BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Author Lisa Gardner calls Spilled Blood a novel of revenge and redemption. How do those themes play out among the characters?
- Discuss the parental relationships in the book. How does a character like Chris can maintain faith in his daughter in the face of so much evidence against her? How does Florian Steele deal with the mistrust of his own daughter?
- Brian often sets his books in remote, rural locales. How does this change the nature of his drama, compared to “urban” suspense?
- How does the relationship between Chris and Hannah evolve during the book? Are they right for each other?
- Unlike Brian’s other books, Spilled Blood contains no police characters. How do you compare a stand-alone like this novel to Brian’s Stride series? To his stand-alone novel The Bone House?
- Discuss the morality and choices of Marco Piva as a character. How do the conversations between Marco and Chris shape the events at the end of the novel?
- Rollie is in most respects an ordinary man, yet he harbors a terrible secret. Can there be goodness in someone with an evil side?
- Discuss the similarities – and differences – between the two teenage girls at the core of the book, Olivia and Ashlynn.
- Who would play these characters in a movie version of the book?
- Many reviewers have commented on the “cataclysmic” ending of the novel? How do those events shape the emotional climax for the major characters? Is it a “happy” ending?
