Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Pull a trigger and everything changes. Whatever is good and normal dissolves before your eyes. Medical student Laura Nelson had just finished examining her first patient - bullet wound to the head. As she leaves the hospital, an angry voice erupts with obscenities. Shaken and confused, she quickly walks the deserted two blocks to her car, keeping an eye on the dark, riot-torn neighborhood around her - eager to get home to her husband and young sons. Suddenly, a rough hand drags her into a violent double crime. A trigger is pulled, and Laura's world changes forever.
Set amidst the upheaval and smoldering chaos of the Detroit riots of 1967, this story unfolds in a real place at a real time. These riots created a terrible fissure in the social fabric of that city engulfing ordinary people and spinning the normal patterns of life into a downward spiral. Shadow of Death is a story that could happen to any of us, especially those who believe their world and all they cherish will hold together no matter what.
From the Publisher
SHADOW OF DEATH offers a reader-discussion group a rich opportunity to explore important social issues. Poverty, race, ethics,the balance of career and family, and civil disobedience are intimately entwined. Listed below are potential topics that highlight these socioeconomic themes woven within SHADOW OF DEATH.
1) The Detroit riots of 1967 anchor the historical setting of Shadow of Death. Assess the impact that the riots had on Detroit and spillover to urban America? Discuss the root cause of the civil unrest? Do you agree with Laura when she attributes the ‘blame' on the real estate industry?
2) Patricia Gussin admits that she was a medical student at the exact time and place of the Detroit riots. The bio on her website discloses that she had two young children when she started in 1967 and that she had two more children before she graduated in 1971. How much of Shadow of Death do you think is autobiographical? How well do you think Laura handled the balance between medical school and her family?
3) What do you think Laura should have done the night she was attacked and made that fateful decision? What would have been the repercussions had she reported it to the police? Told her husband?
4) Do you feel that Lucy Jones's escape from the cycle of urban poverty is realistic? What made it possible? Now, thirty years later, do you think it's easier or harder to escape the detritus of urban America? Do the images of Katrina in New Orleans come to mind?
5) If you were a marriage counselor, how would you advise Laura and Steve? As their story evolves, would your initial advice change? What's your prognosis for their marriage?
6) What did you like most about Laura? What did you like least? Could you reconcile the hypocrisy whereby she ‘excuses' herself for making the unethical decisions that she made?
7) Snake is a young man with potential, but a victim of a hopeless society. How did you feel about him at the end of the book?
8) Did the ending surprise you? Do you think it should have ended in another way?
9) Did Shadow of Death make you think about the polarization of our society? That the United States is really two countries -- one sophisticated -- one third world - and that our biggest crime as a nation is indifference to our urban pockets of poverty?
Shadow of Death
Shadow of Death: A Novel,Patricia Gussin,Oceanview Publishing,1933515007,American Mystery & Suspense Fiction,Fiction,Fiction - Espionage / Thriller,Medical,Mystery/Suspense,Suspense
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