Boyz” defiantly take the name of Ojibwe war chiefs when they join the gang. Led by Alexander Kingbird “Kakaik”, they stand together against increasing hatred in the small town where they live, that hatred fueled by the death of a daughter of a wealthy businessman.

Cork O’Connor, former sheriff, now a PI, often walks a fine line between his Ojibwe heritage and his white heritage. In Red Knife, he is challenged to choose sides. For his family’s sake he tries to stay out of the oncoming battle but he cannot escape it, he is forced to fight.

I find his character to be so interesting for his deep spirituality. He mixes Catholicism and Ojibwe mysticism as if they went together naturally. I love the way he cares deeply for his family, especially his children. I have found his wife Jo a little hard to take in the past, but here she finally seems to soften.

William Kent Krueger spotlights so many other relationships in the book as well, husband/wife, parent/child, friendships, communities such as the Red Boyz and the tribal elders and how they interact. There is so much raw emotion everywhere in the book, and yet everyone on the surface tries to portray utter calm. That keeps the reader on edge, just waiting for dozens of things to boil over, and boil over they surely do.

Without spoiling the ending, I will say it could appear that this might be the end of the series. I’m sure there are many more Cork O’ Connor stories to tell, especially since he has made the choice to stand with one side of what can only be an ongoing conflict.

Discussion Questions for Red Knife (added 3/26/2013)

Discussion Questions for Red Knife by William Kent Krueger

 

1.      How does the prologue describing the attack on an unsuspecting enemy tribe tie in with the rest of the book?

 

2.      Could there have been a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the Red Boyz and Buck Reinhardt or was violence inevitable?

 

 

3.      What makes Cork decide to join in on the attack on the Latin Lords?

 

4.      Although that attack appeared to be successful, will the drug lords really stay away?

 

 

5.      Why does Cork leave his guns with Henry Meloux?

 

6.      What is Henry Meloux’s role in this novel?  If you have read other books in the series, is his role the same or does it change over time?

 

 

7.      Why do the Anishinaabe trust Cork?  Do the Caucasian characters trust him?  Why or why not?

 

8.      How does Cork balance his deep Catholicism with his Anishinaabe beliefs?

 

 

9.      William Kent Krueger adeptly focuses on relationships such as husband/wife, parent/child, friendships, and communities such as the Red Boyz and the tribal elders.  Discuss some of these relationships and how they affect the fates of the characters in Red Knife.

 

10.  Does the school shooting at the end of the novel tie in with or reflect the situation in the prologue or other incidents in the novel?   How?  Was this event foreshadowed in any way?

 

 

11.  William Kent Krueger has said that Red Knife was inspired by the violence of the Red Lake Minnesota school shootings:

“Red Knife is a book about violence, which is something I've been thinking a good deal about over the past several years. In March of 2005 on the Red Lake Reservation in northwestern Minnesota, the worst school shooting in this nation's history up to that point in time occurred. But it wasn't the first fatal school shooting in Minnesota. Two years before that in a small town west of the Twin Cities a high school student shot one of his classmates to death. These tragedies disturbed me greatly. And I began to reflect on violence in our culture and in other cultures and have become convinced that, despite all our lip service about being a peace-loving nation and people, we have perpetuated a belief system that encourages violence as the most legitimate response to threat. Red Knife was the result of all that rather grim rumination.”

12.    How does the violence that permeates the story of Red Knife reflect the violence of the Red Lake shootings?


Author background and bibliography added 3/26/13

Author Background William Kent Krueger: Red Knife

William Kent Krueger was born November 16, 1950 in Torrington, Wyoming.  His family moved around frequently in his youth.  He went to Stanford University and participated in protests which got him kicked out of school.  He worked as a logger and in the construction industry.  During these years he wrote articles for magazines and newspapers.

He met and married his college sweetheart Diane and moved to St Paul, MN in 1980.  Kent began writing short stories and found that he wrote most effectively in a notebook at the St Clair Boiler.  It was there that he also wrote his first novel “Iron Lake.” 

Part Irish, part Anishinaabe/Ojibwe, Cork O'Connor is a Chicago policeman who returns to his hometown of Aurora with his lawyer wife, Jo, and their three children to take a job as sheriff.—Iron Lake

William Kent Krueger travels with fellow authors Ellen Hart and Carl Brookins as the Minnesota Crime Wave.  Together they have produced two anthologies of short stories by Minnesota authors: Silence of the Loons and Resort to Murder.  The Crime Wave also hosts a mystery program on CTV-15 called Minnesota Crime Wave Presents.  They interview local authors, discuss mystery writing and mystery novels.  Visit the Minnesota Crime Wave at http://www.minnesotacrimewave.org/index.html

The Cork O’ Connor Novels

Iron Lake                1998

Boundary Waters    1999

Purgatory Ridge     2001

Blood Hollow       2004

Mercy Falls           2005

Copper River         2006

Thunder Bay          2007

Red Knife             2008

Heaven’s Keep     2009

Vermillion Drift      2010

Northwest Angle     2011

Trickster’s Point    2012

Standalone novels:

The Devil’s Bed 2003

Ordinary Grace   2013

William Kent Krueger’s Web site:     http://www.williamkentkrueger.com/index.html