Thank you for your interest in The Ghostwriter! I hope your book club enjoys it. Please see below, a list of questions you may want to use for your club. Also below - some fun facts about the novel! If you have any other questions you used, please email them to me - I'd love to add more questions to this short list.
Thank you for your support!
Alessandra
Book Club Questions:
How did you feel about Helena's mother? Do you feel as though she was in the right - trying to restrict Helena's time with Bethany? Do you think Helena was justified in cutting off contact with her after that day? Do you think she was a good mother? A good grandmother?
How different do you think the Ghostwriter/Author relationship would have been if Mark had been female? Would she have shared more sooner or held back things?
Did Simon actually love Helena? Or did he marry her as a cover?
If you were Helena in the panic room, would you have done the same thing she did?
Fun Facts about the book:
The most difficult part of writing this novel was creating the relationship between Helena and Mark. It was so hard for me - because I've always written romances. It was hard for me to create their relationship and grow it authentically.
This is the second book where I have an evil Simon character. Well.. technically it's the fourth book, because Simon was in the Deanna Madden trilogy. I swear, I don't have a Simon in my life that I'm exacting revenge on. I just love to hate that name.
Mater is named after an actual cow - my assistant, Tricia Crouch's cow. The birth scene research was conducted with her and her parents, who provided all of the necessary details to accurately describe the process.
This book was rejected by over fifteen publishers, who felt that the heroine was 'unrelatable' and that readers would be bored by the publishing and writing details. It went on to become a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery of the Year, and is now in development for a film version.
Originally, the book opened with Helena Ross getting dizzy and falling down the stairs, hitting her neck at an awkward angle and spending a day being temporarily paralyzed on the kitchen floor. She spent that time contemplating her life and fragility. She is found by Kate, who had grown worried when Helena had missed their weekly call. Kate and Helena had gone to the hospital, where her tumor was discovered.
This book took over a year to write and went through over twelve different drafts.