1. Rachel has changed her name by getting married and using her middle name, but as she points out it’s not illegal to do this – would you find this suspicious all the same?
2. Rachel feels a lot of guilt for what happened to the Safrans – how much do you think she was to blame, if at all? Was she right to do what she did to protect Carson?
3. Casey is given the death penalty for murders she didn’t commit. What are your views on capital punishment? Were you surprised that California has the death penalty?
4. Is Rachel wrong to trust Alex so easily, knowing so little about him?
5. How far would you go to hide your worst secret?
6. Rachel is terrified to go online because so many people on the internet still think she’s guilty – what do you think about this aspect of the internet, that nothing is ever forgotten?
7. Casey is judged for her clothes and her behaviour around the time of the murders – can you think of real-life cases where this has happened?
8. Why do you think people are so fascinated by unsolved murders?
9. What should Casey have done when she came home and discovered the murders?
10. Both Alex and Rachel hide the truth of their pasts from each other – should you always be upfront with someone you’re dating? What ‘red flags’ does Alex display that she misses?
11. At what point should Casey have realised something was very wrong in the Safran home, and sought outside help for the family?
12. Do you blame other characters for their actions as well as those who commit murder – Jeremy, Jenna, or Tom and Katrin, for example?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to everyone at Amazon for the absolutely amazing job they do, and to Jack Butler, Ian Pindar, and Jenni Davis for the edit. Thank you to Graham Bartlett and Consulting Cops for help with UK and US police procedure. Thanks to Diana Beaumont and everyone at Marjacq for continued awesomeness. Thanks to Jochem Groeneveld for bidding to have his name included in aid of CLIC Sargent – I should say that, as far as I know, the fictional namesake is nothing like the real Jochem, who I have never met! And finally thanks to all my readers. I’d love to hear from you on Facebook at @ClaireMcGowanAuthor, or on Twitter at @inkstainsclaire, or Instagram at @evawoodsakaclairemcgowan.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo © 2021 Donna Ford

Claire McGowan was born in 1981 in a small Irish village where the most exciting thing that ever happened was some cows getting loose on the road. She is the author of The Fall, What You Did, The Other Wife, The Push and the acclaimed Paula Maguire crime series. She also writes women’s fiction under the name Eva Woods.