Caution - SPOILERS. If you didn't read In the Woods, by Tana
French, and you plan to read it, you might want to wait until later to read
this post.
Among the 15-20 of us at the meeting, most had read and liked
the book. Some of us noticed and appreciated the quality of the author's
writing style, and all enjoyed the way the book kept us interested.
Carla asked thought-provoking questions to run the meeting. If I had a tablet
at the meeting, I could get more of your thoughts into writing more quickly... Don't
worry! I don't have a tablet, and I don't plan to invite electronics to the
meetings. Actually, you probably feel that I get enough or too much of your discussion
contributions into this blog!
What really happened to the children? Shirley and Lydia
thought the author was encouraging the possibility that Adam had killed the
others. We batted that around a bit and decided that there wasn't much of a
physical possibility there. Dennis reminded us that both Adam and Sandra had memories that alluded
to the possibility of some kind of animal or monster. That would allow the
reader to imagine a mystical force at play, and one could run with the idea all
the way to the destruction of the woods and establishment of the new road and then
wonder whether the evil force would be eradicated by forever changing the
archeological site.
What did we think about the Ryan/Cassie relationship? Jay
felt that it was still unresolved at the end. The group asked Carla whether the
relationship continued or changed in the next book by author Tana French, The
Likeness. Carla explained that French takes some characters with her but
doesn't move forward on their story. She did tell us that there was no
indication in the next book that Cassie had actually married Sam. (I told you
there would be spoilers!) Phyllis felt that Adam's being taken in by Rosalind
indicated problems in his relationship with Cassie. Certainly, his
"fight" with Cassie that seemed to be a turning point in their
relationship had Rosalind in the middle of it. Had Adam not been strongly
attracted to Rosalind, would he have trusted her word over Cassie's intuition?
Pam was disturbed by the pain Adam inflicted on Cassie, which, of course, was
just what the author wanted. I thought the relationship was very strongly
portrayed by the author, complete with realistic angst and difficulties and
frustration that can cause relationships to fail. Although it was later in the
discussion that Carla quoted me as saying in an earlier conversation with her
about the book that "the characters were not just flawed; they were
painfully flawed," I see this topic as exemplifying the flaws in these
characters. (Not flaws in the author's creation, but flaws that the author
purposely created.)
Other insightful comments included Rhonda's sharing that she
has noticed that her memories of events that she recalls from childhood seem to
be very different from her mother's memories of the same events. This surely
was a theme in the book! Frank had not read the book but was able to
characterize the mystery. He said that the formula for a mystery is that there
is chaos and a detective brings back order. Even the flawed detectives in this
seemingly outside-the-box mystery brought order to chaos.
We discussed the theme of whether we like or
dislike a mystery with unfinished business, without everything all tied up
neatly for us at the end. Marla suggested that the reader is made to feel some
of what the parents of the 2 missing children and Adam might have felt by not
knowing what had really happened. We thought a bit about how many real crimes remain
unsolved. We were all disturbed about the unsolved mystery, but it seemed to
work for the book!
I am moved to bring us out of the world of fiction and mention
here that on this particular day as I write this, I am extremely gratified that
the Boston Marathon bombers were identified.
Lynda Rutledge, creator and author of Faith Bass Darling's
Last Garage Sale, gave us a double gift this month: a delightful book and a
lively and interesting visit! The story had well-developed characters, plot
twists, and life issues, all served with a side of humor. Some of the issues
were profound and some of the characters' suffering involved serious aspects
of life, but the humor kept the story of aging and Alzheimer's disease moving
forward rather than moving into a vale of tears. Even if some of us may have
experienced some sadness while reading about Faith Bass Darling, we were left at
the end with just the right combination of understanding, completion, and a few
purposefully loose ends implying hope. 
A write-up does not do this author visit justice, just as
the photos don't quite capture the animated Lynda Rutledge's outbursts of
mirth. Even though I took a lot of photos, I got very few of Lynda in focus
until we all got behind her and posed! We had a lot of fun with Rutledge and
wish her well with this and her next book!
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