NightWriters and friends,
We hope you enjoyed the first book of our online book club The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry. Don’t forget that she will be a keynote speaker at the 30th Central Coast Writers Conference at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo this September! Below is a list of questions to get us started – you can respond to those, but please feel free to add your own questions, sentiments and observations in the comment section.
1. Which characters did you think committed the crime? Did you guess the culprit before the end?
2. The story takes place in 1856 in London. Did the author do a good job of transporting you into that period? How did the time period influence the characters’ actions and beliefs?
3. Anne Perry created William Monk’s character to explore how much of a person’s identity is bound up in memory. Monk does not remember what kind of a person he was and he does not like what he is discovering about himself. How much control do you think we have over who we are and who we become?
4. Besides the main character, what stood out in the story for you? The descriptions? The secondary characters? The dialogue? Did you have a favorite character?
5. This was the first book in a series. Are you inspired to read more of them?
PS: Our next read will be announced tomorrow (February 1st) – make sure to check back! You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to stay up to date.
SLO NightWriters 
Detective stories aren’t my thing, nor is old England as a setting, but I’m always up for reading something new. It was a little hard for me to get into at first, mostly because of the written dialect, which I stumbled over the first chapter or so. But soon that wasn’t noticeable anymore and I was able to get into the story. I think the book is beautifully and well-written. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, although I’m not sure I would continue reading the series, just because life is short and there are so many other books I want to read. I liked the human element, the fact that Monk doesn’t know what kind of person he was before and gets to see himself from a different perspective and have an opportunity to be different. It reminded me of an old movie I like, Regarding Henry, and of course that theme is played out in other films and novels as well. I did love Anne Perry’s writing and her use of language, so I’m very much looking forward to hearing her speak at the writer’s conference this fall.
I like detective stories. I grew up reading crime novels – my Dad was a fan and almost every book in the house was in this genre.
I liked the book and I am curious to see what happens with William Monk down the road, so I might pick up the next one in the series. I liked Hester – what is not to like about a strong, witty, strong-willed female character – and I am curious to see how they interact.
The memory loss is a card played many times over, and I am not sure I buy it, but I find it interesting pondering about how much control we have over our temperament and if there truly is such a thing as a clean slate – can we ever run away from ourselves or are we inherently who we are and if we were put at the start line with a memory wiped over and over, would we follow the same path nevertheless? The one thing that bugged me was the number of questions Monk kept asking himself – same kind of questions about if he truly was the person it appeared he was. I imagine I would keep asking myself the same thing, but it was getting repetitive.
I got a bit lost towards the end of the book when Monk is talking to informers – or maybe bored is a better way to describe it.
I look forward to seeing Anne Perry speaking at the conference!
[…] PS: Last month we read Anne Perry’s The Face of a Stranger. You can still add to our discussion here. […]